My Experience by Barrie Billinge

As well as the cost, is the upheaval and perceived mess of installing IsoSpray foam worth it?

Living in a 1930s bungalow, with a tiled roof and no inner membrane, we were suffering from the cumulative effects of  80 years of coastal winds.

We were not quite at the stage of losing tiles, but the wind was blasting through the gaps and the Rockwool; insulation in the roof space was covered with cement dust and lumps of cement.

We were advised to look into the possibility of having the roof insulated with high-density foam, and my searches online led me to IsoSpray who supply and install a BBA certified, a high density, high insulation value, British Class 1 fire rated foam made right here in the UK.  I emailed them for a site-survey.

We had a complication. The previous owners had built a loft conversion consisting of a turned staircase to a landing, into a double bedroom in the roof. I wondered how Iso-Spray could treat the roof behind the loft conversion. I thought maybe that IsoSpay could pump the foam through holes.

Within a few days the surveyor arrived and had a good look at the property - outside, and in the roof space, and pointed out quite a number of things I hadn't noticed before.

He confirmed that, to seal the roof properly, we would have to remove the plasterboard from the stairs, landing and bedroom, then replace it afterwards (this was not good news). He advised that pumping foam 'blind through holes' would be wasting my money as this was not effective to get a good even coating and cover all areas. As he put it; if you can't see it you can't spray it (effectively) and it would be a bit like trying to decorate your hallway through the letterbox!  He also advised that it would be a good idea to have the chimney removed (I had told him that we never used the gas fire in the lounge) as this was a  massive source of heat-loss from the ground floor as high pressure hot air will continuously move up the chimney to colder low pressure air.

After receipt of his quotation for the work (which was specific and detailed and the cost was within our budget expectation), and much discussion, we decided to have the job done, and we fixed a date with the surveyor.

We had the chimney removed by a local roofer. We began to remove the plasterboard (and what passed for insulation behind it) but soon wished that we had never started! Initially, the mess was horrendous! However, the mess was soon cleared up and wasn't nearly as bad in the end as we had expected. We got the 'breaking of eggs' phase out of the way fairly quickly in fact.

The surveyor had already advised us on what we needed to remove in order to provide sufficient access.  However, he came back on the Sunday afternoon before the work was to be done, to double check and ensure that all was in place.

The two guys who came to do the job were first class. They completed the work with speed and cleanliness. I'm sure there was less mess after they left than before they started. I cannot fault the service from this Company.

The difference since the job was completed is everything that the surveyor promised. It was so good that after two weeks we had the double radiator in the upstairs bedroom swapped with a single radiator  downstairs.

There is no doubt that all the mess and effort was worth it in the end. We are now looking forward to seeing our next gas bill which we believe will be halved.

IsoSpray insulation makes sense. The mess from IsoSpray was non existent and taking the plasterboards down was not any near as bad as we first thought.

Our home is draft free and considerably warmer so much so that we have been actually turning the heat down on some of the coldest days over Xmas!

If you are thinking about it, hang the cost as it is well worth it, and just DO IT!

Barrie Billinge, January 2012

P.S. Any prospective customers are free to contact me via IsoSpray by either phone or email which I have agreed to.