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Roof Thermography

Moisture is the number one enemy of built-up roofs. Undetected wet insulation is the primary cause of premature roof failures and high maintenance costs. The advantage for infrared thermography is the ability to provide a fast, accurate and inexpensive way to locate areas of wet insulation and leaks that give maintenance personnel the opportunity to limit their roof problems before they become costly.

Moisture will deteriorate the thermal efficiency of the insulation causing additional heating and/or cooling loads. Beyond loss of additional energy, moisture can and will deteriorate the membrane, add unwanted loads to the building system and corrode or rot the roof deck. Freeze/thaw cycles of the wet materials will also cause delamination of the entire roof assembly which increases the potential for wind blow-off.

Many roofs last longer than 20+ years. What is the cause that will determine a 7-year or 20+ year roof? Undetected wet insulation is the primary cause for premature roof failure and high maintenance costs. Moisture intrusion into a roof assembly can be caused by several factors including original design deficiencies, workmanship, material incompatibilities and failure and poor maintenance. The best way to extend the life of your roof would be to establish an Infrared inspection program that will identify the problems at the early stages.

Infrared Thermography is the number one chosen technique for conventional built-up roof inspection, simply because it allows the hidden moisture to be found. Because of temperature differentials that exist between wet and dry insulation under certain conditions, thermography is able to detect these thermal variances which is indicative of wet insulation.

This roof has several serious leaks which the building owner could not find. The infrared camera shows exactly where the damage roof regions are. The warm (brighter) regions have moisture within the roof, and must be replaced.

IR/T allows for the quantification of the extent of the damage, providing the building owner with information needed to help determine where to repair or whether or not the roof requires replacement. This technique provides a fast, accurate and inexpensive method of determining the condition of a roof. It should be a part of every roof maintenance program.

Major advantages of an infrared roof moisture inspection are:

Locate water-damaged roof membrane quickly and accurately.
Identify small problems before they become serious and more costly to repair.
Eliminate unnecessary replacement of good roof.
Plan accurate budgets based on facts.
Document problems before the warranty expires.
Greatly extend the life of your roof.

An infrared roof analysis consists of 5 components.

Initial co-ordination.
Day time visual inspection and roof composition verification.
Night time infrared scan.
Day time core sampling and/or moisture probe readings to verify the presence of moisture.
Written report of findings, analysis and recommendations.

To effectively and efficiently locate wet insulation within a built-up roofing system, the infrared operator must possess a working knowledge of thermographic principles, be able to interpret between the many different anomalies that appear and be knowledgeable in the concepts, materials and construction methods used for built-up roofs.

Detecting wet insulation with an infrared camera is the key to a good predictive maintenance program that will keep your roof leak free, long past its life span. Contact NuTech for to assist you to start your roof predictive maintenance program today!

Used Infrared Cameras Wanted

In these recessionary times companies have to optimize their finances as best they can. Because of this we here at the Institute have been getting many calls to recommend what we think is the best IR Camera to purchase for the money. In other words what is the best value?

Now, we do not recommend any camera or manufacturer, if we did we would lose our independence and our “unbiased” status, and become like the other training companies out there.

But, we wanted to help our students and the Infrared Community, so we have created a new service:
The IR Camera Buy and Sell

To sell or purchase an IR camera simply send an email and let us know in details what you want to sell or purchase and we will do our best to match you up with what you are looking for.

There is no fee for this; it is a courtesy of IRT.

IR Cameras Wanted:

Mikron 7800 series IR Camera with 320x 240 detector.

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