Insulation scandal: ‘I have to scrape the mold off the walls’

Every two weeks, Zoe Godrich scrapes black mold off the walls of her children’s bedrooms.

She says her house now looks like a squat. ”It’s absolutely heartbreaking because I can’t provide my children with the basic needs of a safe warm home.”

Mold took over after she fitted out her home in Swansea with cavity wall insulation three years ago. He says that for several weeks, water continuously flowed down the walls “like a small waterfall.”

The BBC can reveal that cavity wall insulation installed under a government-backed green energy scheme could have failed in hundreds of thousands of homes because it was not installed correctly.

Single mom Zoe and her three children now sleep in one room, on mattresses on the floor. The other two bedrooms are not habitable, she says.

She says she threw away all their beds and wardrobes because they were eaten by moisture and mold. She shows me a photo of her six-year-old daughter’s doll, covered in black mold, which she had to throw away.

One of her daughters takes several medications for asthma. Her son has eczema so bad that his cracked skin is bleeding. He says that they did not take these drugs before installing the isolation. The NHS says dampness and mold can lead to respiratory illnesses and skin conditions.

David Walter is a building surveyor who has been surveying detached homes across the UK for over 25 years. He visited Zoe’s home in April and said the installation was “broken” and the extraction was not done properly either.

He says there is nothing unusual about what happened at Zoe’s home. “The industry is motivated by money – they get government subsidies to do this work. So there’s an incentive for contractors just to get people in, do the work and get the grant money.” He blames the problems on a lack of oversight and regulation.

As of 2008, more than three million homes had cavity wall insulation under green energy schemes set up by the government. Energy suppliers were responsible for inspecting 5% of them to check the quality of the installation.

Data collected by energy watchdog Ofgem and seen by the BBC suggests that insulation in hundreds of thousands of these homes may have failed because it was not installed correctly.

In total, 15 million homes have cavities filled.

A year after the problems started, Zoe went on the merry-go-round of companies and organizations to try to get help. It started in early 2022 with Installers UK, which carried out the installation work. The company insisted the insulation wasn’t to blame, then collapsed.

The company told the BBC the problems were caused by a hole in the roof, although they could not provide a copy of the pre-installation report to confirm this. If there were any problems with the property, according to the standards body, the British Assessment Bureau, they should have been resolved before the work was carried out.

She then contacted City Energy Network Limited, who provided funding for Zoe’s home. His name appears on the guarantee for the works, although Gradska energetika says that it is a mistake and that it has nothing to do with the guarantee that should have been issued by the company that performed the works.

Zoe says she was advised to remove the insulation. She took out a £7,000 loan to pay for it. What she didn’t know was that extracting it would void the warranty on the work. Without insulation, the house is now very cold. It cannot afford to raise the temperature, which leads to even more moisture and mold.

City Energy told the BBC it was only involved in grant funding through a government scheme. He says he is not affiliated with Installers UK, nor was he involved in the installation or removal process.

A few years ago, the government realized that standards needed to be improved. It commissioned the independent organization Trustmark to set up a quality assurance scheme in 2019.

But the problems Zoe has faced raise questions about how well the scheme is working. Both Installers UK, which carried out the work in 2021, and City Energy, which provided the grant money, were registered with Trustmark.

Zoe says she doesn’t see a solution in sight. “The life was simply sucked out of me. For the last few years, all I’ve been doing is fighting company after company.”

City Energy says that while it has no obligation to provide any assistance, it “recognized and sympathized with Ms. Godrich’s position” and says it has tried to resolve matters directly with her in an effort to help her.

In a statement to the BBC, Trustmark said: ”The problems at Mrs Godrich’s estate are complex. The work was done to an earlier standard and did not take the ‘whole house’ approach of current standards, thus preventing some of the problems seen here.

“However, the situation in which Mrs Godrich has been left is completely unacceptable and needs to be rectified. We will work with the British Assessment Bureau and City Energy to reach an appropriate solution that will make Mrs Godrich’s property a warm, comfortable and healthy home for her and her family. “

The Department of Energy Security and Net Zero declined to comment, but referred us to a ministerial statement from February which said: “The Government is committed to protecting all consumers undertaking home renovation work, as well as improving the overall consumer journey.”