This comprehensive guidance developed for Bristol City Council and includes:
- What is a solid wall
- Overall principles for successful and safe solid wall insulation
- Process for deciding what type (if any) insulation to install
- Planning conditions
- Technical considerations for design and installation
- Associated measures such as ventilation
- Project management and monitoring.
Although the guidance was targeted at householders, professionals and installers have also benefitted from using the toolkit.
Mayor George Ferguson said: “This advice is vital if we want to make retrofitting projects as impactful as possible. By instilling customer empowerment in the decision making process, we’re making the delivery of solid wall insulation simpler and raising standards in the process. This builds trust and increases the popularity of SWI and the companies installing it.”
Inspired by the delivery of Bristol City Council’s residential energy efficiency scheme, Warm Up Bristol, the guidance has been developed with the specifics of Bristol in mind does create a basic toolkit that reflects good practice across the UK.
Two courses were piloted by Bristol City Council and STBA in association with The Green Register: Solid Wall Insulation: Professionals’ Training Course and IWI course for Installers
These courses were aimed at anyone involved in setting up, designing, managing or assessing SWI projects: architects, surveyors, site managers, planning and building control teams and other relevant parties.
Each course lasted two days, and delegates gained an understanding of the principles and details needed for effective SWI and IWI retrofit. The teaching combined theory and practice, with a mixture of classroom-based and training rig learning that ensured a broad understanding of the key issues.