Nearly half of the heat lost from solid-walled homes escapes through the walls. Insulating these will keep your home warmer, and feel like a more pleasant place, eliminating drafts and cpld spots, as well as saving you valuable energy and money, and reducing your home´s carbon footprint.
External Wall Insulation (EWI) is suitable for a variety of wall types, including brick, stone, steel-framed and concrete constructions.
What does external wall insulation involve?
External solid wall insulation involves adding a layer of insulating material to the outside walls of a building and coating this with a protective render or cladding. There are lots of options to create the finish that you want and these may even add value to your home. The total depth of this layer ranges from around 50mm to 130mm, depending on the system used.
External solid wall insulation, rather than internal, may be particularly suitable if you want to avoid any loss of space or the disruption of work going on inside your house, or if you are doing other work to the exterior of your property, such as re-rendering.
Changes to the external appearance
Installing external wall insulation will not reduce the size of your rooms (unlike internal solid wall insulation), although you may require planning permission if it changes the appearance of the property. There are a wide range of colours and finishes which we can be apply, though often the existing finish can be replicated to preserve much of the home´s original appearance, if that is what is desired.
Planning Permission
As solid wall insulation is now constituted as an ‘improvement’ rather than an ‘enlargement’ you are unlikely to need planning permission unless your house is listed or is in a national park, area of outstanding natural beauty, conservation area or world heritage site. If in doubt, check with your local authority before having any work done.
A cut-away model of external solid wall insulation
MAKE – UP SPECIFICATION:-
- Insulation board (next to brickwork) – This is the layer of insulation that will slow the loss of heat from inside the house. It is attached to the external wall, either with an adhesive or mechanical fixings and protects and extends the life of your brickwork.
- Middle section (grey and mesh) – This section is composed of a mesh between two thin layers of render and adds strength and rigidity.
- Top layer (white on this diagram) – A final coating of cladding or render is applied to give the wall the required appearance.
- Window sill – External fittings such as pipework and satellite dishes may need to be removed before insulation is applied. It may be necessary to remove and extend window sills so they protrude beyond the cladding.
- Window and frame – Windows can change in appearance, as the insulation needs to extend into the window recess.
Savings in England, Scotland and Wales
Here’s how much you could save on your energy bill (£/year) as well as how many kilograms of CO2 emissions you could save each year with solid wall insulation:
Estimates based on insulating a gas-heated home. Costs may vary significantly depending on level of work required. Above estimates are based on a typical install, ranging from a small flat to a large detached home. Prices are based on fuel prices as of January 2024.
Benefits in brief:
Protects your home against heat-loss
Reduces household CO2 emissions
Saves you money