What's in the walls?

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I hope this article is helpful for homeowners or potential buyers who want to know more about what's been squirted into the walls.

When we bought the house, we got a copy of the CIGA 25 year guarantee and no other paperwork.
We were able to check the installer's limited company information on company house website which listed them as in liquidation.
The previous owner told us and the various surveyors we sent around that foam had been installed with Urea Formaldehyde foam being the only credible product.

We were very worried about the prospect of having to remove foam as it's one of the most difficult CWI products to break up and extract. It requires a 'whip' with lots of blowing and sucking and the formaldehyde dust may be a irritant/carcinogen and so the property and that of neighbours may need to be vacated. We had negotiated a reduction on our offer-price to take into account the cost of having the foam removed using a quote from a Cavity wall extraction company.

About 3 minutes after getting the keys to the property and entering the front door I was able to unscrew an airvent to see a load of white blown mineral wool. In terms of surveying (i.e paying people to survey the house before exchange); this would be considered invasive and so they were not able to snoop around.

We contacted CIGA right away as the home exchange now meant that the guarantee transferred to us and we were able to persue compensation.

It turns out that the CIGA certificate did have clues as to the actual product. The installer is clearly listed with the address of the company but also at the bottom of the certificate is a "1st insulation partners LTD" logo which was a supplier of two products called Cosytherm white wool and Cosytherm rock wool.

When CIGA produced their inspection report they listed the product type as "1st insulation partners - white wool' which then made the logo on the certificate meaningful.

 "1st insulation partners" have also gone out of business. I believe they were bought by Carillion and their registered address is Carillion house and well if there's not a day when Carillion's collapse isn't covered somewhere in the media.

The internet archive is your friend

Even if a company's website has long gone, chances are there will be a trace on the internet. You can usually find the old web address from various directories of businesses such as yell.
I user the internet archive's 'way back machine' to retrieve websites from 1st insulation from the same year as the installation was done and I found the BBA* Certificates for their products (which will come up in future blog posts).



I also used the archive to find the installer's website and can also confirm that they advertised "Cosytherm® white wool' as their installation type.




I would suggest taking screen shots and downloading any PDFs that you find relating to misleading sales info, for example promises of 'water repellant' insulation.


* The British Board of Agrément Certificate - From Wikipedia "This is an authoritative document proving the fitness for the purpose of a construction product and its compliance or contribution to compliance with the various Building Regulations applying in the United Kingdom"

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