Thermographic Building Inspections in London
APT has undertaken hundreds of thermal imaging surveys in London and the South East. Lots of clients are requesting thermal inspections as it’s a fast and easy way to undertake a diagnosis check of their buildings. Previously, building inspections and diagnosis checks required invasive testing which was slower and more problematic. Surveys can now be undertaken much more quickly with a thermal imager. Working faster allows you to do more inspections in a day—overall spending less time in the field and more time growing your business.
A thermographic building inspection can be carried out to both the exterior and interior of buildings. The energy assessor usually decides which method would give the best results under the prevailing weather conditions. For instance for BREEAM, external thermal imaging inspections are more common. However, if it is windy on the day of the test it may be harder to detect temperature differences on the outside surface of the building; because of this difficulty, interior surveys can be more accurate because they benefit from reduced air movement.
Thermographic scans can also be used with blower doors used for air tightness testing. The blower door helps exaggerate air leaking through defects within the building envelope i.e. the floors, walls and roof. Air leakage paths will appear as black streaks in the infrared camera’s viewfinder. Here is some more information on using the powerful combination of air tightness testing and thermal imaging for BREEAM building inspections.
Because infrared cameras display apparent surface temperature variations, they can often allow you to detect issues that are not visible to the naked eye, and monitor, diagnose and document them without other more expensive, destructive testing.
Thermal imaging can be used to help identify many problems, including:
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- Construction defects and thermal bridging
- Unexpected air leakage paths through the building envelope
- Poor, missing, or settled wall and roof insulation
- Moisture ingress in roofs, walls, and floors
- Mechanical and electrical fault issues
- Issues with underfloor heating systems
- Plumbing leaks
- Condensation and mould issues.
- External window and door installation and performance issues.
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All our Thermography Engineers are trained to Level 3
The importance of using one of our Level 3 trained thermographers cannot be understated as they are trained to be write predictive maintenance and inspection practices and to develop test procedures and ascertain severity criteria. To try and help clients prepare for the thermal imaging survey to their building, we have written the following article: How we carry our thermal Surveys on commercial buildings. Also, this article explains how we previous articles on how to prepare for thermal imaging surveys on commercial buildings. Also, to help facility managers with their electrical and mechanical surveys, we have written the following article: thermal imaging inspections for facilities management. Also, throughout the UK BREEAM projects are becoming more common place. BREEAM provides extra points to projects that have a BREEAM Thermal survey undertaken. As not many clients are aware of BREEAM thermal surveys, we have included more information in our ‘What is a BREEAM thermal Imaging Survey’ article. Also to try and help clients prepare for their survey please download our Thermal Imaging Checklist.
We Can Help With Your Thermal Imaging Requirements
If you require a Thermal imaging survey on your building, our professional and certified Level 2 thermographer’s will carry out your thermographic Inspection in compliance with all necessary standards and current regulations. All we need are a few details such as floor plans and elevation drawings and the building location to provide a quotation. We will also send across our informative thermal imaging checklist to help you prepare for the thermal survey.
For more information please contact us at info@aptsoundtesting.co.uk or visit our website at www.aptsoundtesting.co.uk