Do you have an older home that has no cavity wall? Is the inside often very cold, even with the heating on?
Are your home heating bills costing you more and more each year? Does the outside of your house attract mould, cracks and flaking paint?
Then there is a solution for your house that will cure all these problems, and more, plus it will leave your property with a brand new exterior appearance too!
An approved thermal exterior wall insulation service can CUT HEAT LOSS BY UP TO 40%, meaning that not only will you save money on lower heating bills, the solid wall external insulating system will PAY FOR ITSELF in only a few years!
We have curated some handy info from the energy saving trust too, which you can find at the foot of this page
What is external wall insulation and should I have it on my home?
External home insulation is the first step that can be applied to the interior or exterior walls of a house, however for greatest weatherproof and insulation, we would recommend the exterior walls to be insulated, especially if no cavity is present, such as on homes built before 1920.
External wall insulation (or EWIS) is a layer of material, sometimes boards or sometimes insulated render, applied to the external walls of the house.
Please note: This article is for information and research only, we do NOT offer exterior wall insulation, Thank you
This can also take the form of cladding, or brick slips, insulated boards which, when fitted to the house, makes it look like the property has a brand new brick wall.
There are other exterior wall finishes available to you such as a pebbledash or tyrolean effect.
Typical brands of insulation boards used range from Kingspan, knauf and celotex.
This is usually applied to houses with solid walls and no cavity.
The photos below show each stage in simple to read photo captions.
Once the insulation is applied to the exterior walls of the house, the team apply a weatherproof wall coating, either by render or by a spray applied system.
Smart homes have Insulation for their outside walls
We all want to save money nowadays and there is no better way to do this than by having a thermal weatherproof wall covering fitted to the outside of your house, you will save so much money and your home will take on a completely new feel.
In addition, other exterior wall finishes for your new insulation can be considered such as brick slips and other cladding type wall coverings.
Applying and fixing the insulation blocks, in this case, 600 mm for maximum effect.
The render is applied to the insulated wall.
It can then be finished off with a decorative exterior wall coatings or a high performance render based wall coating.
This type of exterior wall insulation can be fitted only by suitably trained external insulation installers.
Our range of exterior wall coatings for the walls of your home can make your house beautiful in no time at all!
If you do not have external wall insulation fitted, most of the heat generated in your home to keep warm, from radiators, open fires etc, goes straight out of the walls and this can be proved by appointing a surveyor to do a thermal image scan on your home, which would pinpoint where the heat is being lost.
Once thing to consider is the thickness of the external insulation and the appearance of the house.
Profiles range from 300mm to 600mm and they will of course protrude outwards slightly so it is important to select an exterior insulation system that is pleasing to the house, whilst still doing the job of insulating the walls and not letting the heat escape.
The thickness of the insulation often depends on the level of insulation required.
Particularly cold homes may need the thickest type of exterior insulation fitted, to maximise the efficiency of the insulation and to dramatically reduce the amount of heat lost through the wall.
A good way of cutting costs is to combine with this other insulation, such as loft insulation which is easily fitted, quite cheap, and brings great benefits very quickly.
Having external wall insulation brings much “karma” too with the fact that you are actively making a real difference to the amount of carbon emissions your home uses as you will not only enjoy lower heating bills, any heat generated internally will NOT escape, so no waste either.
So what will the wall look like with insulation?
There are various exterior wall finishes to make the insulation decorative as we outlined above.
The thing with an EWIS system is that it brings two-fold benefits in that it provides insulation for your home, a barrier against damp and cold, plus it gives the house a brand appearance too!
Here is an example of a smooth render, with a long life weatherproof wall coating, on the same house as above but taken from a different angle.
Ok, so now you have decided that you need external insulation to your home, it’s time to take action and get someone in professional to take a look.
UPDATED: Please note, since 2015, we no longer offer exterior wall insulation, however if you do have cold and damp walls, we do have another product HERE that may suit you
Despite the assertion that everyone knows insulating a house will make it warmer, a surprising amount of people DON’T insulate their homes as they are afraid it will cost too much!
These are also people who suffer from high heating bills too!
A long term view is needed because a house that has insulation, regardless of what sort of insulation it has, WILL keep the heat in, the cold out, and WILL enjoy much lower heating bills.
So what’s stopping you having external insulation fitted?
The heat generated in your home, from cooking, the heating, running a bath, and even the occupants body heat themselves, will eventually escape from the house through the walls, the doors, the windows and the roof.
Of course some heat, such as cooking, is encouraged to escape, often through an extractor fan, because smells from the food are often attached and unless you are Delia Smith, the smell of chips doesn’t make for a relaxing evening with your loved one.
This is the same with having a shower and the moist heat that is generated.
If not properly ventilated, by doing something as simple as having the bathroom window open after showering, then this moist air will find a way of settling on your walls and windows, which is the start of a condensation problem.
Insulate your home.
It really is that simple.
If you do not insulate your house, you will not only feel cold, you will be throwing money out of the window too, AND making the greedy fat cats at the power companies even richer.
Not only that, greenhouse gases, carbon waste etc, is all a result of people not insulating their homes and allowing valuable, and expensive heat, to simply vanish into thin air, the subsequent high heating bills not seeming to dissuade this wastage.
The government has certainly stepped up the drive for warmer homes, in fact this has been on various governments agenda for some years now, especially after privatising the utility companies in the 80’s on the promise of wealth for all.
However, we now actually see massive rises each year on power and heating costs and fatter profits for the greedy capitalists, so that backfired really didn’t it?
Why give these greedy people your money?
Have they not got enough already?
Here’s how to cut your heating bills.
There are any things that the homeowner can do to reduce heat loss and therefore ultimately reduce heating bills, and here is a small selection of what you can do.
1. Draught excluders.
A cheap and easy way to stop at least some heat loss, and of course to stop cold air from coming into the home.
Fit to the bottoms of doors, around the door jambs too and windows, especially older sash-style frames.
The energy saving trust said
Full draught-proofing will save you on average £55 per year.
Draught-free homes are comfortable at lower temperatures – so you’ll be able to turn down your thermostat.
This could save you another £60 per year.
If every household in the UK used the best possible draught proofing, every year we would save £190 million, and enough energy to heat nearly 400,000 homes.
2. Loft insulation.
It’s been fairly common knowledge since the 70’s that if you have an insulated loft the heat will not escape through the roof, in fact if you do fit a good level of insulation in the roof space, you can save a lot of money.
The energy saving trust produced this handy table to show you how much you could save, for very little cost.
How much could you save with loft insulation?
| Loft insulation (0 to 270mm) | Loft insulation (100 to 270mm) | |
|---|---|---|
| Approximate saving per year | Up to £175 | £25 |
| Installation cost | £100 to £350 | £100 to £350 |
| Time taken to pay for itself | Up to two years | From four years |
| DIY cost | £50 to £350 | £50 to £350 |
| Time taken to pay for itself | Up to two years | From two years |
| Carbon dioxide saving per year | Around 720kg | Around 110kg |
3. Double glazing.
OK, maybe not the cheapest, but fitting double glazed windows will also save you a lot of money, in fact well over HALF the heat loss in the home is via the windows, so it’s an obvious choice to have them fitted, plus they will cut down on noise coming into the house, great if you live near to a busy road.
4. Floor insulation.
Often overlooked, but with the trend for bare floorboards, the gaps between the boards can bring a nasty draught in, so cover them with rugs or seal the gaps with a simple caulking available at your local DIY store.
If your home has concrete floors, then insulation can be fitted under your carpets to bring some real warmth into the home.
If budget is not a problem then why not consider underfloor heating too?
5. Cavity wall insulation.
This is where a an insulating material, often polystyrene balls, are injected into the walls and they can make huge savings on heat loss, but what if you have an older house and this is not possible?
6. Solid wall external insulation
If the above steps are just not enough and you are reading this in a cold room, then perhaps it is time to think about some more heavy duty form of insulation, and this system can help you with that.
Exterior insulation is a special system whereby a team carry out any repairs that are needed to the house and then fit special insulation boards which can drastically reduce the amount of heat that escapes from older houses.
These special thermal wall coatings come at a price in the short term, but reap massive benefits over the years. This has been available on the green deal scheme I believe.
External wall insulation is the best way to dramatically change the amount of heat lost through poorly insulated external and internal walls, especially in houses with solid walls.
Insulating your home saves you money on lower heating bills.
The cost of heating your home goes up and up each year, especially if your home has solid walls without a cavity and/or is an older type of house without internal or external thermal insulation fitted.
More modern houses with cavity walls can be insulated quite easily INTERNALLY and injecting the little polystyrene balls by a cavity wall insulation company is often the best and cheapest way of doing this.
Is your house THIS cold?
NPA TOP TIP: If you are retired or on a low income, this can be often be done for you for free. Please contact your local council to apply for the grant.
Insulating your home is a fairly new concept of the 20th century and as we see the effects to the planet and the environment of lost heat and fumes from gas boilers running on overtime and all other related emissions, let alone the cost to us with high heating bills, the thought of wall insulation starts to become very important.
If you do not have external wall insulation fitted, most of the heat generated in your home to keep warm, from radiators, open fires etc, goes straight out of the walls and this can be proved by appointing a surveyor to do a thermal image scan on your home, which would pinpoint where the heat is being lost.
This is what a thermal image scan looks like
Thermal render wall coatings
THERMAL RENDERING can be applied to any type of home and can make huge savings in preventing heat loss by better insulation.
It stems from a special type of rendering that has insulation added to it whilst at the factory. It is often applied by adding a mesh to the wall and then rendering to a smooth finish.
To get a company to install this type of render is not cheap but over time, the reduction in home heating costs will pay for itself, although that would take probably at least ten years.
Whatever insulation system suits you, it pays, literally, to make sure your home does not leak heat.