Earlier this week we had a commercial project in north Georgia. Industrial building about 25 years old. Currently utilized for waste recycle product business. Current occupant has been there about 5 years and stated no issues with the building or moisture/leaks. This day the temperatures outside was pretty cold. Inside was not much warmer
Anywho, I started in the front corner of the building, it was roughed-in for future office space. I seen a few visible moisture stains at the insulation jacket in the ceilings. Our client did not order an IR envelope/roof inspection, but the IR can help us see another view or dimension that the naked eye simply can not.
Hey Roy, hope you are doing well. We’ll be traveling tomorrow down to St. Mary’s GA for a large retail center inspection. Close to your home state of FL Barely enough time to rest from the commercial inspection in downtown Johnson City TN on a very cool old building! I hope St. Mary’s is sunny and warm. I’m ready for spring.
Appreciate the question. I would say for those performing commercial inspections, interview the tenant. Document the interview and include such in the report. But also get a sense of how they respond to any questions or historical information they provide about the property. Some tenants/owners will provide honest and fairly decent information, others not so much. The interview is a very small portion of a PCA or Commercial Inspection. But is certainly part of it. Regardless, document that interview.
Secondly, I notice there is not a lot of posts in this section. Many posts are trying to sell something, or general questions about IR. Not much about real world application for buildings. I figured it might be nice to contribute some field experience POV, especially to newer inspectors. In this particular instance, there were a few areas of the building that had some sort of visible indicators of moisture related concerns. However, utilizing the IR helps qualify the moisture concerns.
Another interesting note. These images were taking with a FLIR e76 320x240 camera. Also, a FLIR C5 was used for comparison, just to see the difference in camera abilities. The C5 did faintly detect some of the moisture issues, but several it could not.
Hello Ray,
I am a newer inspector and recently got certified to perform IR imaging inspections. I honestly appreciate that you took the time to add these images with details explaining what was being shown. As I am still learning all of the anomalies to look for, these photos will be a great resource to come back and refer to in the future!
It feels good to have more experienced inspectors share their knowledge rather than gatekeeping it.
You contribution is much appreciated!
