Condition

A well-maintained home can be around 30% more efficient than a poorly maintained one. So just by putting your home into good order can be energy saving measure.

Housing requires constant maintenance to keep it in good condition and working well. This has often been neglected over periods of a building existence. When retrofit work starts it can quickly uncover a range of ‘unforeseen’ issues that need rectification. It is important therefore to manage this risk by understanding the building as much as possible before starting on any retrofit project. The condition survey of the Cartrefi Clyd process is therefore one of the key elements of our work.

The condition of your property has a major affect on the retrofit of it. ‘Enabling works’ to get your property into a suitable state to accept Energy Efficiency Measures (EEM) can make up a lot of the costs of the work. Certain EEMs can also be adapted so that they undertake condition improvements as part of their installation.

There are so many issues that can affect a building that it is not possible to address them all here, but the more common issues include:

Issue	Example
Use of inappropriate materials	Cement render and pointing on solid walls Painted stonework
Poor workmanship	Render over the damp proof course Extensions not tied into main building correctly
Poorly maintained rainwater system	Leaking gutters Blocked drains
Weathering	Missing pointing Blown render
Improvements	Double glazed windows with no trickle vents Replacement solid floors
Uninformed decisions	Raised pathways around buildings Blocked vents
Industry norms	Injected damp proof courses Insulation blocking eave vents