Not many people understand that building is such a highly technical endeavor, even when humble materials are used but more so with new products. This is really educational. Thanks.

DIY'er here, yesterday I just finished doing an external insulation job on my rear bathroom extension, roughly twice the area you have shown with two windows using the EWI system. I have been very impressed with the EWI products and the help they give on doing the job. For me the cost was about £800 so I recon I saved myself quite a bit of money as it is quite labour intensive when you take into consideration all the stages. Your video was great and I wish I had seen it before doing the job. My learning was; .- It does take quite a long time to do given all the stages, particularly if the weather is not on your side. - I used EPS board below the insulation tray and I wish I had put it one before puting on the tray - I didn't use the protective film on th e windows and it meant I had a quite a bit of clean up to do on the window frames. I would use this in future. - As a DIY'er who has done some plastering before I was surprised how messy the job can be, so I would recommend putting down a protective sheet on the ground - It is surprising how thin the final render coat is (mines was a 1.5mm grit) and it is really easy to put on too much. I also used a plastic plasterers trowel as a float and now recognise this was the wrong tool - Putting on the final siliconerender coat on top of the insulation is surprisingly noisy, my watch kept telling me that it was too loud (over 100dB) so folks may want to protect their hearing when they do this. - I undertand that if you are doing more than 15% of the area of a wall then it is subject to building regulations?

Big Thank you to Roger and the other people involved in this. Free educational videos like this make the world a better place. I appreciate all the little tidbits of info especially things like the circular polystyrene disks and the explanation as to why those elements are not to be ignored. Not only informative but also entertaining watching skilled people doing jobs properly. Brilliant stuff guys !!!

Love that you showed that simple error around the window - a real confident pro will admit they're not infallible!

I'm an expert on EWI by lived experience since 1982 here in the UK and in the Channel and Europe, and you will find my name on the 2004 white paper on the Industry because I kick started it after working on the new Met Office build in Exeter in 2000 and getting the job stopped by the visiting *Fire Officer, as the Insulation if set on fire ejected flaming globules and we don't like them do we. Firstly it doesn't warm your house up and if you live in a South facing house the opposite is blatantly obvious, as any free heat from the Sun has been barred from entry. I've fitted EWI on Victorian South facing terraced housing who had never used their boilers before, but they had too as soon as the EWI was fitted. It is great for sound reduction and drafts removal, and will save you money if you can afford to put the heating on. If you have no money the loss of the warmth from the Sun makes the house feel like a morgue very quickly. If your wall is flat you need a perfect bead of mortar or you'll be beating the hell out of it in places were there is too much stuff. Sanding it down is a mugs game and you should have control of the dust as many jobs don't allow it. Load a standard ten inch trowel with damp material and offer the bottom section up to the side of the board on a long section so the material is facing inwards and the trowel is stood up. The material should be sliding down the trowel, angle the trowel inwards with some pressure as this will keep the outside edge clean and stop thermal bridging, a half inch clean area around the perimeter is the effect we are looking for, and drag the trowel down the board whilst angling it to keep the material flowing. To finish run the trowel around the inside of the bead to tidy it up. A lifting trowel as used in this video is for lifting material out of a bucket and is crap at beading as can be seen @5:44 as this doesn't look like a bead, it looks like a mess that might cause thermal bridging around the edges of each board. The left mess has far more material than anywhere else which is not what is needed on a flat wall. Can it be done as a diy job, I've heard many bosses say any monkey can do it, so yes. The material needs to be damp or your arms will fall off by nine o'clock and that alone is a problem for the untrained. These materials are hard to remove from other surfaces and I can normally guess the quality of the job by starting at the local shop and following the trail of footprints. Protect anything you don't want to be ruined. pay much attention to the weather, black boards get very hot, wind can affect all layers as well as humidity and frost. It will wash off ten days later if the "set" was affected by frost or heavy rain. Have some clean water close by for all layers. Make sure the mesh coat has gone off before applying the top coat or the grain will bury itself. All tools need to be stainless steel or Plastic, Clean the edge of your plastic rubbing trowel frequently or it will leave blobs everywhere. Rub, wipe the edge, rub, wipe....., A smooth flat wall is the aim. Clean everything before it goes off. Much like footballers this is a short career industry as it is heavy on Tendons and joints all day, damage to tendons is for life. It's long lasting if done correctly, many of my jobs are still intact thirty years later. If it looks a mess it will do for ages. As exterior Insulation stops the Sun from warming the walls up mould can be a problem indoors quite quickly with warm breath on cold walls, and more so if all the drafts have been closed up. Things like boiler flues and sink wastes need extending before you start, at no point should you cover the flue and it's not a diy item to replace. *Fire officer Back in 2000 I mentioned to the site manager that the Insulation wasn't safe and he ignored me due to the class system. Luckily at the time any big new build was visited by the local Fire officer so a few weeks later I could beckon him up onto the scaffold. A few minutes later the job was stopped until the insulation fitted had been removed and swapped for something that didn't burn. Shortly after the Industry became self regulated and the chance of a worker beckoning the Chief fire officer was removed, which is partly why Grenfell happened. Could I have stopped Grenfell, the smell of something flammable is enough to trigger my senses, I think not. Anyone who knew anything about it was swapped out for a cheaper version during Mr Blair. You don't need expensive managers for cheap migrant workers.

Rodger you can impart more information in twenty minutes than a college professor can in a week of lectures. Also your camera operator gets the angles right to show what you are trying to convey to us viewers

This man is a true Craftsman and clearly loves & knows his trade.

There is nothing quite like watching a talented professional with years of experience doing their stuff. All interests in insulation aside, this was a joy to watch.

It was great to work alongside you on this project!

I’ve been in construction 36 years & would like to say your vids are great

That was really great Roger. Perfect balance of information and execution. A lot of hard work went into the video and it really shows in the first class product.

Roger, Ihave watched a few of your videos. You are such an impressive guy. Anyone would be proud and reassured to use you to work on their home. I’m past the age of doing this stuff, I just pay now but I find your advice and skill amazing to watch. Thank you for what you do. Best wishes.

Props to you Robert, especially nice to see humility and enthusiasm when it comes to learning new techniques and materials. Construction is continuously improving, especially when it comes to insulation. Keep it up, I'm loving learning alongside you.

These are truly men of value. Thank you for this video.

This guy was great to watch and learn from. I'm not putting insulation outside my house but enjoyed this a lot.

Absolutely fabulous to see someone paying a good amount of attention to health and safety issues, irrespective of whether or not it's a professional or amateur job. The sheer number of people who DON'T either use the (correct) safety kit or more often than not, not at all, is just staggering. Anything from face mask and eye goggles to the [right] chainsaw operating wear can make the difference from having a few minutes of minor inconvenience to don this stuff to a lifetime of diminished physical capacity in one form or another; hospitals see this all the time. I once was walking down an alleyway via a turnstile gate into a local authority housing estate. The Council had contractors chopping down a large tree just beyond the turnstile gate. One of the chainsaw operators had laid a [switched on] chainsaw on the tree stump in front of me & turned away. Being aware of just how potentially dangerous this was, I politey asked him to either move it or turn the chainsaw off. The verbal abuse I received isn't fit to print here. All it would've taken for serious & potentially life threatening injuries would be if the chainsaw motor's vibrations had caused it to move along the stump & fall off as either myself or the tree gang moved past. Ultimately safety matters much more than most people think. So well done for treating this issue with the seriousness it deserves. You're a long time with (insert long laundry list of potential injuries here).

This is an excellent demonstration, hard work and I can see why the costs are high as you take scaffolding into account too. Well done to both, in fact three of you.

Brilliant, thank you. Just right, not too quick or too slow plus explainations! With mistakes included - real life! Subscribed

Really enjoyed watching the love put into this job & the perfection of the finished product!! Lovely 😻 🎉🎉🎉

Roger, it's not quite 2 hours, a day since you uploaded this video and YOU HAVE 25k+ VIEWS. WOW, wonderful. Love your vids and my house is coming along nicely mate. 18 months since I purchased the dump and I only have the hall, stairs and landing to finish plus the bathroom (next summer). I have done it all on my own with great help from you Mr !!!

Excellent presentation as always from a knowledgeable and experienced craftsman. What I do find shocking is the amount of plastic based foam that's finding its way into buildings and the rasping of the insulation blocks you demonstrated clearly released so much microplastic into the environment that it's easy to see why it's becoming such a problem. In 2022 microplastics were found in human blood for the first time, it was found in the blood of 80% of people in the study and if its in your blood its in every organ in your body.

Great informative video Roger. My daughters house is having this done at the moment, so I am now well informed to pick up on any defects. Thank you and keep up the good work. Cheers

Excellent video Roger. There isn't many people that admit a mistake like you did with the window cill . Thanks for the vid. From 🇬🇧

Hi mate, just a little practical advice. Whenever you apply the adhesive to the back of the sheet to make the frame, leave a small gap, say 5-10cm, so that when you push the sheet against the wall, there is no air pocket behind it. Air pockets make it more difficult to adjust and align the insulation. As you push it in, there is no way for the air to escape and the sheet pops back out. In addition, if I were you, I would have waited for the adhesive to set before drilling and anchoring the sheets. Cheers 🍺🍺🍺

@SkillBuilder Roger - You didn't insulate around the window reveal so there will be a so called "cold bridge" around the window. This will result in a cold area inside the window and the potential formation of condensation inside.

Excellent video. Wish everyone was as thorough as you!

Sure wish I had seen this four years ago - better late than never, though, although the house has been done for three years now, no cracks, nothing to complain about. Thanks for your expert series and your effort to educate - there's always some knowledge to be gained from your videos.

Paul is a star 🤩 21:20 as you both get to work having listened to his very dignified, respectful, diplomatic (This is how you do it Roger) advice, you both nailed it. No nails used in the making of this video! 🤭🤔🤫😆

It was great working together and getting Paul involved, great video and explanation Roger!

I watched the full video , what a superb job , you guys made it look easy.

Magic! Roger, thank you very much for your insight! I know making these videos are hard work and time, so thanks for your effort! I have learned a lot from you today! You are an absolute start! Have a great start into the new year! Adrian (from Austria)

Finally European building standards are slowing being adapted here! Been doing it for years with this. Although those thicknesses are the minimum you should be using.

I’m currently doing my own house about 200m2 of it, easy stuff to work with and I’ll be sharing on my channel soon. Great vid Roger , only missing bit was adding on the window seal extender.

No idea why I’ve ended up seeing this video but I thoroughly enjoyed Rogers calm and engaging teaching. Great video! Well done camera op.

What a fantastic video. 👏I have never seen this done before, very well put together.

Great work as always Roger, I found your videos the most educational of all on YT. I have done quite few jobs like this myself and the results are astoninhing (both aesthetically and from energy efficiency point of view). The only detail I'd like to add for anyone wanting to have this done is that the mesh needs to overlap each run by at least 100mm for strength (I don't think you mentioned it during the process). Other than that - perfect job. Thanks

I went on the EWI Pro installers course a few weeks back. Excellent days training with Paul and his team...would highly recommend. I'm only intending doing my own house but the course was well worth it. Great real world video Roger thank you!

Wow that's a lot of work, impressive stuff. My head is spinning now.

Really enjoyed this, doesn't look easy but I love the way you explained it, and all the hints and tips, thanks.

I’ve go a big project for some EWI on a 120 year old house with solid 9” walls , I am going to add to the new replacement windows a 50mm add-on piece so I can return the external insulation to the reveal and hopefully stop a bit of thermal bridge

I attended the EWI Pro course earlier this year with the view, as a DIYer, to insulate my house. Paul was very good at delivering and answered all questions, including vents and under gutters. The hands on was good experience, as with Roger, It wasn't until a second go at scrapping back for the 'floating' that I realised how hard you have to press.

Absolutely brilliant video!! Such a great explanation and great job

We had it done to our house when it was still owned by the housing association, it made a massive difference to our energy bills. Luckily when we bought the house off of them we never got charged any money as it was a few years after it was done Definitely recommend it to anyone who owns a house with solid walls

Did this to our solid wall 1920s house a year ago. Our heating energy usage has dropped by 55% in the subsequent year..!! Plus the house looks and feels a lot nicer. Not cheap but very well worth it.

Great video and a wonderful presentation. Well done and many thanks.

And one more Remark. Dig a few cm in the Ground, 10 /20 cm and start under the Surface. Much better. With Soudabond you can Level at All Times. Fast and Easy. That's my experience of DIY Outside Insulation. Its Just Fun. Thank You.

Hi Roger. Was asked to do this on an outside studio approx 6 metres x 3.5 metres. Was very vary but did my homework and did the job to a high standard. If you have done a bit of plastering you will be able to do this. Very well explained video. Thanks for sharing.

It's good to see someone installing insulation properly. There are so many bodgers in the insulation industry

Thank you for the fire rating information. That was my first question.

That looks absolutely superb. An old knackered wall given a modern hi tec look.

We did this to our 1926 semi. Cost us about £7500 at £55sqm and we haven’t looked back since. Didn’t realise the amount of work involved and this is one of your best vids yet. Might have an extension to EWI soon 😂

Hi Roger I’d like you to do a vid on how to insulate, internally, a non cavity wall. Reading up on this vapour is a big issue. Lots of differing opinions. Be good to hear your advice. The ins and outs. Love thé content keep up the great work. Thanks

Superb video with all the details. well done. thank you.

What a labour! Amazing job~ good to see!

It’s a great product. We have external insulation on the side and top walls of a traditional semi, replaced the cracked rough cast. While it does change the look of the building, not to my mind in negative way. With so many old houses in the UK, and the need to improve energy efficiency, we need to encourage people to have it done. In our case the old rough cast had to come off anyway, so the additional expense was justifiable. But if we had a solid functional traditional render I would have left it alone. Videos like this though help to demonstrate the benefits of using these external insulations when you have to do work to the external walls of a building. The government should encourage owners of older buildings to do these sort of jobs. How about a council tax reduction if you hit a set of energy efficiency targets with works to an older property?

I did this for 6 years. Slightly differently. Below the plinth, we used a 75mm HD eps. Around the reveals we fixed 20mm eps to prevent cold bridging. After fitting the expanding foam, we would cover it with silicone. Also we applied 2no base coats fixing the mesh into the first coat. Not finding fault with yours, just describing an alternative way.

Brilliant down to earth presentation.

Hello from Canada, Loved your video, Fantastic work . : )

Hi Roger, as always great video and instructions. I did my home a few years ago and I've put 20mm board on the side of the windows and I've put foam in between the board joints to stop heat and moisture leaking. In the future you might end up with board lines all over your new render. Thermal bridges are very important. I've also dug up the foundations around the house and insulated them with ESP boards and paint them with liquid rubber, better than injectionof DPC, this way you get warm frm tip to toe.

What an informative video. Thanks. But I noticed you didn't fix any insulation to the window reveals. I'd be concerned about cold bridging there. Also would be interested to see how you finished off at the top neatly. Also how would you cope if you had soffits that stuck out less distance than the thickness of the wall insulation?

That looks like the sheet version of what we had blown into our walls. Very interesting video, and thank you for sharing.

First time I have come across this video! I'm very impressed with the whole idea of external insulation, and have a project in mind for my new home to which we will be moving, in a few weeks time!

Ewi store has amazing products and they are nice people I went there and met them, will do my house with their stuff.

That looks great. This may be a stupid question, but I’m sure you’ll put me right. How would you go about replacing the windows at a later date? Would some of the insulation need to be removed, then replaced? Thanks.

would love to see you do a full property with lots of really difficult bits to show how to do it. My house for instance was built somewhere around 1900 and solid stone angled windowsills and bay windows etc

I had my solid wall property done in January. Absolutely amazing!!!! I extended all the services, new triple glazing brought to front of openings extended insulated windows sills!. Gas boiler now running at 55c and house never drop below 18c!!!!!

You are the best, Rog. Keep on doing what you do, mate.......you help (and entertain) a LOT of us.

this looks a great produt and easy to do provided you follow the instructions could a compident DIY er fit this ? would like to see how you deal with down pipes and the like. Great stuff thanks

Great job! How would you cater for the existing eves/guttering? What if the roof has vent holes - would they be covered up?

Great to see the process - what a lot of work though...and knowledge and skill!

Great video Rodger. Many thanks

How do you fix external installation to a pebbledash wall? Thick layer of adhesive to fill the gaps same as an uneven wall? Trying to remove the pebbledash is probably going to be a non starter. And what about rockwool as a more environmentally friendly insulation?

Wow, I never knew how easy this was - just source dozens of parts and materials and then simply follow the 937 intricate steps that take merely hours each. A quick job that anyone with decades of experience in the building trade could knock up in an afternoon. And I'm sure having to do it on 2 or 3 storeys would barely complicate it.

I am a Pensioner living in Bulgaria and you have just saved me a lot of money that I can ill afford! Many thanks

I like to see skilled people at work, particularly people in construction. Well done Roger. I have 100% faith in your work.

There's a lot of mess and waste, and future necessary brick work is a serious problem. This is like adding polystyrene tiles to ceilings.

Well done Roger , another great video

Impressive, I really liked the product and relatively easy application! 😎

Neat job Roger, as usual.

Wow.. Thank you so much for your honesty and skills...

Absolute great video Roger! Thank you so much!!

So informative, such an endearing knowledgeable presenter.

Very good instructional video. Sadly my house is a too large project to do on my own, it would simply take too much time and also the mentioned day breaks in the rendering would be unavoidable that way. So that's why I leave it to the specialists. I will however do the walls which get an exterior cladding instead of rendering. The final silicone render is breathable as well? Breathability is needed to avoid the insulation getting soaking wet over time by moisture penetrating. As the wall is on the warm side, the dew point is somewhere in the insulation.

This man a real engineer great brain great video explains it very well.

Very good, I am having the professionals in early next year, this shows me how it should be done, thanks !

Very inciteful. I am not in the building trades, but am an ex Housing Officer with an HNC in Housing Studies, and also a retired IT professional, so this sort of technology and best practice fascinates me. It was very well presented too. Thank you very much.

Did similar near Glasgow way back in the early nineties but this looks on another level,as a joiner it was different.

Thanks to Roger and team, your advice is invaluable 👏👏👏 Happy new year

I could watch that guy floating a wall all day, dude is an expert in his craft and mesmerizing to watch lol

Exactly what I needed. Thanks VERY much

That was quite an eye-opener, I never realised it was so involved. Plenty of steps for the cowboy builder to omit!

I used to have my company back home and I'm certified installer by Knauf and Shwenk the last 25 years in external insulation. I did my house also back at 2003, and it was the best thing i did, instead of cavity wall insulation that can give you big and some times unresolved problems. Oh God, how much i miss to do this job again.

Good tips, a thinner piece of insulation around the windows to stop cold bridging. Where the wall meets the roof (not in this example but for new extensions) if its a warm roof try to have the roof insulation meet with exterior insulation.

That's basically the right way to do it man,I'm glad to see this technology coming to UK as well. What you did there with the wet sponge after the first layer was very clever ,we use to do 2 layers so we get the smoothness and also the thickness of the "base layer " of about 4 to 6mm. If you can get it all in one layer it's brilliant,it usually only wants to stay in layers of 2 3mm max. What I think it will help you it's to use a wider tool for the base layer. There it's all about of how much you can put on the wall in the shortest time possible. The only other thing I'm not too sure about,I mean it's definitely effective but when you have a while 2 floor house it can turn into a 1 day job for a worker. The holes and the white patches. I don't know how hard it's the insulation but if you're using EPS rated one and the 80,it's enough just to make the holes and hammer then plastic nails in and you're good to go. They go in just enough that it will easily be covered by the base layer. I have also seen guys doing what you did but only drilling 2 3 mm I'm depth so when the plastic nail goes in its flush with the sterofoam board. Ps. I think the EPS (white one ) it's not fire rated so that can cause an issue . It's also cheeper and doesn't have any or very little oil and you don't need to scrape off that layer . Also the way you did it you usually use a string from one side to another ok the wall so you make it evenly as you scrape off the oil layer . The primer you said it's not a must it's actually very needed ,and usually comes in the same colour as the silicone coating , otherwise there is no way you can cover all the light areas of the base layer when your last silicon layer it's a darker colour. The primer literally it's paint with sand ,same color could as the silicone. Keep it up,good job bro !!!

brilliant vid yet again SB

Enjoyed that. I have 150 year old,2 feet thick,rubble filled stone walls,like most of the houses in this area (lakes)

I read comments first before I watched the video. After watching, learned a lot. Millions of thanks

As ever, really informative and helpful. Thanks

One of the best Videos on YT. EVERYTHING CORRECT. Only the Dimension of insulation could be higher. 16-24 cm.👍👍👍🇩🇪

I'm loving this. I want more,now!