I am sure I am not the first or last person to ask this I am looking for contractors’ contacts for EWI installation.
We are now ready to crack on with installing External Wall Insulation to front and back of our house. We applied for planning approval and got it few months ago - from Manchester City Council.
We have also had the first fix of the MVHR system, but the second and final fix needs to happen at the same time as the EWI installation.
I am just at the stage of trying to find local contractors / installers who are interested and willing to look at the job and quote. We have a drawing and specification package ready as well.
I have started making enquiries but I am getting “we don’t do EWI install sorry” or “sounds interesting but we are too busy and we are taking on only ‘build’ projects (aka new build, extensions etc)”…
Not asking for recommendations, I know this is too fraught, but names of contractors that anyone might know or have used that would not dismiss my EWI enquiry so easily, would be of great help! We have a fair bit of experience with contractors in the past, so happy to then assess any firms that may be interested to engage with us, if they are then suitable for the works.
Have you tried the AECB or Passivhaus Trust members search?
A word of caution, EWI does not guarantee airtightness unless you have incorporated that into your specification for a tender and subsequently into your contract.
When we did our retrofit in 2017 I found precisely 1 EWI contractor after extensive searching (including the specialist websites who are full of people offering planning or project management services but have almost no one who actually does any of the tools work).
The EWI firm was in Macclesfield and maybe went under with COVID. I can probably root out the name for you if you want me Lorenzo.
Thanks Tim, I hadn’t thought about the AECB even though I’m a member! I’m not a member of the Passivhaus Trust so not sure I’ll be able to access their forum.
You don’t need to be a member to search the Passivhaus Trust members list. It is the members’ way of advertising themselves. Unfortunately there aren’t many contractors but it’s worth a try. Most members are design and specification people.
Taking a walk yesterday I passed a house getting EWI. A local builder was doing the job. There was no sign of physical fixings. From an offcut leaning agains the garden wall I could see that the insulation was graphitised EPS,
with a thickness of 10mm! Also, not tightly abutted.
What is the point?
I have no idea about how the depth of insulation was decided but I suspect that it was along the lines of the blind leading the blind.
If you know what you want, how to do the job yourself, at least in theory, and you have a good relationship with a builder, then get them to fix it but do your homework thoroughly first.
I have no idea if they are still in business or if they are any good as we did not take up anything from them.
I contacted every firm on the AECB website or who I could find through google. This was the only one who was interested in a single house. There were about 3 others whose opening line was “How many streets do you want doing”…
When I contacted Bow Tie Construction about some work on my house they had a minimum contract amount of £500,000. That was a few years ago, so probably £1,000,000 by now.
I am looking for contractors’ contacts for EWI installation.