Pumped Insulation

selfbuildlost

Has anyone used pumped insulation? Any tips, is it good? or suggestions for better alternatives?

mr_edge_to_you

We're going for pumped insulation. My future father in law is a retired builder and is overseeing our build. He was adamant that pumped insulation was the best job. Our builder said every house he has done in the last 5 years he has pumped the cavity. That's good enough for us! Some engineers do have issues with pumping the cavity so don't do anything without consulting with your signoff engineer. I think it is the beaded insulation that our builder is using.

Poor Uncle Tom

The main problems I have found is that it is almost impossible to guarantee a complete fill. Gaps are experienced underneath cavity trays over windows and doors. Perabola shaped spaces under window cills and elongated spaces around vent pipes.

This has been confirmed in a very frank talk with a prominent supplier of blown fill insulation.

There are other options out there but this is definitely the easiest option.

MicktheMan

What u-value are you trying to achieve and will the walls be compliant with Part L?

bbam

We have it in our house, standard 100mm cavity with eco bead blown in, also have 50mm high density insulated board dry lined.

Really happy with results and was careful to ensure drill patterns round doors/windows met the cert for the product so have no reason to doubt full fill..

cheers

Poor Uncle Tom

bbam wrote: »

We have it in our house, standard 100mm cavity with eco bead blown in, also have 50mm high density insulated board dry lined.

Really happy with results and was careful to ensure drill patterns round doors/windows met the cert for the product so have no reason to doubt full fill..

cheers

Good, I'm glad it worked for you. Personally, I have doubts and seeing results from a thermal imaging camera has done nothing to belay those doubts.

However I do agree with determination and patience putting in blown insulation can be done right, but this would be the exception not the norm.

lucky-colm

we built our house 10yrs ago it had 50mm aeroboard as that was the norm

2yrs ago we pumped the walls and havn't looked back since

i have also built several houses and allways use pumped insulation in the walls and the crowd we use are very good and use proper drill patterns around windows and doors to ensure a proper fill.

i have drilled test holes in areas where you would expect the insulation to have missed but in my experience i have found it to have went everwhere.

in my opinion blocklayers tend to leave out small bits of insulation here and there if it is too awakard to fit and keep in place, also in windy sites there is a tendencey for bits to be blown out over night or weekends while the blocks are being laid, you can't rely on the blocklayers to replace this when they notice this as they have "done it already" so no gaurantees there either.

you really have to keep an eye on the insulation being installed your self if you want the job done right

ardara1

lucky-colm wrote: »

we built our house 10yrs ago it had 50mm aeroboard as that was the norm

you really have to keep an eye on the insulation being installed your self if you want the job done right

This is not an aspiration it is a REQUIREMENT under the building regulations Part L. The Acceptable Details must be witnessed and signed off - achieving an A rating is impossible without doing so.

selfbuildlost

thanks a mill for all the responses. I think I'll go with pumped and then test it with the thermal imaging camera (very good idea) and top up where I need to.

ardara1

selfbuildlost wrote: »

thanks a mill for all the responses. I think I'll go with pumped and then test it with the thermal imaging camera (very good idea) and top up where I need to.

Is it not too late in the day to find any problems with the imaging camera? The horse has already bolted at hat stage.
How to you insure the overlap between wall & floor insulation as asked for in acceptable details? Same for any DPCs over lintels /cavity trays etc.