insulation grant

LIS

hi guys,hope im posting in the right place....mods move it if im not.


just had a guy call to the house,telling me that i can get the outside wall of my house insulated for free due to a eu grant of €4,100 which will be transferred into my account and then i pay them when its done.my house was built in the sixties and i have insulated the attic and had the aero beads blown into the walls however the man says that because under the windows are solid blocks there is no cavity and there is therefore no insulation there.
not sure if this is a scam but the company on the flyer is <snip> it does say t + c apply.
anyone out there shed any light on this one......thank you in advance

Mod Edit: do not name a company on thread.

MicktheMan

LIS wrote: »

hi guys,hope im posting in the right place....mods move it if im not.


just had a guy call to the house,telling me that i can get the outside wall of my house insulated for free due to a eu grant of €4,100 which will be transferred into my account and then i pay them when its done.my house was built in the sixties and i have insulated the attic and had the aero beads blown into the walls however the man says that because under the windows are solid blocks there is no cavity and there is therefore no insulation there.
not sure if this is a scam but the company on the flyer is <SNIP> it does say t + c apply.
anyone out there shed any light on this one......thank you in advance

I would be always be wary of a "man in a van" calling to the door!!

Grant details here

Be careful as a lot of "gone bust" (cowboy) builders are now portraying themselves as insulation experts. I have seen too many botched jobs done so caveat emptor. Get at least three quotes etc and inform yourself thoroughly.

Question for you: is your house cold? If it is then the first thing to do is to find out where it is losing heat. It may not be the insulatin at all. It is draughty? These questions need to be answered first, imo, before you spend your money.

LIS

thanks for your reply micktheman,
this guy says i dont pay anything at all,to which i replied whats the catch and he says no catch,nothing to pay at all.
sounds sus to me.
the house is a little draughty but,that is coming from a stairs to the attic which i will be closing up soon.have dry lined all the inside so it is warm enough and good to hold heat too.
this guy just called to the entire park,i didnt ring anyone

atech

Free insulation sounds abit dodge alright. External insulation would usually cost €10k+ depending on wall area and you'd get €4k back from the SEAI through the Home Energy Saving Scheme.

Their list of registered contractors can be found here
http://hes.seai.ie/GrantProcess/ContractorSearch.aspx

If that's their correct name then I don't think they are on it.

LIS

thanks atech,there proper name is <SNIP>,they say on the leaflet that they are regestered sei contractors.
the only part of the house he was on about doing is under the windows of a terrace town house,the cavity walls are filled with aero bead.he says that the wall under the windows are solid block and that you cant blow anything into it because there is no cavity.addiment it wont cost anything

still sounds iffy,but he has told me about a house thats complete across the road,may have a look tomorrow and see if i can have a chat to them as well

Mod Edit: Do not name a company on thread, it is a breach of the forum charter.

atech

They are registered with seai for dry-lining insulation.

Is it the inside of the external walls they were on about so? The grant for that is €2.5k but you need a certain amount of wall area done to get it.
And again you would normally have to fork out at least that amount again out of your own pocket.

If you decide to go ahead, get there quote in writing detailing exactly what they will do, wall area covered, etc and then apply on-line with the seai to see if you are eligible before any work is done.

LIS

no atech it is the outside wall they spoke about,some kind of a foam and a new plaster over with a choice of 700 colours.they did say that i apply online and get approval before its done,i like you thought a grant was a % of the total job.when i hoped that off him he said"you pay nothing".

fishy but will keep all up to date on this one.im irish and the word free is not something im used to hearing:D:D:D

atech

Def something fishy alright.

If it's outside then you can't only do half the wall cos the water would just soak into the outer block and behind the insulation.

Let us know how ya get on anyway.

MicktheMan

LIS wrote: »

had the aero beads blown into the walls

LIS wrote: »

have dry lined all the inside

I would first advise you to ask him to do a condensation risk analysis on your wall make-up as having insulation installed in different planes can cause cindensation problems.

LIS wrote: »

the only part of the house he was on about doing is under the windows of a terrace town house,the cavity walls are filled with aero bead.he says that the wall under the windows are solid block and that you cant blow anything into it because there is no cavity.addiment it wont cost anything

still sounds iffy,but he has told me about a house thats complete across the road,may have a look tomorrow and see if i can have a chat to them as well

You wont get the grant if not all of the walls are upgraded to the same level. If you do go see that other completed house would you mind taking your camera with you and posting a few pics here. I would love to see what he is talking about.

mendel

Be wary alright. our quotes for external insulation ranged from 20k to 35k. I thought for the grant you had to do all of the house or be able to provide a reason why it couldn't be done to get the grant. contact sei and see if they can tell you if what is being proposed would be approved. you also need approval before any works can be done so at least you would know if you are going to get the grant. read up the terms and conditions

sydthebeat

sounds incredibly fishy

in my experience the only free grant scheme thats out there is the SEAI warmer homes plus scheme.
and in that you need to be assessed for fule poverty and be approved before anywork can be acrried out.

this sounds to me like a chancer ..... possibly trying to get you to doctor the HES (home energy saver) grant forms to stated that your getting the whole walls pumped and he'll pocket the grant. maybe not but i have my suspicions.


anyway if:
1. your walls are already pumped with bead and
2. areas under windows are full leaf block (which is extremly hard to tell without drilling a hole and putting a camera in)

then what is he planning on pumping????


very fishy

LIS

he isint on about pumping the walls,he is talking about a sort of foam skin stuck to the outer wall and a plaster skim of some sort over it.......will try to get pics of completed house for all to view and the flyer minus the company name.(sorry mods)
he swore blind to me that there is no cavity under the window,which i know is a lie.i am a satellite intaller and have drilled loads of these walls.
the only thing is guys that my father living next door seems very interested and i am trying to give him the low down.he is a salesmans dream(quite innocent).
they should just give us the grants and we can insulate ourselves with hot wiskey:D:D

Poor Uncle Tom

You bet there's a scam here, 4 hours work for a months pay. I'd say stay well clear.

LIS

ya i think your right,will get pics just for curiosity anyway

braftery

I have been working along side a company that are registered for installing EWI (external wall insulation). We have been looking the costings to small terraced houses and they have already undertaken some work with houses of this size.

The average cost of a mid terraced house (1 Door and 3 windows on the front elevation) is approx €8,000 (on which you can get a grant of €4,000). It can be made a little cheaper if several house in a terrace get the work done and the same time.

There are reputable companies that do this kind of work and a phone call to any of them will probably let you know if, the man with van has a real plan, or not.

paddy147

I had a man in a white van call to my house recently.

He swore he was an honest man and that the pillows and mattresses he was trying to sell me were all legit and from a liquidation sale in the UK.

More like stolen and hot as hell.

He kept on pestering my neighbour for a sale,and when she said she was going to call the gardai if he didnt get away from her doorstep and leave her alone,he drove off very rapidly indeed.



In other words......too good to be true.:rolleyes:



Now,do you really think your white van man and his claim of completely free insulation is for real??????

I other words.............AVOID.

mickdw

This is surely a scam but is the grant system so poor that it is that easily fiddled? I mean, if the installer is friendly with the home owner, can they fiddle up a graant application between them, do zero work and pocket the cash between them? Is there no independant checking done?
(Im not saying the OP has anything to do with a scam in this case - just talking about general case.)

muffler

I dont know what pillows and mattresses have to do with construction & planning.

paddy147

muffler wrote: »

I dont know what pillows and mattresses have to do with construction & planning.

When a man in a van just calls to your house with prommises of this,that and the other,saying that it wont cost you anything,then its too good to be true.

LIS

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sorry about the delay guys attached.....the leaflet and the second house in has it done
havn't met the people who own it yet.....hope this helps

trevdahead

What these guys are doing is fraudulent.
Under the codes of conduct of the h.e.s
scheme you must complete an optimum
solution which means you must do the whole
house and not just a portion of one wall.
Also In order to claim the a grant you are only
allowed to claim for a measure that is the majority
of your overall wall measurement.To claim
a grant the contractor has to
be paid out in full before any D.O.W forms are
signed off.
You can read throught the h.e.s frequently asked
questions and the codes of conduct to verify the above.
I would also encourage you to report this company to
the h.e.s

LIS

trevdahead wrote: »

What these guys are doing is fraudulent.
Under the codes of conduct of the h.e.s
scheme you must complete an optimum
solution which means you must do the whole
house and not just a portion of one wall.
Also In order to claim the a grant you are only
allowed to claim for a measure that is the majority
of your overall wall measurement.To claim
a grant the contractor has to
be paid out in full before any D.O.W forms are
signed off.
You can read throught the h.e.s frequently asked
questions and the codes of conduct to verify the above.
I would also encourage you to report this company to
the h.e.s

ya might just do that.....smelt a rat with this company all right