Has anyone heard of or can reccommend A & M Insulation?
Whilst I was at work the other day they came around and spoke to my wife about insulating our wall cavity and also insulating the loft for free. Plus I have a couple more questions -
1) I assume that for the cavity they drill holes and fill it with a foam. Can this cause problems? It is a 1980's semi detached house one side and link detached the other (porch only).
2) For the loft they say that as it is boarded they will insulate the edges but as we have been told that we have little ventilation already I thought that insulating around the edges would just reduce the ventilation further?
3) They say that they are guaranteed by CIGA, who is CIGA?
4) They said that it would be free.....now I dont mind it being free but I have only heard of this being free if you are over 70 etc?
My mum had free loft insulation from a company called A & M but with their vans (old Lutons) I thought they were just a local company rather than a national one since your in Oxfordshire.
In answer to you questions
1) No - the only thing is colour matching the bricks when filling the holes
2) Any insulation is better than none I would think
3) Ain't he playing for Italy tonight?
4) It might be different in England but in Wales you get it totally if your on certain benefits
Mike
If you feel you have benefited from the Free advice given on the Forum, Please consider making a donation to UHM's Nominated charity, read all about it and donate here :
They are based in several areas but it was the Swindon one that came to visit us.
1) I was wondering about what happens when the insulation reaches the top of the cavity, how do they know? My concern is that at the back of the house the roof is level with the top of the ground floor and there is a bedroom stopping them see when it is full!
2) I would agree but the original building survey said that we should be careful with blocking the loft ventilation. What we should realy do is get a tile replaced with ventilation.
3) I think that he is but sadly they lost!
4) Now this is what concerns me as we are not on benefits.
Seeing as no one has any bad comments I suppose that is a good sign. I will now decide if I call them and enquire about why it is free or just leave them to do it!
as someone how has recently dealt with this sort of situation heres my views.
how does someone know when the cavity is filled, the way it works is that the pump shifts so much fluff/rockwool/wall insulation/ polystyrene beads per second, so you can either time the nossel in the hole to produce say an area about 1metre squared of cavity fill or they have had proper training and or a machine that stops when the back pressure of the filled cavity stops the machine
free or not free,
the uk government has a EU agreement to lower the carbon foot print of the uk, how does this effect you?
I will try to explain in small words if you dont under stand i will try again
bill blogs insulation pops around and surveys your house, they say estimate you are producing 400 tons of carbon a year via lost heating, they normally charge on average to the punter not on benifits a standard fee of £100 for the loft and £100 for the walls, they then produce a report to which they then say to the uk government we have saved you 350 tons of carbon by doing this work, the uk government then buys that quota of 350 tons of carbon off billy blogs insulation, and thats how they get paid.
on average to insulate a loft as £30 a roll you are going to need say roughly ten rolls so they spend £300 in materials, labour and over heads say another £200, the bill to the uk government is nearer £1,500, and dont forget your £100 aswell is in there
to get there money back the uk government in turn sells the carbon quota saved from your house to the open market say for instence china so china can now over produce by 350 tons of carbon, and so theres a little chinise man somewhere building another power station because of your loft insulation,
A and M is a national company with i belive several offices and areas of coverage
i would never never nevever agree to any thing anyone ever tells you via a phone call or a door knock, you personally have not started,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, understand NEVER!!!!!!
PHONE YOUR LOCAL ENERGY SUPPLIER, EON, BRITISH GAS, OR HOW EVER YOU GET THE ELCTRIC OR GAS FROM they run the same schemes but with better management and trained employies, they will quote you the far cheapest prices and do a better job,
as someone that is in the trade on this sort of subject , i can not suggest or not suggest to use a and m due to legal reason but i can say that eon are the largest installer of insulation project that i know of in the uk and they dont use A&M ever.
right now lets talk houses, you aid a 1980'S house, that is near to or very very close to proberly being built with insulation in the walls any way, so do you know for certain that you need it ?
not for the first time some unlucky person has been flobbed off with theres none in those walls mate, i can do it for a grand in cash,
if you have plain brick work to look at what we are going to try to look for is a 25mm hole that has been drilled into the brick mortor joints and repointed or ask around if anyone has ever done works to the house if so did they find any, people have nbeen selling cavity wall insulation for the thirty years your house has been standing so it might have already been done once already
the loft wants to be about 18" thick if you can do it, but the more the merrier as it does no harm to go over board with it up there.
there is a secondry school of thought, came from scotland, that runs like this, the cavity barrier is to stop water transmission from outside to inside, the basic idea is like the old two skin tents, the outside can get wet but the seperate inside stays dry, by using cavity wall insulation you could bridge that gap and allow for the water to pass across the gap, in certain houses i have built of late we have used 100mm cavities with 50mm insulation and a 50mm air gap
why do you thing brick wall cavity ties have drip points designed into them??
so where next, the next two options are outside insulation or better known in the trade as EWI, external wall insulation, basicly we cover the outside with a celotec type sheet insulation and render over the top with silicone based renders or dashings ect, there are about 100 clours and last ofr tens of years before wanting to be freshened up with a lick of paint,
or you can insulate the inside of the house walls with thermal plaster boards and then replaster the new inside faces
there are many ways to cavity wall insulation some of the better known ideas are above here, but please stay away from companies that door knock and go your own way. like eon or british gas
Personally I've never heard of A & M. But I can tell you that a few companies I've delt with in the past do actually compliment themselves on this CIGA guarantee agency.
The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency provides independent 25 year guarantees for Cavity Wall Insulation fitted by registered installers in the UK and Channel islands.
peter359 wrote:as someone how has recently dealt with this sort of situation heres my views.
how does someone know when the cavity is filled, the way it works is that the pump shifts so much fluff/rockwool/wall insulation/ polystyrene beads per second, so you can either time the nossel in the hole to produce say an area about 1metre squared of cavity fill or they have had proper training and or a machine that stops when the back pressure of the filled cavity stops the machine
free or not free,
the uk government has a EU agreement to lower the carbon foot print of the uk, how does this effect you?
I will try to explain in small words if you dont under stand i will try again
bill blogs insulation pops around and surveys your house, they say estimate you are producing 400 tons of carbon a year via lost heating, they normally charge on average to the punter not on benifits a standard fee of £100 for the loft and £100 for the walls, they then produce a report to which they then say to the uk government we have saved you 350 tons of carbon by doing this work, the uk government then buys that quota of 350 tons of carbon off billy blogs insulation, and thats how they get paid.
on average to insulate a loft as £30 a roll you are going to need say roughly ten rolls so they spend £300 in materials, labour and over heads say another £200, the bill to the uk government is nearer £1,500, and dont forget your £100 aswell is in there
to get there money back the uk government in turn sells the carbon quota saved from your house to the open market say for instence china so china can now over produce by 350 tons of carbon, and so theres a little chinise man somewhere building another power station because of your loft insulation,
A and M is a national company with i belive several offices and areas of coverage
i would never never nevever agree to any thing anyone ever tells you via a phone call or a door knock, you personally have not started,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, understand NEVER!!!!!!
PHONE YOUR LOCAL ENERGY SUPPLIER, EON, BRITISH GAS, OR HOW EVER YOU GET THE ELCTRIC OR GAS FROM they run the same schemes but with better management and trained employies, they will quote you the far cheapest prices and do a better job,
as someone that is in the trade on this sort of subject , i can not suggest or not suggest to use a and m due to legal reason but i can say that eon are the largest installer of insulation project that i know of in the uk and they dont use A&M ever.
right now lets talk houses, you aid a 1980'S house, that is near to or very very close to proberly being built with insulation in the walls any way, so do you know for certain that you need it ?
not for the first time some unlucky person has been flobbed off with theres none in those walls mate, i can do it for a grand in cash,
if you have plain brick work to look at what we are going to try to look for is a 25mm hole that has been drilled into the brick mortor joints and repointed or ask around if anyone has ever done works to the house if so did they find any, people have nbeen selling cavity wall insulation for the thirty years your house has been standing so it might have already been done once already
the loft wants to be about 18" thick if you can do it, but the more the merrier as it does no harm to go over board with it up there.
there is a secondry school of thought, came from scotland, that runs like this, the cavity barrier is to stop water transmission from outside to inside, the basic idea is like the old two skin tents, the outside can get wet but the seperate inside stays dry, by using cavity wall insulation you could bridge that gap and allow for the water to pass across the gap, in certain houses i have built of late we have used 100mm cavities with 50mm insulation and a 50mm air gap
why do you thing brick wall cavity ties have drip points designed into them??
so where next, the next two options are outside insulation or better known in the trade as EWI, external wall insulation, basicly we cover the outside with a celotec type sheet insulation and render over the top with silicone based renders or dashings ect, there are about 100 clours and last ofr tens of years before wanting to be freshened up with a lick of paint,
or you can insulate the inside of the house walls with thermal plaster boards and then replaster the new inside faces
there are many ways to cavity wall insulation some of the better known ideas are above here, but please stay away from companies that door knock and go your own way. like eon or british gas
a&m thanks but no thanks
Thanks Peter, I have not seen them since and was beginning to wonder whether to call them. i will have to have a re-think
ExcellBlinds wrote:Personally I've never heard of A & M. But I can tell you that a few companies I've delt with in the past do actually compliment themselves on this CIGA guarantee agency.
The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency provides independent 25 year guarantees for Cavity Wall Insulation fitted by registered installers in the UK and Channel islands.
What do they actually cover in the 25 year guarantees? I have heard of damp getting through so wondered if this was covered? It probably would not happen in the time we have left there as we aim to move next year but it would be good to know for future.
