How to check a spray foam removal company is legitimate
Look the company up on Companies House, match the company number on the quote, and refuse to pay a deposit, because those three checks alone catch most of what has gone wrong in this market. Do them before anyone comes near your loft.
Seven checks, all free
Companies House record, matching company number, incorporation date against claimed years trading, verified reviews rather than screenshots, no deposit, Property Care Association membership, and one direct question: under what circumstances would you tell me to leave it alone. A legitimate firm answers all seven without hesitating.
Why this list exists
Herefordshire Council secured a county court case in 2024 against seven individuals running a cold-call spray foam operation, with 25 victim statements and an average victim age of 77, resulting in ten-year injunctions. A separate Herefordshire case saw a director and a salesman sent to prison over a loft insulation scam, reported by Herefordshire Council in December 2023. Trading Standards Scotland has separately warned that Scots lost £500,000 to insulation scams in a single year, with firms falsely claiming a partnership with Trading Standards itself.
None of that happened without warning signs. Every check below would have caught it.
The checklist
Do these before you let anyone near your loft
1. Look the company up on Companies House
It is free and takes thirty seconds at gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company. Check it exists, check its filing history is current, and note how long it has actually been trading.
2. Match the company number on the quote
A legitimate quote or invoice carries the registered company number. Check it matches the name on the Companies House record exactly. A trading name with no matching number behind it cannot be chased if something goes wrong.
3. Check the incorporation date against what they told you
If someone tells you they have twenty years in the trade, Companies House will show whether the company itself is twenty years old, two years old, or was incorporated last month under a different director.
4. Find reviews on a platform that verifies them
A screenshot on a company's own website proves nothing. A profile on an independent, verified review platform, where reviews are tied to actual jobs, is a different order of evidence.
5. Ask whether they take a deposit
Deposit taking is a recurring feature of the cases Trading Standards has prosecuted in this market, including a reported case where £550 was taken against a £5,500 quote and the work never happened. Treat a yes as a reason to stop.
6. Ask whether they hold Property Care Association membership
The PCA opened a membership category specifically for spray foam removal contractors in August 2026, the first independently recognised benchmark for this kind of work. It is new, so not every legitimate firm will hold it yet, but any firm that claims it should be checkable against the PCA's own member list.
7. Ask under what circumstances they would tell you to leave it alone
This is the single most useful question in the list. A firm whose survey can only ever end in a sale is not running a survey, whatever it calls itself.
Warning signs
Red flags and what they usually mean
| Red flag | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| An unsolicited call about your loft | A cold call. Legitimate removal firms in this market do not cold call, and several councils have issued specific warnings about cold callers in this sector. |
| A request for a deposit before any work starts | A recurring feature in the cases Trading Standards has prosecuted. Walk away. |
| Being told your home is on a national database | Fabricated, according to the Property Care Association's August 2026 statement. No such database exists. |
| No company number anywhere on the quote | A trading name with nothing behind it cannot be checked and cannot easily be chased. |
| Reviews that only appear as screenshots on the company's own site | Unverifiable. Anyone can write anything into an image. |
| The same firm that installed the foam is now offering to remove it | A conflict of interest at minimum, and in some reported cases a deliberate return to former customers under a different offer. |
| A survey that always concludes removal is needed | If leave it alone is never on the table, it was never a survey. |
No obligation, no deposit
Have someone look at it properly
An hour in the loft and you will know exactly where you stand, in writing, with photographs. If the foam is sound, that is what the report says and there is nothing to pay.
Book the free inspection
Two steps. No deposit, and nothing to pay if the foam is sound.
If you have already paid a deposit
Stop before you pay anything further. If you paid by credit card, a Section 75 claim may apply. Report what happened to Trading Standards through the Citizens Advice consumer service, and keep every piece of paperwork and every message. The full route, including what evidence helps, is in spray foam removal scams.
Common questions
Is Property Care Association membership required by law?
No. It is a trade body membership, not a legal licence, and the spray foam removal category is new as of August 2026. Absence of membership does not automatically mean a firm is dishonest, but a false claim of membership is easy to check and a serious warning sign.
What if a company refuses to give a company number?
Treat that as a red flag on its own. A legitimate limited company has nothing to lose by giving its registered number, since it is public information anyway.
Is it normal to pay anything before work starts?
No, and we do not ask for one either. Payment on completion, once the work is done and inspected, is the standard that protects you. A deposit only protects the firm taking it.
How do I check a review platform is genuine and not just another screenshot?
Go to the review platform directly rather than clicking a badge on the company's website, search for the company by name, and read the reviews on the platform itself, where they cannot be edited or selected by the firm.
The company has been trading for years according to their website. Is that enough?
Check it against Companies House rather than taking the website's word for it. Incorporation dates are public record, and a mismatch between a claimed twenty years and a two-year-old company number is common enough to be worth the thirty-second check.
What should a legitimate first visit actually look like?
Someone gets into the loft, takes photographs, checks the foam type and the timbers, and gives you a written report whichever way it goes, with nothing to pay if the answer is that it can stay. If the first visit is a sales pitch rather than an inspection, that tells you what you are dealing with.
Read next
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The tactics, the prosecutions, and what to do if you have already paid.
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Get the honest answer before you get any quote at all.
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