ldapkus's blog
Thermal Imaging
Thermal Infrared Inspections
An infrared camera allows me to scan large areas of a home from a distance. Thermal infrared inspections work on the principal that different materials in the structure of the home have different thermal mass. In the daytime, the sun heats the exterior and as hidden moisture evaporates it is cooler than the surrounding areas. This is known as evaporative cooling.
If there is a leak, lets say in the roof membrane, the insulation inside the roof will become wet. The wet insulation has a higher thermal mass than the rest of the dry roof structure. As a result of this difference, the wet areas will retain heat energy longer than other areas providing me with a clear picture of the damaged area.
I recently received a call from a client who complained of water running down her basement wall after a moderate rain. During a thermal scan of south wall of the home, I found moisture entering the wall around a window and working its way down the interior of the wall and exiting down the basement wall. After months of complaining to the builder(15 month old $1.5 mil home) it took a thermal scan to find the problem. The builder had no idea where the problem was prior to my investigation.
When an infrared scan reveals a possible source of moisture, this is verified with a moisture meter to rule out false readings.
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