What External wall insulation warranty

What warranty will you get with your EWI and how does it affect insurance

External wall insulation warranty

External wall insulation is a long-term investment. Most system manufacturers will offer manufacturers warranties in excess of 25 years, so you should be able to live in your property safe in the knowledge that the system is going to last.

Unfortunately, occasionally the EWI will fail. This could be down to faulty materials or poor installation. As installers, we see plenty of EWI jobs that have been installed incorrectly by rogue traders, and have to come in to fix the problems. In this blog we are going to look at warranties and guarantee schemes – what you should look for and how you claim.

What external wall insulation warranties cover

There are a few basic kinds of guarantee available from an installer.

They are as follows:

• A Company guarantee for workmanship – Most companies will at least offer this and there is a statutory requirement to offer a basic guarantee on building works.
• The length of external wall insulation warranty and what is included and excluded will vary, however. Be Constructive offers a 10 year warranty as standard on most system specifications and this will cover any failure in the system caused by the workmanship.
• System Manufacturers Warranty – This type of warranty is on the product only, and it comes from the manufacturer not from the installer. It is quite limited in that it doesn’t cover incorrectly fitted systems, only problems directly caused by the materials themselves. This is usually offered by all good installers, and can only be offered by installers who are approved to use the product in question. For example, Be Constructive are accredited to install EWI Pro and K-Rend systems, and can offer a 25 year manufacturers warranty as a result. Companies not offering this are likely not accredited to install the system, so be wary!
• Industry Backed Guarantee – This type of external wall insulation warranty is designed to cover the customer for an extended period, much longer than the average lifespan of an installer company. Typically these guarantees are for 25 years or more and will cover you even if the installer goes out of business. Be Constructive offer this kind of warranty as an optional extra via the GDGC scheme. There are other guarantee agencies out there like SWIGA as well. This type of extended guarantee is often a pre-requisite for government schemes, but for private work it is not – as such, we like to offer our customer the choice as to whether they want this type of guarantee or would rather save their cash and go for a company guarantee – it is completely up to you!

What is covered in an external wall insulation guarantee

Hopefully the above should give you an idea of what to expect, but of course every policy will vary depending on the system and the installer. For example, we provide cover on the system itself, but only offer a standard guarantee on the associated pipework. We often extend pipes that are many years old, and cannot reasonably be expected to last another 25 years – especially when we are merely extending the ones that are already there! We also state that silicone sealant may need to be reapplied periodically over the life of the system, as silicone will definitely not last that length of time (this is why we try to limit the use of silicone wherever possible).

Maintenance of an EWI system

Whilst the covered provided may be comprehensive, it is expected that the customer will undertake some maintenance over the lifetime of the system. EWI is generally quite maintenance-light, but there are some key areas that will need to be maintained – we will take a look at these in detail in the next blog!