Flat Roof Moisture Survey – Infrared Detection

How do we find wet insulation below the surface of the roof?

When the surface itself is dry, including any gravel or ballast, a sunny day will warm the entire roof. Early in the evening, if the sky is clear, the roof will begin to cool down by radiant ion. Because of its higher thermal capacity the wet insulation will stay warmer longer than the dry and will be visible in the thermographic imager (see photos below). The technique is particularly effective on roofs having absorbent insulation such as wood fiber, fiberglass, and perlite where thermal patterns correlate almost perfectly with moisture. Our thermal inspections of roofs with nonabsorbent insulations, common in many single-ply systems, are more difficult to diagnose because patterns are more diffuse.

When the survey should be used:

1. Before re-roofing over an existing roof.
2. To prevent damage and minimize long term repair costs.
3. Before the warranty expires.
4. Before purchasing commercial real estate.
5. Whenever a leak occurs.
6. Secure meaningful and accurate bid.

If it Ain't Broke, Don't fix it?

Unfortunately, most building managers discover that their roof is failing only when water begins pouring into the building. They subscribe to the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and assume that if the roof is not leaking, it is in good shape. This can be a costly error, for most roof problems begin long before water actually enters the building. This can result in much higher replacement costs and also is not environmentally responsible.

Our State-of-the-art inspection equipment allow us to locate moisture within the roof system before damage is widespread and we provide a actual map of the wet areas.  The cost of a new roof can be significantly lowered by installing the new roof over the existing roof, rather than tearing it off.  The best way to illustrate the cost savings possible by recovering an existing roof is by example. For our example, we will assume an existing building with a 100,000 square foot or 1,000 square roof. The existing roof is a gravel surfaced built-up roof with R-10 roof insulation installed over a steel deck. The cost to completely tear off this roof and reinstall R-10 insulation and a new built-up roof system would be approximately $310,000. This includes $33,000.00 to tear off the entire existing roof, $110,000.00 to replace the

insulation and $21,000.00 in dump fees at the landfill. Tearing off this roof would place 1300 cubic yards of waste in our already overloaded landfills.

Let's take another look at this example. If we perform a nondestructive moisture survey on this roof and find that 25% of it is wet, which is average, we find that the above costs are dramatically altered. The cost of the survey would be about $2,400.00. The cost of removal would be reduced to $8,250.00, new roof insulation to replace the wet would cost $27,500.00 and dump fees would only be $5,250.00. The amount of waste placed in the landfill would be reduced to only 325 cubic yards. The total cost of a new roof employing a moisture survey and partial replacement is $188,000.00 or a savings of $122,000.00.  As you can see, considerable savings are possible by having a moisture survey performed by Improve Today and installing your new roof over the existing. Our are a valuable maintenance tool. Many building managers have moisture surveys performed on a regular basis. This enables them to catch problems within the roof before they become disasters. If Improve Today finds a small area of wet insulation from roof leaks, it can be repaired much easier and cheaper than if it is allowed to spread throughout the roof.

This service includes:

• Aerial roof moisture survey flight, which is conducted at night at varying altitudes.
• Complete hard copy reports that include:
  • Daylight aerial photographs each building/section for visual comparison.
  • Infrared thermographs from the fly-over indicating areas of suspected roof insulation saturation.
  • Proportional daylight photographs of each building/section for visual comparison.
  • VHS videotape copy (from the archived original) of infrared images that were recorded during the survey, used for presentation, future comparison and analysis.
  • Fully-scaled AutoCAD drawings for exact location & quantitative analysis