My house, as well as others in the street, immediately stick out as being unusual.  They were built in the art deco style in 1930 but have been modified replacing original windows with uPVC and some have had their original flat roof replaced with a pitched roof.  There are some clear remnants of the original ere however. One of the defining features of art deco houses is the use of cantilever overhangs over windows, flat roof sections and for crisp clean (often curved) balconies. There are two such cantilever overhangs on my house.  The canopy over the front door (see photo below) and a wrap around flat roof over the bay window at the front of the house.  Cantilever canopy over the front door( possibly over specified  as can easily take 2 people jumping  on it it!) As part of my ongoing investigation into the construction of the house I decided to look how the overhangs were constructed. The roof at the front is only a thin strip of roof ju...

In 2017 BBA CIT (a subsidiary of BBA) was tasked by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) with conducting the largest survey to date of properties installed with Cavity Wall insulation(CWI). The NIHE is sponsored by Department for Communities a devolved Northern Ireland government department in the Northern Ireland Executive. This incredibly important report was published 3rd May 2019 and provides a pretty hefty blow to the CWI industry and associated 'independent' guarantee companies.  The NIHE has a considerable investment in CWI following an extensive programme of insulating cavity walls across its housing stock in the 1980s. This survey comes on the back of a previous survey of 206 homes from NIHE Stock done in 2014 which concluded. "The research found that many homes suffered poor and inadequate levels of thermal protection. Only 9% (19 homes) were deemed to have sufficient cavity wall insulation and be fit for purpose" This new report...

I finally got a response from Group Head of Marketing Communications at the Energy Saving Trust in regards to the CIGA. (see previous blog entry for background). We are writing to you in connection with our response to your email of 07 January 2019 in which we wrote: “We should point out that we are in no way connected to CIGA. We are not sure why our name would ever have appeared on a CIGA certificate, though it is possible they may have provided us a source of general information on insulation and other energy saving measures.” Since the sending of this letter – we have carried out a further investigation into this matter. It has now been established that the statement we made in our email of 12 February 2019 was not accurate. CIGA were granted permission to use the Energy Saving Trust In-Partnership brand mark in 2005 until it was withdrawn when the Energy Saving Trust rebranded in 2011. We therefore apologise for the inaccuracy in our earlier email and trust the a...