Why use EWI?
- Of the UK housing stock over 30% have been built with solid walls – classed as ‘hard-to-treat’ because they cannot be thermally improved with the use of cavity wall insulation.
- Unlike unfilled cavity wall homes which lose approximately 35% of heat through their walls, solid wall homes will lose as much as 45% space heat through untreated walls. Any measures to make heating systems more efficient are made less effective as heat escapes through the external walls.
- Solid wall properties generally fall into two main types – traditional construction built with 9 inch solid brickwork or no-traditional housing constructed with systems using mainly precast concrete panels.
Benefits of External Wall Insulation
Solid wall properties can be insulated either internally or externally. The benefits of insulating externally include:
- Lowering the ‘U’ value to the national building regulations standard and also improve the thermal efficiency to meet gorvernment targets and reduce your Energy bills.
- As work is carried out to the outside walls, disruption to the household, including internal fixtures and fittings are not affected.
- The risk of condensation within the wall structure and thermal bridging is eliminated as EWI will move the ‘Dew point’ and eradicate the possibility of condensation to the inner walls.
- A weatherproof, attractive and generally maintenance-free new exterior is provided as part of the thermal cladding of the building.
- Work can be carried out alongside other trades such as window replacement and re-roofing, this could maximise the usage of scaffolding where needed and keep costs down.
