Thermal Roof Scan
Thermography can pinpoint leaks in roofing and other building enve
lope inspections by exploiting the thermal properties of water. A picture is worth a thousand words and to a roofer this can be a huge benefit. Thermography provides pictures of something that is not normally visible to the naked eye. One such instance is moisture-soaked insulation under a roofing membrane. This may be worth millions of dollars. Infrared roof inspections can help roofing contractors work smarter and be heroes to their customers by pinpointing wet, failed area of a roof. We all know that roof repairs are cheaper that roof replacements.
Cost Savings to Owners for Infrared & Recover Roofing
- Salvage Insulation Thermal Value
- Avoid Costly Tear-Off Contract Expense – Labor, Landfill and New Insulation
- Minimize Risk of Leaks and Consequential Damage
- Avoid Adding Large Volume to Landfill
- Speed of Recover Roofing vs. Tear-Off and Replacement
Waterproofing problems manifest themselves in two ways: 
Leakage and trapped moisture contamination. Leakage is pretty simple, although the leak inside the building is rarely located at the exact same spot on the roof.
Most leaks occur where a penetration through the roof is not sealed or where the waterproofing is not sealed. Most types of roof systems absorb some amount of water, it is harder to find the exact roof leak. It is also harder to locate the exact spot of water contamination in the insulation because it may not leak until the insulation has absorbed all the water that it can contain. Then you have evidence of the leak.
The wet areas are lighter in color because the latent heat (from daylight sunshine) in the trapped water mass is greater than in the dry, functioning insulation or roof substrate. After sunset when the roof structure cools down, wet areas of roof insulation and other materials continue to radiate heat, allowing our sensitive infrared cameras to detect the sources of heat and record them for later analysis.
We have three methods to accomplish IR Roof Moisture Surveys…
• On-Roof Infrared Roof Moisture Surveys
• Elevated Vantage Point Infrared Roof Moisture Surveys
Southern Infrared Services is a RoofScanIR™Service Provider. We specialize in the infrared surveys of flat roofs to detect and document roof moisture.
