Repairing / Replacing Pumped Cavity Insulation

bawn79

Hi all

We have an extension on the side of the house that was built in the 1980s. We bought the house in 2017 and prior to us being in the house an earlier owner had the cavity of this extension pumped with lose Eps beading.

We have since increased the insulation in the attic of the insulation (thanks to advice from Boards.ie) and it has increased the heat retention of the extension but there is still an issue with it holding heat.

The insulation installer we had in thought that a lot of the Eps beading was lost / blowing out of the cavity. The problem is its a very low attic space so I can't get in myself to confirm. I'm worried that maybe he was just looking for an extra bit of work.

I've got a quote for doing a thermal imaging / air tightness test and to be honest it is probably half the price of getting the cavity repumped for the whole extension.

Just wondering does anyone have any suggestions? I wondered about drilling some holes in to inspect myself.

Would any of the registered installers check the levels for you before proceeding? Is there any way to check how much they have installed in the walls so that we can set a fair price for the work?

MicktheMan

bawn79 wrote: »

I've got a quote for doing a thermal imaging / air tightness test and to be honest it is probably half the price of getting the cavity repumped for the whole extension.

And if the survey was to tell you that your main heat loss issue is not the (lack of) insulation, would you not think it was money well spent?

bawn79

MicktheMan wrote: »

And if the survey was to tell you that your main heat loss issue is not the (lack of) insulation, would you not think it was money well spent?

Well I'm estimating that it is the ceiling, wall or floor. The ceiling has been insulated and the floor is the smallest heat loss of the three. So its a question of cost very risk I suppose. If the report tells me that it is the walls, I'm still left with the issue of how to sort out that issue but I've spent half of the cost of insulation on a report.

MicktheMan

It looks like you're banking on the issue being a conduction heat loss problem.
I reckon there is a very stronger probability that it is primarily a convection heat loss issue.
As I see it your choice is to spend money to either guess what the issue is or be certain where the issue(s) is.
It's your dime.

bawn79

Just to get back to the point of the thread. Has anyone experience with having to repump a cavity after it was pumped previously?

MicktheMan

bawn79 wrote: »

Just to get back to the point of the thread. Has anyone experience with having to repump a cavity after it was pumped previously?

Apologies, I assumed the point of the thread was to get to the bottom of your heat loss issue. My bad.

Yes, I have experience with successfully replacing loose bead with bonded bead in a cavity wall.

listermint

I would have thought that it would be good practice for the guy that was selling the bonded EPS to be able to thermal image the wall to show you the fault before it costing you money to rectify a problem that he guessed at.

Unless of course he can see through walls like superman ?

Pure guess work, see it for what it is.

bawn79

listermint wrote: »

I would have thought that it would be good practice for the guy that was selling the bonded EPS to be able to thermal image the wall to show you the fault before it costing you money to rectify a problem that he guessed at.

Unless of course he can see through walls like superman ?

Pure guess work, see it for what it is.

Ya that is kinda what I thought myself. Thanks.