04/08/2026
If you are getting quotes for spray foam removal, you may be shown a certificate called EBR-01.
A website called Spray Foam Standards presents it as the UK's official removal standard. It publishes a directory of approved contractors, and a register naming other companies as "non-compliant".
We went looking for the standard behind it. We could not find a published technical document. We could not find the company behind the body said to govern it. And we could not find a single mortgage lender that requires it.
The site also displays a quotation attributed to BBC News, saying EBR-01 certified removal is the only route to mortgage approval. We cannot find those words in any BBC output. The BBC's actual reporting on spray foam warned about homeowners being pushed towards unnecessary removal, which is close to the opposite.
One of the companies on its "non-compliant" list is an established contractor, vetted and approved by TrustATrader, with published reviews. On this register the label appears to mean "not in our scheme" rather than "did poor work".
We should be straight with you. Our own company is named on that register too, and that is what prompted us to look. So we have stuck to things you can check yourself, linked every source and archived every page.
If you are weighing up quotes right now, the short version is this: Ask your own lender directly rather than taking a contractor's word for it. Check the trading company on Companies House. And get a surveyor with no stake in the job.
Full article, with the evidence:
A certificate called EBR-01 is being presented as the UK's official spray foam removal standard. We could not find a published technical document behind it, an identifiable governing body, or any lender that requires it. What it appears to be, what it is not, and what homeowners should check before....