What Is Cavity Wall Insulation?

In most houses built after 1930, the external walls are made of two layers with a small air gap or 'cavity' between them. If your home has unfilled cavity walls, a considerable portion of your heating bills will be spent warming the air outside.

Injecting the gap between the two walls of a house with an insulating material decreases the amount of heat escaping through the walls. Cavity Wall Insulation is quick, clean and FREE or inexpensive to install. It is injected into the cavity from the outside, typically taking two or three hours. All cavity wall installations are backed by a 25 year independent guarantee from CIGA, The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency.

The Savings

Around a third of all the heat lost in an un-insulated home escapes through the walls. If you have cavity walls, insulating them could save you between £130 and £160 a year on your fuel bills. It will also cut CO2 emissions by around 1 tonne. These figures are provided by The Energy Saving Trust and are based on an average size property heated by gas. Greater savings can be made in larger properties or those heated by coal or electricity.

Un-insulated cavity walls lose 33% or more of the heat generated within the property. So for an un-insulated house that's £1 of heat escaping for every £3 spent heating it.

A cavity wall consists of a internal and external course of bricks or blocks with a gap in-between. If your house was built after 1930 then your property should have cavity walls which may need insulating.

This is done by drilling through the outer layer of brickwork, normally through the mortar and then injecting the material into the cavity. The injection holes are then filled with appropriately coloured cement.

The whole process should take between 2-3 hours depending on the size of the property and is carried out by qualified and registered installers.

Upon completion a 25 year guarantee will be issued for the property from the governing body, which will aid in any property evaluation

The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency provides independent 25 year guarantees for Cavity Wall Insulation fitted by registered installers. The Cavity Insulation Guarantee Agency was established in consultation with the Government to provide householders with an independent, uniform and dependable guarantee covering defects in materials and workmanship.

Independent research has confirmed that cavity wall insulation is a very reliable process. Problems are therefore extremely rare, but if they do occur, CIGA has the expertise to ensure that they are swiftly rectified. - Source CIGA

List of 100% fully funded

• Attendance Allowance
• Child Tax Credit where the relevant income is £15,597 or less
• Council Tax Benefit
• Disability Living Allowance
• Disablement Pension which includes constant attendance allowance
• Housing Benefit
• Income based Job Seekers Allowance
• Income Support
• State Pension Credit
• War Disablement Pension (which includes either a mobility supplement or constant attendance allowance)
• Working Tax Credit where the relevant income is £15,597
• Home Owners over 70 are entitled to free insulation irrespective of income.

Latest News

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has agreed a £910m package of measures aimed at helping people with soaring energy bills, including half price insulation for many households.

The announcement includes:

• Free insulation for pensioners and poor households
• 50% off the cost of insulation for all other households
• A partial reversal of the cut to Warm Front programme giving free central heating to the poorest pensioners

The government's aim is to insulate every home in Britain by 2020.