"Phil L" wrote in message
k...
wrote:
Phil L wrote:
Terence wrote:
I have a 7 year old small semi-detached house.

Is there an (easy) way of telling if I have cavity wall insulation?

The original builders are no longer in existence, and the two
previous owners are not contactable.

if they are green / grey it's rockwool, yellow and they are
fibreglass, white and they are blown fibreglass....if you can feel
something but nothing sticks to the end, it's probably blown-in
polystyrene blocks, made from scrap polystyrene.

So what's best ? I need to insulate as mine are just cavities at the
mo.


They are all basically the same...rockwool is a heavier fill, IE more of
it is used and it's quite dense within the cavity compared to blown white
wool, but this does not mean it's a better insulator, it's the air trapped
*between* th particles that insulate and not the actual material itself.

Also you only really have a choice of two materials now that the building
is erected, rockwool and blown white fibreglass, hardly anyone uses
polystyrene anymore (except in Ireland) due to it's bulk (the fibre is
compressed into large bales, poly can't be compressed).
Yellow fibre 'batts' are only used during construction.

As soon as my heat goes off about half an hour later the house feels
completely cold. The loft is insulated, but I could put more up there
.. I'm already double glazed.

I'd get at least 150mm in the loft, if you have 50mm up there already,
just lay 100mm over it,

Recommended is 270mm. Pack in as much as possible. Take a silicon gun and
seal up the hole where pipes and cable run through and any other hole
around.

don't go over any shower cables as they /could/ overheat...best place to
purchase is from an insulation contractor in the yellow pages IMV.

The sheds can have some very good deals on insulation.