I inspected some house for 11month warranty in Texas, built in March, 2023. The wet was observed all over the first floor flooring by protimeter, but didn’t indicate water anywhere. Is this possible?? The floor material looks high end laminate flooring. They have foundation watering system connected with irrigation system but not running for this time. Weather was 67 degree, Windy and partly sunny.
The next thing I would check would be the interior relative humidity level as this may be the cause of the damp flooring.
2 Likes
There are some materials that will give you unreliable readings. I would place this in that category. Different materials, such as tile, sheetrock, masonry, wood species etc. all have various acceptable moisture content. I suspect you are picking up surface moisture due to the inherent moisture resistance of vinyl plank material.
Which leads us back to this:
4 Likes
It’s detecting the concrete floor under the vinyl flooring. I get this false reading in some ceramic tile. If this happens, I would spot check areas in the center of the room or areas you confident were dry. If I get a high reading there, I would call it a false positive reading.
6 Likes
The floor could have been mopped recently.
It could be the concrete, but similar anomalies will occur with tile and vinyl on a wood subfloor.
2 Likes
Painless moisture meters use radio frequency signals to detect moisture. When used on concrete or solid surface materials the readings will be false. Try using your pins at a corner or near the baseboard, it will most likely be a reading of zero.
Why are you testing the floor in the first place? Vinyl is waterproof and will not absorb water from the slab. If the slab has a water leak in it, it will come up at the walls or the vinyl will float. It’s better to use a ir camera for this, as wet spots will show up as colder then the rest.
I was just going to say…if I detect an anomaly, the thermal comes out, then the pin style meter. I want all three to confirm moisture before I open my yap.
1 Like
So no visible water 
take that “tool” and drop it into the nearest trash can.
1 Like
Protimeter has a tech talk series on a variety of subjects about their tools. You should go to their homepage and sign up. They send it to your mailbox a couple times a month.
1 Like
False positives happen all the time for a few different reasons. Try to stick to drywall and wood materials when you can, they are most predictable. If that area were wet, you would expect wicking into that wood quarter round and drywall. Check those.