Thermal Imaging

The Flashing, Flashing, Flashing post has already brought in business.  Another person in the same neighborhood, impressed by my Superman ability to see non-existent flashing (cough!), invited me over to investigate this same flashing problem on their house.  While there I also did an IR examination.

It seems that in addition to water stains, the bedroom also is hot and cold.  Looking around with an infrared camera, it isn't hard to see why.

 This is blown up larger than normal, and grainy, but you can still see what is happening.  Part of the room has a pentagon shape, with a long attic space behind the bed. 

You can see the bed at the bottom of this image.

The wall behind the bed is about 6 feet high.  The attic space behind is quite hot.

The Max is the hottest spot in the image.  It is 131 degrees.

Keep in mind, this is right behind the bed!

The area you are looking at represents the space between two studs, and no insulation below about 5 1/2 feet.

The insulation was never stapled and fell down.

Looking into the attic, it was resting right on the floor.  Remember, this house is just over one year old. That is how quickly insulation can slip. 

Imagine what can happen on a tall balloon wall!

The image to the right is along that same wall.  It is to the right of the bed and in the corner. 

The same situation exists - the insulation was never stapled, it has fallen and the Max hot spot you see is 135 degrees!

That will influence a room, just a bit...

This represents the 12th image taken in that room.  There were more than two spots along that attic space wall.   In that room alone, here were 23 pictures taken in total! 

Imagine how hot and cold this room can get!

 This is the cathedral ceiling in one alcove of the bedroom.  It is the end of that same pentagon shape described in the first image.

The line in the middle is the center double stud from floor to the highest point.  The height here is about 10 feet.

The insulation on both sides of that double stud was not stapled.  The Max temperature there is 166 degrees Fahrenheit!

There is only air between this drywall and the outside of the house.  This spot just happened to be in the sun on this particular day at the time I was there.

Even though the thermostat is in this room, and it has its own HVAC return, this room was uncomfortably warm.  A ceiling fan does not help.

It probably is uncomfortably cold in the winter.

How can you control the environment there when it is so poorly insulated?  There were 23 problem spots in this room.

I went to investigate one problem, and found a few others.  This was not the only room with the hot/cold issues.  There were many other spots in many other rooms throughout the house.  It was a very long thermal image report.

This particular home represents one of the worst insulation jobs I have seen in a long time.  They are out there.  I had a previous post over a year ago entitled "What I Am Seeing Now," which identified insulation that is not stapled as being a big problem.  You can see why.  Despite what the builder says, the drywall does NOT hold it up over time.  Insulation that is not stapled is simply poor quality, unprofessional work.

People love looking into the camera with me.  It can be horrifying!  It can also be fun...

I took a picture of a young lady a couple of months ago.  She was five months pregnant.  The baby's form was clearly visible!  I am sure they framed the photo I emailed them!

My recommendation:  If you can get an IR inspection on a house, do it before the one year warranty walk through.  That way, issues like this can be corrected before your clients have to live with them.

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