Insulation in Cyprus.Compare several quotes at once.

The board is not the job

An insulation quote names a material and a thickness, and clients compare those. The installed result depends on considerably more.

On an external wall system the build-up typically includes preparation of the substrate, an adhesive, mechanical fixings at a specified density, the insulation itself, a reinforcement mesh embedded in a base coat, a primer and a finish. Every one of those is a specification item, and several are places where a quote can be lighter than another without saying so.

Fixing density is a good example. The number of mechanical fixings per square metre is set by exposure, substrate and board type, and it is invisible once the finish is on. Two quotes for the same board at the same thickness can differ on it, and on a Cypriot elevation exposed to wind that is not an academic difference.

So the first move in comparing insulation quotes is to ask for the whole build-up in writing, layer by layer, rather than the board and a price.

Treated area is a definition, not a measurement

Firms measure differently, and the differences compound on a building with many openings.

Whether window and door openings are deducted at full area or at a threshold. Whether the reveals around those openings are counted, and at what width. Whether soffits, returns and the underside of projections are included. Whether the area behind rainwater goods and fixtures is treated or worked around.

Each convention is defensible and each produces a different area for identical work. On a Cypriot property with the deep reveals typical of the construction, the reveal treatment alone is a meaningful quantity — and it is also the detail that matters most thermally, because an untreated reveal is a direct path around the insulation.

Ask every firm to state the area they measured and the convention they used. Where the areas differ substantially, the reason is usually a convention rather than an error, and it can be normalised.

Internal and external are different products

They insulate the same wall and they are not comparable purchases.

External systems wrap the building, cover the structural frame along with the infill, leave rooms their size, and protect the substrate from temperature swing. They need access, they alter the appearance, and on an apartment block they require collective agreement. The quote includes scaffold, and it should include the details at eaves, at ground level, around openings and at any junction with a neighbouring property.

Internal systems treat one room at a time, need no scaffold and no agreement from anybody else, and cost less per square metre. They reduce room dimensions, they require everything fixed to that wall to come off and go back, and they put the specification question about where moisture ends up into the middle of the job.

A comparison that ranks an internal quote against an external one on price alone is ranking two different projects. Where both are genuinely under consideration, they should be compared on total delivered outcome — including the floor area lost, the making good, and what happens at the frame — rather than on rate.

Roof: above or below

The same distinction applies overhead and it changes the pricing structure entirely.

From above means the insulation goes on the roof, under a new waterproofing layer. It only makes economic sense when the roof covering is being renewed anyway, because it shares that access, that strip-out and that programme. In a quote it should appear as an addition to roofing work rather than as a standalone line.

From below means a ceiling treatment inside the room. It is a self-contained job with its own disruption — lighting disconnected, the room emptied, making good and redecoration afterwards — and it protects the room without protecting the structure.

A client receiving one quote of each kind is receiving two answers to different questions, and the cheaper one is not necessarily the better value once the making good is counted.

Specify performance, not brand

The most useful thing a client can do before requesting quotes is to write the specification as a performance requirement.

A stated thermal performance for the completed element lets each firm propose the build-up that achieves it, and it makes the quotes comparable on outcome rather than on product. It also removes the most common substitution problem: a specification naming a brand invites an alternative "equivalent" at the same thickness, and equivalence at the same thickness is exactly what varies between materials.

Where a client cannot express a performance figure, the workable alternative is to fix the build-up — material, thickness, fixing density, reinforcement, finish — and let firms price that. Either approach produces comparable quotes. Naming a board and asking for a price does not.

What sits outside the rate

Five items that are frequently excluded and are always real.

Making good. Skirtings and architraves removed and refitted or replaced, electrical accessories brought forward, and redecoration. On internal work this can be a substantial share of the total.

Services. Pipework, cables and any wall-mounted plant that has to be moved and reconnected, including air conditioning where an indoor unit sits on a wall being treated.

Access. Scaffold on external work, and its hire duration rather than only its erection.

Rainwater goods and fixtures. Removed, stored and refitted, with any brackets extended to suit the new wall thickness.

Detailing at boundaries. Where the insulation stops — at a neighbour's wall, at ground level, at a roof edge — the termination is a detail with a cost, and it is where an unfinished system lets water or heat around itself.

Ask each firm to confirm which of these are inside their figure. The answers usually explain the spread.

Materials, and what separates them beyond price

Insulation materials are frequently compared on cost per square metre at a given thickness, which is the least informative comparison available.

Thermal performance per unit thickness is the first difference. Materials achieving the same result at different thicknesses matter on an internal application, where every millimetre comes out of the room, and on a reveal, where the available depth is fixed by the window.

Behaviour in fire is a specification requirement rather than a preference, and it varies substantially between material families. On an apartment block in particular this is a question for the specifier rather than a choice from a price list.

Moisture behaviour decides where a material can be used. Some absorb and hold water, which rules them out below ground, behind renders in exposed positions, and anywhere a leak is plausible. Others are unaffected.

Compressive strength matters wherever the insulation is walked on or built over — a roof deck, a floor, a terrace — and a board adequate on a wall can be unsuitable underfoot.

Dimensional stability under heat deserves a mention on this island. Insulation on a south-facing wall or a roof deck reaches temperatures well above air temperature, and a material that moves at those temperatures opens joints in the finish above it.

A quote that has selected a material against these properties is a specification. One that has selected against price alone is a supply arrangement.

The difference between a system and an assembly

This is where warranties are won and lost.

A system is a set of components tested and certified together — adhesive, board, fixings, mesh, base coat, finish — supplied by one manufacturer and installed by a contractor approved by them. The warranty covers the assembly as a whole, because the assembly is what was tested.

An assembly is the same layers sourced separately and combined on site. It can perform perfectly well. It generally cannot carry a system warranty, because no manufacturer has tested that particular combination, and each will warrant only their own component behaving as specified.

Both appear in Cypriot quotes and they are rarely labelled. The distinction is worth asking about directly, because it explains a price difference that otherwise looks like a margin difference, and because it decides who is answerable if the finish fails in three years.

Where a system is quoted, two follow-up questions are useful: whether the contractor holds current approval from that manufacturer, and whether the warranty is issued on completion or on request.

Making the comparison possible

Write one specification and issue it to everybody:

The performance required, or the fixed build-up layer by layer.

The elevations or rooms included, with the area measured and the convention stated.

Reveals, soffits and returns explicitly in or out.

Fixing density and reinforcement, for external systems.

The warranty required, and whether a single-manufacturer system is a condition.

Making good, services, access and rainwater goods, each named as included or excluded.

For roof work, whether the insulation is above or below, and what other work it is sharing access with.

Quotes returned against that document can be ranked on price. Quotes returned against a description of a cold room cannot, and the lowest of them is generally the one that measured least and excluded most.