Continuing from what might be legitimately be seen as a rant from Part 1 of my context setting (but trust me, my rants will get worse in proportion to the problems that I found here) – this part of the story takes us to Jan 2022.
My lad and I got through Christmas with the heating that we had installed in the December of 2021 and the log burner – but trust me it was one of the coldest Winter’s I had experienced and the coldest one my boy had been through. The lack on insulation in the property and the situation with the external doors and single window at the front needed to be sorted.
With that in mind I had booked the loft insulation, external insulation and new doors and window in December 2021 – however due to a combination of:
- Residual COVID.
- Availability of materials.
- Backlogs with trades.
The doors and window couldn’t be done until the March, the loft insulation and the EWI in the April of 2022!
So we had a few months of working around or at least the best we could what was a pretty cold winter. I can tell you during that period both my son and I found really creative ways to hold heat in the cottage – but lots of layers were called for and used!
However, rather than moan about that – some of you might be curious as to why I opted for External Wall Insulation (EWI).
Simply put, my little cottage is exactly that – little and didn’t have cavity walls. That would have meant that I would have needed around 120mm taken off every wall internally within the property – and don’t get me started on the chaos it would have caused in the bathroom!
Therefore I opted to insulate on the outside which, whilst risky – did bring some real benefits:
- EWI involves stripping back any previous render, the installation of fresh outside waste and down piping (which, in the case of the Shire needed replacing badly), renewing guttering, installation of 120mm of insulation board, base coat render and then a finishing layer – all of which makes a property look like a new build!
- EWI is generally a permitted development under planning regulations – which means that unless your property is listed – or – you live in an area where there is an order in place where the character of every house needs to remain consistent (neither applied to me) then you can proceed without gaining planning consent. All you need to do, is ensure the finish remains true to the original look of the property. The only snag that I had was the tiled front of the cottage needed to go – but after taking advice from the local planning authority all I needed to do was maintain as close a colour as I could on the finishing render to the original tiles.
- EWI is marginally more efficient than cavity wall insulation as you can encase most of the house without having to cut corners which result in thermal bridging.
- You only lose space from the outside of the home – which is often more convenient than from the inside.
However that being said – as mentioned there are risks / disadvantages to external insulation:
- If incorrectly installed it can result in serious damp problems for the property on the external wall that the insulation material is applied to. This eventually will work its way inside – rectifying this can be very, very costly.
- Overall, externally insulating a property costs more than the internal approach.
- Generally, after EWI you cannot fix anything to the external walls of your home – it is possible, but not anything that results in a heavy load.
Drilling into EWI unless done properly will result in a Thermal Bridge which reduces the effectiveness of the insulation – and – can cause damp problems – so you need to be really mindful with your home afterwards. - The render finish isn’t as robust as a traditional render over brick – therefore more prone to “knock damage” – you have to remember that your finish is a base render and finish coat over polystyrene.
- External insulation can make is hard to identify where your damp proof course is – so it is worth getting the installer to mark this post install.
March 2022 arrived
After what seemed like an age March arrived and it was time to replace the old front and back doors and the porthole window. I will spare you all of the installation photos and just give before and after shots – but what was amazing was how quickly the chap who did the installation worked.
He arrived around 08:30 and was all done by 14:00 and the job was immaculate.
You will have to ignore the state of the external walls around the back of the cottage. It would appear that the previous owner was OK with workmanship which looks like it was done with a pick axe in order to install UPVC windows! I really do not know how she signed off on that level of “making good” post installation. Anyhow, I lived with it as I knew that the EWI was going to ultimately put that right – but it was shocking work – especially as the large bedroom window out the back moved in it’s frame if you pressed against it!
Anyhow the replacement of the doors and window was a big victory for me as not only were they up to modern standards, they were really my first statement on how I wanted the place to look – my first stamp on the cottage if you like.
With that done the next massive step was the EWI installation which was scheduled to being in May and June of 2022 and, even to date is the biggest job that I have done on the Shire.
May & June 2022
So the mammoth job of insulating the property started in the May of 2022. I should also point out that I also had the loft insulated and then boarded at the end of April 2022 – but I don’t have any photos of that, plus – it’s loft insulation, basic Rock Wool and then some OSB laid over the loft joists.
One thing that I will say about the loft insulation – I very briefly looked at spray foam insulation. Just don’t do it!
There are two types:
- Closed cell spray foam
- Open cell spray foam
They both have their pros and cons – and open cell is generally less of a risk for damp issues as a result of having it installed. However from a mortgage or a selling point of view when being surveyed having either is going to cause you problems.
Most lenders won’t give a mortgage (or re-mortgage) on a property with either kind of spray foam installed and surveyors will flag it like a mushroom cloud to potential buyers as a big arse NO to buying a place.
I won’t cover it in any more detail here – but there is a very good article here which gives a really good overview.
Anyhow back to the main feature – the EWI.
In late May it was time for the scaffolding to be erected. This was an experiences. Scaff’s are a different breed of trade. They are highly skilled in what they do – but they are generally very mental, very hard men. Fearless. Could start a fight in an empty room. A team of psychos turned up around 08:00 on the day – on went the site radio blasting out trance music at full blast, a mix of Monster energy drinks and vodka was consumed, what appeared to be a fight between three of them in the front garden just to warm up and on they cracked with getting the cage up.
To be fair to them, they got the entire place done in about an hour and off they went in their truck to no doubt drink, fight and put more poles on houses.
I gave it 20 minutes before I went outside to check what they had done (yes, I was that much of a coward) – and noticed that they had left the ends of the pole on the cross junctions flush against the external walls (about 140mm clearance was needed to complete the EWI).
So I called up the company that I was using and explained and they said – ok, no problems we’ll get them back to sort it.
About an hour later the company called back and said (this is a quote) “Erm, we did speak with the Scaff team and basically they told us to fuck off” – so the installation team will adjust the scaffolding during the job.
Seems like everyone is scared of the Scaffs.
In early June the EWI team arrived at the Shire. I will admit that I lost count at times of how many lads were doing the job – I think on the busiest day there were 10 guys hanging off the Shire. But they were good – very good and they cracked through the job in 10 days!
I got on very well with the foreman and he explained to me that he and all of his team were over from Greece, but originally they from Albania where work such as this was in short supply. They were all craftsmen and did such a good job. The EWI has been on the Shire for four years now and there isn’t a single crack in it, no damp problems (well, at least none caused by the EWI) and crikey does the place retain the heat in the Winter and is lovely and cool in the Summer. In fact – I think that it was the Summer of 2023 where temps hit the 40’s I was nice and cool in my little place whilst the world baked outside!
With the installation of the Insulation now completed I (foolishly) thought that was the worst of my problems out of the way and I could begin to really enjoy our home – but – then something happened which changed everything!
Just like all cliffhangers … that is where I will leave this part. Come back for part 3 where things start getting really interesting. Well, I say interesting – slightly more interesting than Eastenders, but less so than the Avengers saga.