External Wall Insulation Questions Checklist

Photograph each elevation in full, then take closer images of anywhere the surface is cracked, hollow sounding, patched or a different colour from the rest.

A run of patch repairs usually tells a professional more about a wall than any general description an owner can give.

Note what the outer face appears to be, such as exposed brick, stone, pebbledash, painted render, or more than one of those on the same elevation.

Buildings are altered piecemeal over time, and a single elevation often carries several finishes without the owner having registered it.

Record which elevations are seen from the street, which from a shared path and which only from your own garden, since that changes how a finish is judged.

Visibility drives both appearance decisions and what you may need to confirm locally, so it belongs at the front of your notes.

Write down whether any elevation has already been rendered, painted, tanked or overclad, and gather whatever paperwork survives about when it was done.

Earlier treatments change what is possible; ask a qualified professional to establish what is already on the wall before anything is added over it.

Note how the wall meets the ground on each elevation and whether soil, paving, decking or planting sits tight against it anywhere.

What happens near ground level and at any damp proof line is a detailing matter for a qualified professional at your particular property.

Mark any part of an elevation that stays dark, green or slow to dry after rain, and note whether it is shaded, overhung by planting or under a gutter.

Slow drying areas nearly always have a cause, and covering one over without understanding it rarely ends the problem.

Walk each elevation and list what is fixed to it: rainwater pipes, waste pipes, an outside tap, a meter box, an alarm sounder, aerials, cameras and lights.

Every fixing has to come off, be extended or be refitted, and this list is what turns a rough idea into a scope somebody can respond to properly.

Note every vent, air brick, extract terminal and flue outlet on the wall face, including any hidden behind planting or sitting above head height.

Anything serving a flue, appliance or extract must be dealt with by a suitably qualified professional and never simply covered over.

Record where the electricity, gas, water and communications services enter the building, and whether their boxes or cables sit on a face you are considering.

Service entries, meter boxes and supply cables belong with the relevant utility or a qualified professional, not with an on site decision.

Photograph anything hung on the wall that you want back afterwards, such as a hose reel, a bird box, a house number or a climbing plant support.

Small fixings disappear during external work unless somebody wrote down that they existed and mattered to the household.

Note whether a boundary wall, fence, gate, handrail or canopy is built into or fixed hard against an elevation, and photograph where it meets the face.

Anything built into the wall becomes a junction that has to be detailed, and it is easily overlooked from a distance.

Write down which fixings you would happily lose and which must return in exactly the same place, because that is your call rather than the installer's.

Stating this in advance avoids a series of small negotiations on site when the household is least able to think clearly about them.

Look at the roof edge and note how far, if at all, the tiles or slates project beyond the wall below, doing this separately for each elevation.

How much the roof projects often decides what is straightforward at the top of a wall and what needs a much wider conversation.

Note how deep the window and door reveals are, and whether frames sit close to the outer face or well back within the opening.

Reveal depth shapes how windows look afterwards and is one of the commonest sources of disappointment with the finished appearance.

Record what sits under each window now, such as a projecting sill, a flush course or a tiled band, and photograph one example on every elevation.

Sills project for a reason, and what happens to them is a question owners rarely think to ask until the work is under way.

Ask what would happen where a wall meets the roof verge at a gable, and write the answer down rather than leaving it to be resolved on site.

Verge, eaves and abutment detailing is for a qualified professional to resolve, and improvisation at these points causes lasting problems.

Note every porch, canopy, bay, buttress or projecting chimney breast on each elevation, since each one creates several extra edges of its own.

Projections multiply the number of junctions, and they are usually the least well described part of any written offer.

Write down where each external doorway threshold sits in relation to the ground outside, and ask how the finish would be handled at that point.

Thresholds, external levels and anything near a damp proof line should be settled by a qualified professional who has seen the property.

Note where an elevation sits close to a boundary, a shared path, a footway or another building, and describe the space beside it in rough terms.

How much room there is beside a wall affects access, detailing and whether the idea is realistic at all on that particular elevation.

Identify any wall shared with an adjoining property and mark it plainly as separate from the walls that face outside air on all sides.

Shared walls are treated quite differently, and confusing the two produces proposals that simply cannot be carried out.

Ask what agreements or notifications may apply where work approaches a boundary or a shared structure, and confirm locally what your situation involves.

Obligations towards neighbours and shared structures vary by location and property; confirm what applies with the relevant authority or your own adviser.

Record whether access equipment could stand on your own land on every elevation, or whether some faces would need a neighbour or public space involved.

Permission to occupy a neighbour's land or any public area must be arranged with the owner or relevant authority before work is planned around it.

Note whether added thickness would sit over a boundary, a path, a drain run or a manhole cover, and raise it as a question rather than settling it yourself.

An overhang of even a small amount can change what is possible, and it is far easier to discover it on paper than from a scaffold.

Write down which neighbours would be most affected by access, noise and dust, and consider telling them what is proposed before anything is fixed.

Neighbours who first hear about work from a scaffolder tend to be far less accommodating than those told about it in advance.

Decide and record whether you want the finished walls to sit quietly within the street around them or to read as deliberately different, and why.

Stating the intention early stops a finish being chosen on technical grounds alone and then regretted for a very long time.

Note whether any nearby property has already been treated this way, and photograph how the edges, sills and roof line were handled there.

A local example is the clearest way to describe what you do and do not want without needing any technical vocabulary.

Consider how much original brick, stone, banding or moulded detail would be hidden from view, and write down honestly whether that matters to you.

Where a property sits in an area with appearance controls, what may be altered is a matter to confirm locally before any decision is taken.

Record whether you want a smooth or textured surface and roughly what colour family appeals, describing it in ordinary words rather than product terms.

Owners often feel they need technical language here; a plain description of the look you want is more useful to a designer than a half remembered name.

Ask how the finish is expected to weather on a shaded elevation compared with one that takes sun and driving rain at this particular property.

How a finish ages depends on exposure and detailing at your building; ask the supplier and a qualified professional rather than generalising.

Note where dirt, splashes or algae already mark the walls, since those places usually behave much the same once a new surface is in place.

Existing staining tends to reappear in the same spots, and knowing where they are helps everyone set expectations honestly at the start.

Record which elevations can be reached across your own level ground and which involve a steep garden, a narrow side passage or an awkward level change.

Difficult access is one of the largest variables in external work, and describing it honestly avoids a proposal being revised later.

Note what would have to move out of the way, such as bins, a shed, a greenhouse, mature planting, a washing line or a habitually parked vehicle.

Everything on this list needs somewhere else to go, and that is the owner's problem unless it has been discussed in advance.

Write down which windows and doors you need to keep using while access equipment surrounds the house, and ask who confirms whether that is workable.

Households often assume normal use continues throughout, which is not always the case and is much better raised early.

Ask how the building is protected if rain arrives when a wall has been opened up or a finish is only partly applied, and who carries that responsibility.

Weather protection during the work should sit with the contractor as a written responsibility; agree it before anything is stripped from a wall.

Note whether a pet, a shift worker, someone working from home or anyone particularly sensitive to noise and dust lives here, and raise it early.

These constraints are invisible to everyone except the household, and they influence sequencing more than people expect.

Write down the periods when having the building surrounded by access equipment would be worst for you, such as around a family event or an exam season.

Ask how the wall is expected to deal with moisture once it is covered, and what that answer is based on rather than accepting it as a general assurance.

Moisture behaviour within a wall build up is technical analysis and should be accepted only from a suitably qualified professional.

Raise any existing damp, staining, salt marks or musty smell on the inside of an external wall before the outside of it is discussed at all.

Covering the outside of a wall with an unresolved problem inside usually makes investigation harder rather than making the problem go away.

Ask what ventilation inside the house the proposal assumes is present, who provides anything missing, and who confirms it was actually provided.

Ventilation provision is often assumed by one party and delivered by nobody; agree responsibility in writing with a qualified professional.

Ask what happens at the base of the wall and how water is kept from tracking behind the new surface where it meets the ground outside.

What happens at ground level and near any damp proof line is a detailing matter for a qualified professional familiar with this building.

Note which rooms currently show condensation and on which surfaces it forms, and hand that over as an observation rather than as a diagnosis.

Occupant observations gathered through the colder part of the year cannot be reproduced during a single visit by anyone.

Ask what would happen if a fault were found in the wall after the finish is on, including how the surface would be opened and then made good.

Continuous external finishes are not easy to open and close again, and knowing the route in advance is worth having in writing.

Ask what can and cannot be fixed into the finished wall afterwards, including a hanging basket, a gate, a light fitting or a satellite bracket.

Owners routinely drill into a new external surface without knowing what sits behind it, which is much better settled in advance.

Ask how the finished surface should be cleaned, what should never be used on it, and keep that answer with your property records.

Pressure washing and strong cleaners have ended the life of external finishes that were otherwise performing perfectly well.

Record what any warranty on the finish covers, who actually stands behind it, and what upkeep it depends on being carried out and evidenced.

Warranty wording differs between suppliers and installers; read what you are given and put your questions to whoever issued it.

Ask what to do if the surface is damaged by a ladder, a vehicle or a falling branch, and who would carry out that kind of local repair.

Patching a continuous finish so it is not obvious is a specialist job, and knowing who does it saves an anxious search later.

Photograph each elevation while it is stripped and again as the work proceeds, since that is the only record of what lies behind the finished surface.

Photographs taken during the work become extremely valuable to whoever next has to open up part of that wall.

Write down who to contact afterwards about each part of the work, since external projects usually involve more than one trade and one supplier.