This blog documents my experience of buying a property with Cavity wall insulation  (CWI) in situ and finding damp problems in the wall. The installer and systems designer have ceased trading so the main point of contact for resolving this issue has been CIGA who covered the installation with a 25 year guarantee.  This blog provides evidence based documentation on the failings of insulation industry and in particular the redress system for cavity wall insulation due to the alarming lack of government oversight. If you are a journalist and wish to use my material or contact me. Please tweet to @worthw0rds If you believe any of the content to be incorrect, libellous or slanderous and wish to have it removed then I can also be contacted on twitter and will be more than happy to review or discuss content.

Cavity wall insulation in the consumer unit. Electrics running in the cavity has always been seen as dubious and not part of best practice but the fact is older houses can have large amounts of wires within the cavity which needs to be considered during retrofit cavity wall insulation. Building regulations are clear that before installing cavity wall insulation any wires in the cavity should be identified and dealt with, preferably re-routing them.   Although BS8208 has been withdrawn. Thee majority of historical CWI installs were done with Agremént certificates which conform to this standard:  BS 8208 Part 1, 1985: Assessment of suitability of external cavity walls for filling with thermal insulants. "Where they cross the cavity. Cables may need moving or uprating before a cavity is filled (they can overheat if surrounded by insulation)." There is a significant expense in  recruiting the services of an electrician while doing a CWI install and it may cause significant delay

The IAA are a rebrand of CIGA. It's the same staff and HQ. So it didn't surprise me one bit to see misleading and or sloppy figures on their website. As we know they have 25 years pedigree of this. For CWI, IAA are claiming a purported annual savings of up to £610 A YEAR on their web site. Anyone involved in energy would realise this stands out as either a monumental breakthrough in energy efficiency or more likely just more quality control issues at CIGA. https://www.theiaa.co.uk/cavity-wall-insulation/ There is no reference to any sources which is poor practice in itself. But, I checked the Energy Saving Trust's figures and this shows where they got the  £610 figure from : it's the typical insulation cost for a detached home. The important step of selecting 'Energy bill saving' from the drop down menu reveals the more modest figures. The IAA state that Cavity wall insulation 'Lasts the lifetime of the property (if the property is maintained) ' where

Trustmark without ceremony have now put up CIGA2 The IAA (insulation assurance authority) as a Trustmark scheme provider as a retrofit co-ordinator scheme operator. The IAA  rebrand can use all their 'experience' and an appalling and amoral redress system which has been dragged in front of  parliament several times to mess with far more aspects of your house than ever before thanks to Trustmark. One of the big criticisms of the cavity insulation industry was that installers could grab the money from an ECO scheme,  fold their business and then spring up as another company and get re-certified within weeks without the hassle of complaints with CIGA doing a good job of batting off valid claims. With the help of BEIS and Trustmark, CIGA have done a macro version of this trick and managed to phoenix a scheme provider while keeping all the technical oversight 'in house'. Trustmark have essentially enabled the biggest Phoenix of all. Remember that without any precedence or a

In the first few months after launch The Green Home grants received plenty of flack from consumers who struggled to find installers willing to do the work and many expressed frustration at the bizarre primary and secondary measures .  Long before this many in the Trusmark fold were already expressing concerns. Many are concerned that the Green Home grants is just more of the same as previous schemes: Mass insulation as a single measure with little attention to the 'Whole house' approach recommended by Each home counts review. The PCA were a founding member of Trustmark. Their CEO Steve Hodgson in his 'Hodgson view' blog was blunt. Elmhurst Energy are a Trustmark scheme provider and partnered with Trustmark on PAS2035 described it as a missed opportunity and were critical of step backwards by going back on the recommendations of the Bonfield Review (Each home counts). Stroma a Trustmark scheme provider expressed dissapoinment about abandoning the trajectory already in pl

Lets just take this moment to reflect on this glorious triple phoenix. We now have a situation where   Novora building services (a Pheonix of Miller Pattison with CIGA board representation), using a insulation product developed by Jablite (which went into administration with 12m debt and phoenixed as a new company also called Jablite), listed as an   installer with Insulation Assurance Authority (a rebrand and a possible future phoenix of CIGA). It really speaks volumes of the industry where there is virtually no consequence of dumping creditors one day and coming back with full certification the next day. In fact Novora was given the job of inspecting defective Miller Pattison work on behalf of CIGA.  It's  not clear why there was an urgency before administration for MP to brand their own CWI and get it approved by the BBA but it would make them both installer and system designer of a product . The BBA approved Novora as a system designer with their branded Jablite insulation pr

The hope of Trustmark was that the problems with CWI would go away with the introduction of PAS2030/35 as a result of the Each Home counts review. One of the key strap lines being 'no insulation without ventilation; Trutmark would fulfil the  'quality mark' of government endorsed quality and home owners  can relax - there will be strict oversight for once. The retrofit co-ordinator role was seen as key to bring about a whole house assessment and make impartial recommendations in the best interest of the home owner and it was assumed to be an independent role similar to a building control inspector. Unfortunately, independence is seldom enforced and is not an absolute requirement. CIGA are gearing up to provide their own in-house retrofit co-ordinator to their members. Not only that but said retrofit co-ordinator can 'reduce the inherent technical risk score' of Cavity wall insulation under PAS2035 simply because Trustmark recognise CIGA as an 'industry quali