How you can DIY External Wall Insulation on your house - complete guide
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- čas přidán 24. 11. 2023
- This video gives a summary of the whole process of putting External Wall Insulation onto my house.
I had no previous experience so this shows how a complete novice can do this insulation successfully and make massive savings on heating bills (and a massive reduction in carbon emissions).
I have also made more detailed videos of each stage and these can be accessed here:
Playlist: • DIY External Wall Insu...
Videos:
1. Moving and replacing pipes (inc. cast iron) and wall attachments • 1. DIY External Wall I...
2. Extending the hosepipe tap so I can fit insulation behind it • 2. DIY External Wall I...
3. How I worked out what DIY External Wall Insulation to buy • 3. How I worked out wh...
4. Working out how to fit the starter track • 4. Working out how to ...
5. Painting on a quartzite primer - the easiest part so far • 5. Painting on a quart...
6. Cutting insulation boards to size - two key learnings • 6. Cutting insulation ...
7. Sticking insulation onto the outside of my house - Okay as a DIY job • 7. Sticking insulation...
8. Pinning the insulation to my wall - Also a very easy DIY job • 8. Pinning the insulat...
9. How to render external wall insulation - turns out it’s okay to DIY • 9. How to render exter...
10. Working out how to instal and join verge trim - a fairly simple DIY job • 10. Working out how to...
11. How to DIY insulate around a recessed window - fairly easy
• 11. How to DIY insulat...
12. How to join and fit an upstand verge trim - quite a simple DIY job • 12. How to join and fi...
13. DIY rendering and beading around a window - A very easy job • 13. DIY rendering and ...
14. Big reductions in energy use after installing DIY External Insulation on house • 14. Big reductions in ...
15. Improving uneven render with a thin overcoat - very easy job • 15. Improving uneven r...
16. Insulating over pebble dash - very easy • 16. Insulating over pe...
17. How to fit insulation around a flush window frame - very easy • 17. How to fit insulat...
18. Stop bead: Fitting and rendering - very easy • 18. Stop bead: Fitting...
19. How to DIY render around the porch - all the lessons learned so far • 19. How to DIY render ...
20. How to insulate below the damp course - very easy • 20. How to insulate be...
21. Using expanding foam tape to seal around the edges of insulation boards • 21. Using expanding fo...
22. Priming render with topcoat, protecting windows and installing verge trim on a sloping roof • 22. Priming render wit...
23. How to DIY silicone render - Surprisingly easy and gives a beautiful flat finish • 23. How to DIY silicon...
24. How to DIY a top coat of silicone render round a window reveal and remove the APU bead • 24. How to DIY a top c...
25. How to fit and tear off the strip on an APU bead • 25. How to fit and tea... - Jak na to + styl
I think I and everyone who watches your videos can say that it’s actually quite inspirational that a novice can do such a thing. Contemplating my project and these videos are invaluable. Thank you.
Great videos, thank you for posting. I went through the ordeal of trying to get EWI installed on the so-called Great British Insulation Scheme and it was a complete waste of time, I just ended up going in circles with British Gas. I then read that the government scheme makes you pay almost the whole price of getting builders to do it anyway, so I resolved to go via the DIY route. Thanks again as these videos gave me the confidence to do that.
This is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing
I watched each video on your journey and was amazed by your, and your family's, resilience. Not only are you a great advocate for DIY EWI but you also show that good insulation is within reach of many people. I'm impressed you did it with just a tower and not full scaffolding but again this proves the case that it doesn't need 'professional' equipment. Thanks again for you series of videos.
Thanks a lot. I'm very glad these videos have been useful.
Great to here that the insulation is doing well and looks so great, well done for giving it a go and all the video you produced. I am sure many people will be inspired by your install and reduced heating costs.
Thanks a lot Ched - I do hope it can help others to reduce their heating costs and carbon emissions as well :)
Thank you so much for all your videos, they are perfect for me as a visual learner. I really struggle with manuals so this is brilliant and exactly what I've been looking for for a while.
Thanks for taking the tim e to video this as you go. The results you achieved with no experience are great. Will consider this a DIY job myself having seen you do it
Glad it was helpful! Let me know if you have any questions :)
I'm happy it worked out for you; I was worried there wasn't an update in a while but I was elated to see this update! I think I may be looking at doing EWI myself next year so I'll definitely be reviewing these vids as a reference. Thank you
Excellent - yes, I’m very happy with it. Good luck and let me know if you have any questions. If I did it again I’d probably get greater extended window sills and use 100mm or 120mm cheaper insulation boards. But in general I’m very pleased with how much warmer it is using 70mm of Kingspan k5 so don’t have any complaints.
Most of the houses in my area, which have EWI done by pros, tend to have 50mm eps. I have wounded if the builders are being lazy going for the easy option or if it really is better to not use the really thick stuff. I am thinking to use 90mm grey eps but the 50mm eps really is much cheaper, less than half price.
I wonder about this as well. I think it is much cheaper and easier to just use 50mm and so if a builder can charge a similar amount and convince a home owner they’re doing a good job with 50mm eps then they’re onto a winner. Another thing that’s really important is how well it’s installed so whether there are gaps between boards and if air can circulate behind the boards if they don’t have a perfect seal behind them. So my impression is there is a big difference in insulation value depending on the quality of the installation.
Thanks.. Great video
Great video, thanks!
Glad you liked it :)
Thanks for this great video, i was always considering EWI but everything i read online said its highly technical which always put me off.. but your video gives great confidence for myself to give it a try.
If you’re relatively handy I’d say it’s definitely okay to do it DIY
I have a 1930’s house with solid brick walls, mainly pebbledash and am thinking to do this next year. Your videos are really helpful. My only worry is I have some curved walls but I understand the insulation can be scored and bent.
Hi, This sounds great. I did see a video on CZcams about people insulating round curved walls so it's definitely possible. I think with the Kingspan you'd cut out triangular sections in the back and the film covering on the front would stay intact and hold it all together. Good luck and do let me know if you think I might be able to help answer any questions at all.
Great video. Could you tell us the brand names of the products you've used ??
Great inspiration and positive attitude
Gives us nervous diyers courage to do it our selves
So what did it cost you in the end
It cost about £4000. I could have done it for about £3000 if I’d used cheaper insulation though.
And looking at lots of others doing it now (including both my next door neighbours - using contractors) I realise I was doing a really really good job and much better (in terms of adhesive, pin fixings, L-shape boards around all corners of windows and doors, fitting the boards snugly together with no gaps) than the contractors are doing.
So if you DIY you’ll get a much better job done!!!
I am thinking of doing this myself. Ground and 1st floor semi-detached just like you. Your idea of doing a small, non-critical area first is exactly how I intend to do it too. I am glad to see that you did it a little at a time - I was wondering if that was possible. Did you hire any scaffolding - if not, how did you do the 1st floor stuff? Jack
Hi Jack, I was lucky - my grandad had a “bantam tower” which was passed down to my dad. It’s a really heavy steel scaffolding tower and I think you can get much lighter aluminium ones now. You do have to be careful not to let it fall over though. I nearly knocked ours into the road when I was moving it once and one of the feet came off.
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing. One question, can you do one section at a time e.g. one side of an external wall before moving round, or does it need to be done all in one go?
Yes, definitely do one section at a time. For putting the boards up you can do them at your leisure although best not to leave them too long in the rain. For the base coat of render similarly you can do this in strips at your leisure - eg I did it in about ten sections at the back. For the top coat you do need to do each face in one go though. The biggest for me was the back of the house and that took about 4 hours straight work for just one person. Hope this helps :)
great job really well done could you give me an idea on cost diy, thanks
Thanks a lot! It was about £4000 including buying a reciprocating saw and blades and a paddle mixer. I didn’t need to buy the bantam tower though as I could use my dad’s (that had been my granddad’s). That compares to a quote I had of £18k from a professional
@@aktsolar thanks it will soon pay for itself , bills are daft nowadays
Great video! What was the cost of materials (vs retail non-DIY) and what do you estimate is the payback period on this?
Total cost of materials was £4.5k vs a quote of £18k from a contractor. And I used more expensive insulation boards so probably could have reduced it to £3.5-4k if I’d used cheaper boards.
Also, having since looked at contractors’ working on other houses I think I’ve done a fundamentally better job of keeping the boards really tight and well sealed at the back. So I think that will help make my installation more insulative.
In term as of payback I think we’ve more that halved our bills so maybe 4-5 years for us but for others it’ll depend what your normal bills are.
Just came across this video and found it very useful, so thank you. I have been thinking of doing the same to my house for a while now. Have you had any issues inside with damp or black mould around windows etc. Also, how did you tackle the transition between you and your neighbour?
We haven’t had any issues since doing the insulation. Before we did it we had some condensation on the wall where the steel beam had been put in above the bifold doors. But after the insulation has been on, that’s not been an issue at all and the walls are much warmer to the touch.
In terms of transition with the neighbour, that was really easy as we get on well with them and they plan to put insulation up as well. So I did put a ‘stop bead’ at the transition (and made a video of it which I’ve put on CZcams). But that probably wasn’t really necessary as they’ll just marry their insulation up with the junction on ours.
Question: why didn't you cover up the lower part of the house? Those very old vent system is not good anymore anyway .... I think the the parte that is below the flooring level at the ground floor. Thanks in advance
I did put insulation below the damp course. It’s black though and made of XPS. But I left the vents clear as I think it’s important to let the air circulate in the crawl space in order to keep the floor joists dry and prevent mould and rot. I’d be interested to know if that’s not a concern though
I am considering having this done as my house qualifies for the government grant. I have cornerstones made from white sand and cement, so I wonder can new ones be put onto this insulation afterwards? One concern I have is my friend had it done but the walls had extensive green mould which he has to wash off after the winter months. Well done on doing it yourself.
Yes, I did pressure wash the walls before sticking this stuff on. There are mechanical fixings as well which will help stick it all to the walls.
I imagine you could also put the corner stones over the insulation at the same time as you out the final coat of render on so I don’t think that would be a problem. Good luck!!!!!
Great work I will give it a go. Did you do any training courses on this system?
Excellent - good luck!!!! I didn't do any training courses but I did watch a lot of CZcams videos about it and also practised on the small, more hidden, sections before committing to doing the large or very visible sections such as the porch
@@aktsolar Thank you
I did a training course with Webertherm here in Spain - they were offering them for free. It was interesting but I think videos are more useful.
I'm part way through installing EWI, and about to insulate across the top of bifold doors (similar to yours). Did you need to support the insulation panels while the adhesive dried? If so, how did you do it?
Yes, I supported it quite easily by having a joist 1-2 m long to run below the boards at the join and then a long piece of wood going from the floor to the joist to hold the joist up. So the wood fored a sort of T shape with the top of the T at the bottom of the boards and the bottom of the T on the floor. I did one board at a time as I was putting the boards on in vertical strips
@@aktsolar Thanks, I will see if I have anything long enough, and straight, as I'm installing the panels in horizontal runs.
I'm getting the ewi under government scheme but my workers are drilling on the foam they didn't put any adhesive on foam to stick it on wall. Is that okay?
Great work but did you start having damp issues, i read that old houses with solid walls need to breath
Hi, we haven’t had damp issues and the walls are much warmer than before and still able to breathe on the inside so I think we’ll be okay.
Also lots of people down our road have had it done. (All houses are the same style of 1930s house with solid double brick walls and a damp course.) And no-one seems to have any damp issues.
With really old houses that have no damp course I would be very hesitant to do this. But with 1930s brick and a damp course underneath it seems fine
Did you inform Building Control about the EWI? If so, how did you go about it?
Yes I did have building control look at it. I was converting my garage at the same time though so they were coming around anyway. I think if you want to get their sign off you just contact them and they’ll be happy to help
@@aktsolar ok great, thanks for the suggestion
I might be getting an external insulation done, but I want black windows frames so how do I get that? Paint or complete replacement
We had ours replaced along with new windows and extended window sills. (You’re going to need to extend your existing window sills in any case to fit over the new insulation)
Thanks for your videos. I'm very interested in taking on applying external wall insulation to our house. My main worry is applying the silicone top coat. I would be working on my own and it would no doubt take a few days to apply the coat. How do you prevent a visible edge appearing between the previous days work that has dried and the finish you are applying that day?
Hi Kevin, thanks for this. The top coat was actually remarkably easy. I did the part under the bay window first. Then I did the side wall of the porch. Then I did the side wall of the house. I did each of these separately but in one go for each. After those 3 experiences I felt good enough to do the whole back wall. That took about 5 hours, always working to a wet edge but taking 5 minute breaks every so often.
Then I did the main face at the front of the house in a similar stint of about 4 hours.
After that, I finished the porch (I waited to do that last as I wanted it to look really good).
I then finished by doing all the window and door reveals.
So I worked up to it but basically never left an edge to dry on a face. I hope this helps
@@aktsolar Thanks, that's encouraging. I didn't realise that the finish could be applied that quickly. I see that the silicone is ready mixed and just needs whisking before use, so not too much time would need to be spent away from applying it to the walls. I found that EWI Store do training courses for £150, which I may consider to give me some practice and confidence. I would also follow your advice and start with the walls that are seen less.
@kevinhartle4494 You’re right, it’s remarkably quick and easy to apply. I had quite a few builders stop by when I was doing the front asking about how it was done and they were very impressed with how easy it was (although less impressed by the price :) ).
@@aktsolar Out of interest, the EWI Store online calculator suggests that you do not subtract the surface area of the windows and doors when calculating how many insulation boards are required. We have a lot of windows and doors in the house and including the surface area of all of them adds 52 boards, which is about £1,200, plus the cost of additional render etc. I accept that there is going to be a certain amount of wastage around windows and doors, but I suspect I would end up with an excess of materials. What allowance did you make for windows and doors?
@kevinhartle4494 I heard that as well but the windows are pretty big on our house so I did actually subtract their size and then added a little bit. I thought I’d have about 90% of what I needed for boards, render/adhesive and beading. But I ended up having exactly the right amount of boards. I needed another 3 bags of render/adhesive and some extra beading as well. But that was very easy to get.
So I’d say if your windows are big maybe best to take them into account. And you can always buy more of things if you need them at a later stage.
Approximately- how much did all the materials cost?
The material alone was about £3,300. That was with expensive insulation though. I could have saved about £1000 with cheaper insulation. It was also about 18 months ago though so may have gone up in price since. Good luck!!!!
BIG question: is your house single solid brick construction, or the typical two skin - brick outer wall, 50mm air gap, block inner wall? If the latter, then the EWI will be almost useless, because the air void will continue to remove heat away with condensation, i.e doing its job of removing rain moisture that permeates in through outer wall, & house generated moisture that permeats outwards into the void. i.e am I wasting my time & money putting EWI on my average 1980's built house?? Do you agree, or can my science be shot to pieces? Answers appreciated.
The house here is 1930s solid brick construction with no air gap. I’m not sure about the utility of EWI on cavity walls. I think what people normally do with double-skinned walls with an air gap is to fill the cavity with insulating foam.
Hi, do you need to ask the council for permission to do this if you are doing it by yourself ? Thanks in advance
You don’t need to ask the council for permission. You should get building control sign off in the UK (and I did) but I think many people do it without involving building control
@@aktsolar thank you for the answer
Good work but where are the air bricks
Hi, There are air bricks that ventilate the crawl space under the house. I actually improved the air flow into those as the originals had been painted over and were at least half blocked. So I removed the paint that was blocking them and left gaps in the below-damp-course insulation so it did not restrict air flow to them. I then put simple plastic vents over those gaps.
The plan is this will give at least as much ventilation as before but keep the underfloor space warmer. So it should be more insulative whilst possibly even increasing the ventilation.
I guess your on your DIY job properly
Considering doing this myself, the quotes I've been getting are ridiculous.
That was partly why I did it myself. It was 1/4 of the price to DIY it - and that was using expensive insulation. Also, from having since looked at professionals do it, I took a lot more care to make sure the insulation was well-sealed and met snugly at all joins so it should be significantly more insulative.
Would you do this for me on my house?
no sheets on roof or floor bit untidy.
My wife would definitely agree :)