1€ loft insulation

1€ loft insulation 

Following on from yesterday’s decorating post, I’ve more news to share on the home improvements front. We’ve had the loft insulated and it really did only cost us 1€. 

For at least the last eighteen months, anyone in France with a landline phone has been inundated with cold calls offering insulation for 1€, regardless if your number was on an ex-directory list or not. With multiple calls every day, they became a nuisance and most people (us included) stopped answering the phone altogether, and the word scam came to mind. Surely the supply and installation of insulation must cost more than 1€ right? Wrong. A few people I knew confirmed that it was indeed legitimate, subject to certain terms and conditions*, and they’d either had it done, or knew someone who had. At one point we even went as far as contacting a company online, but as they wanted to call us, it came to nothing. My French is more than OK, but telephone calls are still difficult, and I wasn’t confident of being able to differentiate between a cold call about insulation and the call we were expecting. With so many companies offering the service, how do you know who to trust or how to go about it? Also, access to our loft is tricky and experience has taught us that with this house, nothing we try goes to plan. We left it.

 

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on Facebook from an English lady who alongside her partner runs an insulation company. She sorts out the paperwork, ensuring you qualify for the 1€ scheme and his team take care of the installation. To make me feel even more confident, a friend commented on the post to say she had used them, and all went well.

Some of cardboard, dated from the 1980's, that we evicted from the loft

 

This is how we found ourselves clearing out the grot and cardboard from the loft, that had been masking as insulation for over thirty years, at the same time as only being halfway through decorating Adrian’s new office space. Our timing, as usual was great! The day after his first course had finished our empty loft was then pumped full of fluffy white stuff and it all went smoothly. 

Tricky access was no bother

The two guys who arrived weren’t daunted by our narrow loft access that is quite a distance from the front door, they just used Ed’s bedroom window to run the tube that blew the insulation from the machine into the loft. Before getting started they carefully marked where all the electrics run, and they built a lip around the loft hatch to keep the insulation contained. 

 

1€ loft insulation

This being France, there was quite a bit of paperwork, but they even came equipped with their own printer. The invoice they produced showed a value of 1,500€ for our 75m2 loft, but after applying the discount, all we had to pay was 1€. 

 

It was far easier from start to finish than I’d ever expected it to be and I’m certainly looking forward to feeling a lot cosier this winter.

 

*Under this scheme loft floors can be insulated, where there is living accommodation below and cellar, basement and garage ceilings, where there is living accommodation above. We had to provide a copy of our latest French tax return, confirm how many of us lived at the address and what type of heating we have.

 

If you live in France and want to know if you qualify, you can contact Michelle on michellecookiso87@gmail.com