‘We had spray foam installed for free – now we face £7k bill to remove it’ (2025)

Homeowners who had spray foam installed in their property for free under a scheme have told The i Paper they now face costs of up to £7,000 to have it removed.

An estimated 250,000 homes in the UK have spray foam insulation fitted in their roof space, much of which was installed under the previous Conservative government’s subsidised Green Homes Grant scheme.

The Green Homes Grant saw installations completely subsidised for those on certain benefits in England, before it was closed in March 2021. Vouchers covering up to two-thirds of the cost of having the insulation fitted were also made available to those who did not qualify for the full benefit scheme.

But some of the UK’s biggest mortgage providers say they are now refusing to lend on homes fitted with spray foam insulation due to concerns about poor fitting, the BBC reports, with many more requiring expensive additional surveyor checks.

When spray foam is applied incorrectly, moisture become trapped behind the insulation, creating damp, leaving roof timber at risk of dangerous rot. There is no way of fully checking the quality of the work and the roof’s timber eaves without removing all of the insulation.

Alan and Alison Adkin, a retiree and part-time NHS nurse from Nottinghamshire, told The i Paper they had spray foam insulation installed in their house at no cost to them in 2021 after they were approved for the grant due to Alan suffering an industrial injury.

“We got a cold call in 2021 saying they were giving out government grants for loft insulation, so they came round and surveyed it and they said: ‘We can do this for you,’” Alan explained. He said it was then fitted two weeks later and that they were initially very happy with the work, noting their home was much warmer, quieter and small damp patches on the ceilings of two of their bedrooms had dried up.

But years later Alan and Alison, 64 and 63, from Tollerton, Nottinghamshire, said they are now being told they need to pay out of their own pocket to have the insulation removed.

Alan said a separate firm from the company that installed the insulation came to survey the spray foam two years later and told them that it needed to either be removed or corrected.

“It’s a cost of £5,000 to £7,000,” Alan, who’s now retired, said.

“It’s still there. We’ve not done anything. We’ve been in touch with our MP about it.”

Wary that some “cowboy” insulation removal companies may want to take the spray foam out for nefarious reasons, even if the insulation is fine, the couple explained that they tried to contact the original installers.

“The people that put [the insulation] in, we can’t get in touch with them,” Alan said. “I think they’ve gone bust or liquidated themselves. And now we’re getting these companies coming around and wanting to take it out – which is probably the same company that put it in.”

The couple said they spoke to their MP James Naish about the issue, and he told them not to panic and suggested that they were best to contact a surveyor.

“But it’s still at our cost to be told if it’s safe or if it’s not been fitted right,” Alan said. “But in the meantime I don’t know what damage it’s doing up there.

“It’s very worrying for us. I can’t sleep at night,” Alan said. “It’s terrible. It’s making my mental health go crazy.

“We’ve worked all our lives for this house. I know it’s not a lot of money – £5,000, £7,000 – in comparison but we’ve had the spray foam fitted at the Government’s expense.

“The Government sanctioned it by paying for it to be put in… and we trusted the Government,” Alan said.

“If we had to pay for this stuff we wouldn’t have had it put in. But the Government was offering this grant. And because the Government was offering it, I thought it was safe and didn’t think twice about it.”

While the couple said they were not planning on selling their home at any point soon, they said they were “doubtful whether anybody could get a mortgage on the place because of this spray foam”, after a swathe of mortgage brokers said they would not lend due to the insulation problems.

“The problem is, is the roof rotting?” Alan said. “There’s different ways of putting this stuff in, I’m told. You get some cowboys who go in and just spray straight onto the tiles underneath, which is not good.

“But in our case they put some like cardboard boards in between the rafters on top of the tiles and then sprayed on top of the boards,” he explained. He said that they had open-cell insulation fitted, a type of spray foam that remains soft once set and has gained popularity in recent years following the Greens Home Grant scheme.

This is a different form of spray foam to closed-cell which remains rigid once set. Closed-cell is considered a better thermal insulator and was previously used to stabilise falling roofs.

“This is the problem. We don’t know if it’s safe or not,” Alan said. “But if we do take it out, the mess is going to be tremendous. I mean, what do you do with it all? Stick it in landfill?”

“Are the Government going to help us get it out? I just want clarity, honesty and upfront clarity.

“And if it is a problem, the Government’s had it fitted in and they can have it taken out. I know we agreed to have it fitted in but we trusted the Government on this.”

Industry experts previously told The i Paper that spray foam was a “ticking time bomb” and said they had been warning successive governments for years about its dangers.

Separately, Simon Storer, the chief executive of the Insulation Manufacturers Association stressed that spray foam was an effective insulator when fitted correctly and had been used for decades without serious concern. He said that homeowners “should not panic” and warned them not to get “bounced into a decision” by removal firms encouraging them to have the insulation removed.

Geoff, who declined to give his surname, told The i Paper that he bought a property in Greater Manchester two years ago that had belonged to his two brothers who passed away, in a cash sale for £170,000.

The 63-year-old was aware his brothers had fitted spray foam cladding in the house but discovered that he needed to have it removed after it caused three of the roof’s timbers to rot.

He’s glad he had the cladding removed as soon as he moved in, the house actually became warmer with the regular ceiling and attic insulation fitted.

“It instantly made the bedrooms warmer…it raised it by about three or four degrees,” he says. “So I was glad I took the [spray foam] out – A, to keep the bedrooms warmer and B, because we found that rot.”

After discovering that some mortgage lenders were rejecting loans on homes with spray foam insulation, Geoff said he sees it as a financially sensible decision.

“It was the best thing for me to do as once removed, the house is mortgageable again if I decide to resell,” he said. “Now I know there’s no leaks because it’s all new felt.”

Geoff was already planning to replace the roof of the house due to dampness and leaking. He said roofers found the three rotten timbers after removing the insulation.

While Geoff said the presence of rot did not surprise him as he had heard it could be caused by spray foam insulation, he was shocked by the extent of the damage. “I think what It surprised me more was the extent because it was crumbly, rotten. You can have a piece of rotten wood that’s still quite stout, but this had gone outward through,” he said.

He said he was initially quoted £10,000 to have the roof rectified, but upon the discovery of the rotten timbers, the cost of the job rose to £11,000, to cover the extra slates needed.

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero told The i Paper: “Any measures fitted under government schemes must be fitted by a TrustMark registered installer and to the highest standards with issues promptly and properly rectified.

“We would encourage the homeowner to contact the installer or the installer’s scheme provider using the TrustMark complaints process.”