Miller Pattison review: Cavity Wall Insulation - NOT 32

Miller Pattison did our loft insulation in Oct 2007. For the last year or more I have noticed black spots appearing on the loft hatch door where the insulation was put. These are I'm told black spores mould and very dangerous to health- I am quite concerned for mine and my young families health especially as apparently insulation shouldn't even go on the loft hatch door!

I worked for Miller Pattison and left as they are quite happy to destroy peoples property for sales, i advise all my friends and family to stay well clear and would advise anyone else to too. I cant speak for all branches but the one i worked for was a sham!

I am a Surveyor for Miller Pattison in Yorkshire. These comments i see on here are absolutely diabolicle, myself i would always check each aspect of the property and every elevation. For cavity wall insulation there needs to be atleast a metre of space around every wall on the home. For the loft hatch scenario, insulation should be jacketed on the back of the hatch which wouldn't cause any of these spots as you claim your seeing. But for any disbelievers in Miller Pattison it is a backed scheme, this is how it works. 1) we DO NOT work with the Government, the Government basically have initiated a scheme which as subsidised the costs of insulation work on homes because they're trying to cut down on Carbon emissions in the UK. 2) if your home is not insulated to the new EU standard it is highly likely your utillity provider will start Carbon taxing you on the emission your homes releasing, simply because utillity providers get taxation on carbon emission for the UK, which they now want to push onto homeowners. 3) cavity wall insulation costs £300 PER WALL privatly without a grant, with a grant from Miller Pattison if your working with no benefits is £149 for EVERY WALL. If your over 70 or on benefits it's an 100% grant. Loft insulation, easy vents, draught proofing, pipe lagging, tank jackets and an energy performance certificate which guarantees your property for 10 years which is also sponsored by the Energy Saving Trust is £1500 privatly without any grants. With Miller Pattison it's £199 with no benefits and if your working. If your on benefits or over 70 and have less than 60mm of insulation it is FREE.

i would erge people not to slay Miller Pattison if you don't know what your talking about, you make yourself look silly when people like myself who are QUALIFIED SURVEYORS read these forums. Also to enlighten you guys, Miller Pattison is part of SIG Energy Management which is Europes leading home insulation and home efficiency company. So in actualy fact, if someone says to me that they don't believe in it or don't want there grant it really doesn't bother me. it's them that will not be saving 30-40% on each gas bill each month and demolish the likelyness of them getting taxation.

"i would erge people not to slay Miller Pattison if you don't know what your talking about, you make yourself look silly when people like myself who are QUALIFIED SURVEYORS read these forums."

I find it hard to believe that any qualified or professional person would struggle to spell a four letter word like "urge" or be confused by such basic, primary school English ["your"/"you're"]. Diabolical is admittedly a longer word, but I would expect a "QUALIFIED SURVEYOR" to display a certain attention to detail, and to check anything he wasn't 100% sure of.

I had never heard of Miller Pattison before a group of their employees turned up on my doorstep. Luckily, the appalling communication skills they displayed sent alarm bells ringing leading me to this, and other websites, that have confirmed my suspicions.

The carbon taxing you refer to is misleading, as are sales techniques deployed by mpl surveyors. The facts of the matter are: miller pattison are a trading style of sig energy management, owned by sigplc, a ftse250 company (huge). Only about 75% of jobs allocated to fitters are completed due to poor surveys, surveys undertaken by SUB CONTRACT firms whom sell thier work to mpl. Not once have I read on various threads is a response from a "surveyor" referring to the Carbon Emmisions Reduction Target (CERT). Householders who are suspicious of the free aspect should google it. Of course insulation is not free, someone has to pay for it! In the case of CERT, energy suppliers and generators are obliged to offset their production of carbon by financing carbon reducing measures. Under this LAW, eg. British Gas will offer a customer a free install, they pay mpl to do the install and the government grants them 1 carbon credit. The number of credits they need to collect is dependant upon how many customers they have, if they do a whole house install (loft and cavity) they get 3 credits (whole house bonus) If they miss thier target in a year they are fined by the government and as such it is in thier business interest to offer it to you for free as the fines are hefty. It is commonplace for one energy firm to sell any excess carbon credits at the end of the year to another who is struggling to meet thier target.

If insulation surveyors were better informed of thier subject, members of the public would be more accommodating. As I said MPL buy signed orders from survey firms as do the other big installers eg Mark Insulations. The surveyors sell themselves as MPL/Mark/Eon/British Gas...employees. They're not, but they do tarnish the company reputations. Unfortunately they generate so many jobs with thier bulls**t sales platter and 30 second surveys, insulation firms wouldn't survive without them.

My advice would be to call the insulation firm of your choosing direct, then you will receive a visit from one of the few in house surveyors (in the case of sig energy/miller pattison ltd and I suspect the other big nationals). If you respond to utility supplier marketing you will end up with a subcontract surveyor as this is where the survey firms BUY thier leads, along with pesky cold calling.

A shame people feel pressured or mislead as miller pattison have been in the industry for decades, are highly regulated and considering the approximate 500 installs/day there aren't many negative comments at all. Last and absolutely not least, home insulation is a financial no-brainer.

I would like to express my deep disappointment re: SIG Energy Management. I took a day off work and I spent 8 hours waiting at home. At the end NO ONE came for a appointment for cavity walls insulation scheduled between 8am and 4pm. I called the company [protected]) the day before and they confirmed that workers should arrive after 12h. Then at 3.50pm I called the reception to check what is going on. Finally my appointement was cancelled on the day due to a backlog. No one bothered to inform me in the reasonable time. And after Steve, Contract Supervisor, this is something normal. He denied to confirm that such approach to customers was unprofessional. I am currently taking legal advice regarding possible material compensation for a contract violation. No respect to customers mean no respect to such companies!

i would also like to express my major disappointment in the above mentioned company, i was rudely awakened this morning at 07.20hrs by knocking on my front door, i thought the door was going to come down at one point. the whole family was wakened by this early morning wake up call. to find sig workmen more or less demanding to be let in to by my wife was alarming. how dare they speak to anyone the way they did. upon contacting the office i was greeted by a very rude woman in the falkirk branch whom wouldnt listen to a word i had to say untill she realised i too could talk abruptly. i told her the early knocking wasnt appreciated and was told all they wanted to do was do their job. well at 07.20 was the wrong time to do the job, i had finished work at 04.00 and had fell asleep at 05.30 after a very hard shift. i took the extra shift on due to the horrendous schedule sent to me stating they would arrive between 08.00 and 16.00, i dont know if its just me but that is shocking how can they expect normal working families to work around the whole day for them to do a job which we are paying for, the falkirk branch told me that not all customers payfor the service, well falkirk let me tell you again I DO PAY FOR THE PLEASURE OF YOUR TERRIBLE COMPANY. normal working class people cant afford to take a full day of work to wait for you, i asked the lady to sort out a proper time which she couldnt do, i now have to take a second shift of on monday for another "appointment" which is still stated as being between 08.00 and 16.00. lets hope all funding is passed onto a company with manners and proper work ethics and maybe phones to contact customers would also be helpfull. i apologise if there is spelling mistakes its maybe due to having 1.30hrs sleep in the last 48 hrs due to the above company.. rant over i hope all future customer/contract supervisors read before using the company

Oh Dear! Today is the 5th time, yes, 5th time, that I have had to take a day off work. I am self-employed and quite frankly will be refusing to deal with this company, if they do not arrive today (still waiting!). The first time, was the surveyor, who checked the loft and stated there were no problems and all was ok for the job to be done on 28th Feb 2011. Bearing in mind, we removed the old mice infestation insulation, which we didn't have to do, but chose to do so, this left the whole loft completely visible (wires, electrics, plumbing). 28th Feb arrives, miller paterson arrive as stated and within 30 seconds of sticking no more than his head into the loft space, informs me that we need an electrician to inspect the loft, as he had seen exposed exposed bare wires. I disagreed with him and stated that I would call by neighbour(electrician) to come to the property immediately to check. He refused to wait and left. before doing so, he stood in front of me, on his mobile and rebooked the job for the March 8th. That day came and went, with nobody arriving at any time. When I called the office at 4pm, I was informed the job was never rebooked and the reason given for not completing the job on 28th was that the loft was not empty! Bearing in mind, it was not only empty of all items, which are currently filling a bedroom, it is empty of insulation and my 62pence a litre of oil for central heating, is going through the roof! Another booking made, for March 16th (Day 4 off work and losing wages). This time, it took about 2 minutes, for them to decide there was a leaking pipe, not dripping, but wet to the touch. This was enough to cancel the whole job yet again. However, they did agree with me, that there were no bare wires in sight, but there again, I paid an electrician to tell me that! I am fortunate to also have a plumber as a neighbour and asked them to do the loft and leave the insulation around the so-called leaking pipe and that the plumber would come that night and see to it. You can surely guess by now what they did, yes, went on their merry way.
Day 5 of now sitting here waiting, business lost, an electricians bill, a plumbers bill, cost of oil, for nothing to be wrong. I doubt very much this job will go ahead today, if they bother to turn up. I am going to seek legal advise for all losses and for the billing to them of someone else to supply and fit insulation to my house, with immediate effect. My advise is, don't bother dealing with them, there are other companies out there who are registered to do the job.

Two workers came... lamp shade is missed... I called the Company: the receptionist (ironic and rude) told me.. "the workers told there was NO lamp shade!"...the bulb and the lamp shade are very close to the loft-door: it is impossible to go inside the loft without taking off it...!...Ohhh... good business to take from my home a very precious "regolit" from Ikea... price £ 2, 25...two pound and twenty five pence! BUT I'd like to say you: look out... they'd take items from your home and say "it wasn't there!"

As an ex-employee of MP I would like to say all the complaints above were happening on a daily basis.
It is common practise for customers to be talked into having certain walls to be missed out due to various problems eg access equipment, this is because the installers are paid per property regardless of how little or how much of the property gets done. Managers and supervisors push you to talking the customers into not getting certain walls and areas done to save using access equipment.
I'm at present in a grievance dispute with the company after being told to dismiss health and safety procedures and also being forced to lie and push customers into not receiving a full cavity fill to make the company money.
After discussing with other crews it was found that 80% of them had not been given the proper training to use the access equipment or completed the training specified to be a competent installer.
I don't know and can not comment on other insulation companies as I haven't worked with them, this is by no means a case of sore grapes as my grievance was put in some 9 months before my leaving the company.

SIG did the same to me, time off work and them not turning up, no phone call or apology. I only got in touch with them as EDF recommended them, so why are they still recommending them? It put's them in a bad light

i also worked for MP stay away from this company, mp are ripping off the government and customers, i was nearly every day forced to install loft insulation when it was not needed, and as far as i can remember millers never stocked poly blocks(AIR VENTS) at my branch, stay away from this company

miller pats installers are paid by the job so any poor access issues etc look for reasons to blow the job out.ie health safety., surveyors ummm we call them signature collectors they are commision bassed so dont give a ... what probs are involved in the install. clear access bungalow no probs, lol detached house with conservatory high gables take a jump.many many reasons can be given, at adrop of a hat.

As already mentioned by most peole, the organisation and the fitters are Miller Pattison/SIG's biggest problems.Fitters(we call them skivvers) would constantly not do jobs and report back to the office some made up reason for not doing it i.e timber framed(when it was obvious that it was a brick cavity wall) or loft not suitable(when it was an awkward loft to do). This was all confirmed constantly whenever i contacted the customer to find out why the job was cancelled.I don't know the reason why the fitters were never sacked for not doing work that they should have but they were allowed to cancel jobs without any checks being made as to whether the reasons were true or not.

yes this did sometimes happen, but when your manager forced you to insulate a loft that was already up to standard, or lie about completion forms, you were told not to fill the existing lay down just leave it blank and the office staff would deal with it, now i believe millers could have gone right to the top but with managers under pressure to hit targets they will done anything to get them targets in and if you was a fitter who would stand up for yourself they would find a way to get rid of you, millesr used to be a nice company to work for but its now a cut throat business, everybody fighting for the last cavs and lofts, and i would like to say about the guy who called the installers skivvers, well let me tell you the bloody installers are hard workers, unlike the so called surveyors and t.m.o., I wish all the installers luck and hope millers really do care about the install rather than hitting the numbers, but somehow i think its all the figures

Have any of you suffered from a wall surface covered in moss 2 years after having cavity wall insulation installed?
SIG and CIGA have been less than useless in my pursuit to have things rectified.

DONT EVEN GO THERE lets talk about holes refilled with sand instead of cement - damp in cavity shining like diamonds - insects living behind exterior brick paint - mould growing on ceilings in every room - rotting wall ties? got to be - they'll agree to remove insulation as a good will gesture? ye they think everybody's thick, inspector from Knauff says damp is not caused by cavity fill, if your grandma had balls she'd be your granda thicko

I have just discovered that mould at ceiling level around the perimeter of my house below the roof is due to the roof insulation installed by SIG energy management Salisbury. I have phoned up this morning on [protected] and been told that a surveyor will come and have a look . I rang again a few minutes later to leave a contact number because I suspected this was the start of being given the run around and another lady answered who took my number and said Chris was on the road and would ring me !
I am now feeling really concerned after reading about problems with mould and roof insulation mainly done under the Government free scheme, that my house has been damaged and may cost substantially to bring it back to the high standards of finish I had achieved before allowing SIG / Miller Pattison or whoever to enter my property.

We had, under the Government Scheme, insulation to our cavity wall, in 2009, all seemed well until early in January of this year. We contcted Miller Pattison who sent a surveyor, he drilled some holes and said that we would be contacted. This happened when another representative called and said that the insulation should be removed. No consideration for the internal damage to the end wall of our house. The hall landing and stairs would have to be stripped and redecorated at our cost.

We are in contact with the Parent Company SIG who are being difficult. We have asked for the cost of re-decorating, we want the insulation to remain, but insulate the interior wall ourselves, we are min-seventies pensioners who have been in this house since 1961, and have kept it in very good condition. Are there any similar situations.
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I had Cavity wall insulation and extra loft insulation installed by Miller Pattison about five years ago, everything seemed ok until I went into my Loft and found everything wet with Condissation, my loft had to much rockwool there not letting it Breathe I asked for them to remove some to resolve the problem but they would not they came and put small; vent between the tiles and they helped but still had condensation, so I removed the overfill in the Loft myself which solved the problem, but that was not the end of my Problems we find the heat unbearable in the Late spring and Summer 27-28 c this has cost us thousands of pounds having Enviro Vent install Ventilation equipment to give us good air quality. This works well in the late Autumb and winter but does not help in spring and Summer and can not be good for our health. Is it the fact that the cavitys are over full please come and remove it and put things right

Everyone seems to be an expert or knows someone who knows a builder who knows everything I OK THEN o look Mrs wife there is black marks on our ceiling must be that loft insulation wee just had done can't be the roof we just had re tiled by Rolf the roofer phone call phone call let's get local tabloid involved and drag this company thru the mire before wee ask our self well how can loft wool do this could it maybe be that Rolf used the wrong nails for the new tiles or even sheeted it rite or did he even felt it I WONDER? o look next door is having there roof done by a company with a bigger van with an actual company name on than rolfs 1960 transit wi ra doors tied shut but look Mrs wife they have circles round bottom of there roof? Short time l8tr after trawling ra tinter web the penny has dropped Mr save cash has realised after telling Rolf that he was getting his loft and cavity done the day before he was doing my roof but surely Rolf wood know all about roof and soffit vents? I hope the cavity wall ins will be ok Mmm why would it not be Rolf assured me he had Pitt the rite silicon in when fitting our new windows but across the road is using mastick o dear and why did he cover they vents round bottom of our house well he said it wood stop that nasty wind and air getting in making our laminate cold but wit about our floor joist and floor boards don't they need air " YES YES YES JUST LIKE YOUR LOFT SO BEFORE RIPPING A COMPANY THAT IS REGULATED BY THE BBA / THE MANUFACTURER OF THE PRODUCT BEING INSTALLED / THE UTILITY COMPANY/ SO MANY PEOPLE SO MANY MONATORS WATCHING MY INDUSTRY MMMM NOT LIKE ROLF WHO DONT EVEN HAVE A NAME ON HIS VINTAGE VAN SO BEFORE YOU GO DOWN THIS EMBARRASSING ROAD FOR YOUR SELF PHONE ROLF AND ASK WHY WHY WHY

Do not use this company! The installation guy damaged my property with his truck and they haven't got the courtesy to call me back after numerous calls!

In view of the comments on this site I'm not sure I will pursue Miller Pattison as it seems clear they won't respond and rectify the works. Part of my roof came down due to the condensation and ended up in my water tank this week. I have only been here 2 years or so and due to this happening I discovered the loft is full of thick black mould caused by condensation which in turn is caused by the insulation they fitted. The materials they used to insulate are now banned. Surely they should have contacted all the customers where they used this material to rectify the works as they must all be under guarantee? I have no idea how much it will cost to rectify but it will have to be done. I'd also say steer well clear of this company, there is a pattern here of shoddy workmanship and refusing to go back and rectify work. If I do pursue them and they come good - I will of course sing their praises - but it seems very unlikely. Michele Campbell January 2020

I kindly request a certificate for wall cavity insulation on the follow address, Maes y deri, 44 Heol Bryngwilli, Crosshands, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire.SA146LR

Hi - has anyone here been able to rectify the penetrating damp caused by Miller Pattinson insulation? If so, what work did you need to have done? Many thanks

We had cavity wall insulation installed by MP in 2000 under the government scheme. Our house was built in 1991 (shouldn’t have needed it) we had Rockwool installed.

We had them back to check some time later as the house always felt cold. After a couple of summers with flying ant’s coming out of the walks we were concerned.

The situation now is that our house is so cold and the internal walls on the east & west are damp.

We are currently waiting for an installer to remove the rockwool which clearly is holding water.

Miller Pattinson have left us with more problems than we needed.