‘I had wall insulation installed – my house is colder and covered in black mould’
‘I had wall insulation installed – my house is colder and covered in black mould’
Posted by theipaper
‘I had wall insulation installed – my house is colder and covered in black mould’
‘I had wall insulation installed – my house is colder and covered in black mould’
Posted by theipaper
5 comments
Sharon Lord, 49, worked hard and spent thousands to renovate her four-bed family home in Burnley, Lancashire.
Ms Lord’s dream turned into a nightmare shortly after she was approached at her home by a door-knocker advertising cavity wall insulation that would be delivered as part of a government scheme in 2014.
She is one of thousands of homeowners trapped in cold homes plagued with black mould due to botched insulation. In her own case, she has been advised that it will cost over £100,000 to have the work corrected.
Earlier this month, the Government said homes fitted with solid wall insulation under two inherited schemes – ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme since 2022 – 30,000 had been impacted faulty installs.
Ms Lord was not required to foot the bill of the installation as it was covered under the ECO4 scheme which offers completely free cavity wall insulation grants to eligible customers to reduce energy bills and make homes more energy efficient. However, the cost free installation has been anything but.
Just a few months after the insulation was installed, she noticed wet patches on walls around her home. By March these had developed into areas of black mould, particularly in the front bedroom which belonged to her eldest son, then eight-years-old.
# ‘I was told to just wash it off’
She added: “I had a newborn in the property as well, but he wasn’t in that room.
“This mould was actually showing up round about where the steel girder actually was at the front of the property. I just thought it might just be settling down.
“I did contact the company, and they just told me to give it a quick wash a day and it would be okay.”
Ms Lord washed the affected areas down with bleach and water, but the problem persisted – and it was not long before others emerged.
“I started noticing other patches within the house. There was movement in the property as well, cracks around the windows. I had a crack that appeared on my bathroom wall, which is an outer wall that the insulation had gone into.
“And when I contacted the company, they just told me that this was ‘perfectly natural’,” she said.
Anyone with insulation knowledge explain why this happens? I hear about it a lot.
I work on a project with someone who runs an energy advice charity. She was telling me how many cases they’re seeing like this, where dodgy firms have used grants to install totally inappropriate types of insulation into people’s homes causing issues that then need to be fixed.
Also isn’t suitable for homes in certain areas. I’ve insulated everything I can in my house. Went from an E to a D. To get it to a C I’d need cavity wall insulation but due to weather exposure the house can’t have it.
When the mandatory EPC grade of C comes in there won’t be a single rentable home on our street!
We had a similar issue in our 1920s house with damp walls and mould. Had a independent damp survey done who said we have cavity wall insulation but that due to the age of the house the cavities are narrow so when the outside wall gets wet, the insulation in the cavity gets wet causing the inside walls to get damp and mouldy. Had it removed and house is much better and even warmer but obviously our doc will drop down a level or two
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