Why Spray Foam Roof Insulation Can Make Your Home Unmortgageable
Rightsurvey Chartered Surveyors and the RICS have been warning about the risks of spray foam insulation for many years, but the product is still heavily advertised.
It can come as something of a shock to homeowners of properties that have been treated with spray foam roof insulation that most mortgage lenders will either decline their property and refuse to lend, or will make any loan conditional upon arranging an expensive survey. In some cases they will require the foam insulation to be physically removed before lending, which could cost around £6,000.
Amazingly many of these damaging installations were partially or wholly funded by Government eco-grants under Rishi Sunak’s administration!
BBC Radio 4 covered this subject earlier today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002547m
But there have been lots of articles published in recent years warning homeowners that roofs with spray foam insulation can make homes un-mortgageable.
In some cases when remortgaging or selling their properties owners have been horrified to find that they’ve been valued by banks at zero. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqjrpv218r0o
Why foam roof spray is bad for your financial health
There are many reasons why insulating with spray foam is a bad idea. Perhaps most obviously it doesn’t make sense to insulate under the roof slopes unless you want to actually use the loft space as accommodation – in which case a loft conversion would require much thicker layers of rigid PUR or PIR type insulation for example.
The main concern however is that polyurethane foam can trap moisture in roof timbers causing rot, and block essential roof ventilation. On a practical level during installation in cramped lofts it tends to get skimped in areas where access is difficult. So thicknesses vary and are often nothing like as thick as required by Building Regs for loft conversions.
It’s also very expensive! All the more so when you may subsequently need to pay to have it removed to make your home mortgageable.
An open and closed case?
To make things more confusing there are 2 types of polyurethane spray foam – open and closed cell. Closed cell is more robust, harder to touch and often used to hold older tiles in place.
Open cell is softer and squidgy to touch and has greater vapour permeability, this type has better thermal insulation properties. Open cell installations are likely to be thicker (100-150mm) and should only be applied under roofing underlay.
Some lenders will accept it subject to a report on the structural integrity of the timbers but in most cases it is very difficult to make a meaningful assessment. In which case it’s likely to be condemned.
In some instances additional works may have been carried out to reduce condensation risks, such as ceiling vapour barriers and the installation of additional ventilation. But the stigma of spray foam insulation on roof slopes is so entrenched that it’s presently considered far too risky to have installed.
Technically applying spray foam insulation to newbuild properties can make a lot more sense. But over time unless mortgage lenders change their approach there’s always a worry that it could result in unnecessary problems in years to come.
Making claims
Perhaps inevitably claims management firms are now offering services to recoup funds where foam insulation can be rpoved as having been ‘mis-sold’. Some offer a no-win-no-fee basis to claim refunds for inappropriately installed spray foam insulation where they have had mortgage offers withdrawn and lost sales.
Chris Brown, chief executive of Hydrogard Legal Solutions says: “Spray foam insulation is the cancer of home improvements, currently we have more than 500 claims for homeowners who have been refused equity release or mortgages. We are working with a number of estate agents, helping homeowners go through the process, but also helping estate agents retain sales, but with the added benefit of a commission paid to them for every successful claim.”
See Rightsurvey.co.uk for a quick guide to survey prices
Check out our other posts for more info that will help you pay the right price for the right property.
We would always recommend using RICS certified surveyors in every instance – don’t get caught out, get instant quotes for RICS surveyors here.
Ian Rock’s Rightsurvey property tips are taken from the Haynes House Manual series.
