Illustration Roofing · Idaho & the Intermountain West
Find the wet insulation before you re-roof.
Infrared roof moisture surveys and roof condition documentation for commercial buildings, for owners, property managers and roofing contractors. Wet areas are mapped and verified, so a repair can be scoped instead of a deck being budgeted. You receive a condition report, a moisture map and the imagery. They serve a capital plan, a portfolio program or a claim file assembled at the direction of the policyholder, their adjuster or their contractor.
- Method
- ASTM C1153
- infrared roof moisture
- Aircraft thermal sensor
- 640 × 512
- radiometric
- Capture window
- After sunset
- radiational cooling
- Deliverable
- Scaled roof plan
- PDF + DXF
Stakes
Replacing a whole roof to fix part of one is the expensive default.
Water enters at a seam and travels sideways inside the insulation. So the stain in the ceiling tile is not under the breach. With no map of where the insulation is actually wet, the choice collapses to two bad options. Patch the drip and hope, or budget the entire deck. Across a portfolio the same gap compounds. CapEx gets built on roof age and the last leak rather than on condition. And the roof that fails first is rarely the oldest one.
What changes when the wet area is mapped first.
Guesswork
Measurement
- Guesswork, or a full-roof core grid — money spent solving the wrong problem before anyone knows where the problem is.
- Probable wet zones mapped on a scaled plan. Cores go where the anomalies are, and the repair is scoped to them.
- A recover is hard to justify to an owner or a manufacturer on a walk-through and a photograph.
- A numbered moisture map with verification readings against it, in a form that supports the recommendation and the warranty submission.
- Water does not stay where the leak appears, so the stain in the ceiling tile is not above the repair.
- The full roof scanned in one pass, including the wet area the stain never pointed to.
- After a storm, the file is a handful of phone photographs taken from a ladder. Days apart, by whoever was available.
- Dated, geotagged imagery of the whole roof from one flight, with radiometric thermal indicating retained moisture. Produced at the direction of the policyholder, their adjuster or their contractor.
- Capital planning across a portfolio runs on roof age and whichever building complained loudest this year.
- Condition assessed building by building on one method. Preventive maintenance and CapEx are ranked on what the roofs are doing, not on how old they are.
Why the scan is flown after sunset
Wet insulation gives the day back slowly.
Why is the roof scanned after sunset?
The membrane absorbs heat all day. After sunset the dry sections shed it quickly, while saturated insulation holds it. Through the night the wet areas read warmer than everything around them. That difference is the whole method, and four things decide how strong it is: how much sun the roof got, how fast it cooled after sunset, the wind, and the difference between inside and outside. In cold weather, when the sun is weak, the inside-to-outside difference is the one doing the work.
It is also conditional. We survey at night, from about an hour after sunset until sunrise, after the roof has had a day of sun. Not within 24 hours of appreciable rain. Not in wind above about 15 mph. After a warm, cloudy day we wait longer to start, and we re-shoot the first area before leaving to confirm the contrast held. If the conditions do not hold, the flight moves. We do not fly a scan we would have to caveat into uselessness. The thermal pass maps the whole roof, and a daylight visual pass follows within two days, so the surface conditions are on record. Where the map flags a zone, a handheld camera on the roof gives a closer read of it. Cores confirm.
What does a roof moisture survey produce?
What the scan produces is a condition assessment. How much of the roof is wet, where, and how that sits against the rest of the assembly. Read once, it scopes a repair. Read against last year’s, it is the evidence behind an estimated remaining service life. That is the number a capital plan is actually built on.
- Wet insulation · traced from the breach
Watch · 0:58
Roofing — the wet insulation, mapped before you re-roof
Why the scan is flown after sunset, how wet insulation gives itself away, and what the moisture map and the core sheet settle.
Transcript
Water enters at a seam and travels sideways inside the insulation. So the stain in the ceiling tile is not under the breach. Patch the drip and hope, or budget the entire deck.
The membrane absorbs heat all day. After sunset the dry sections shed it quickly, while saturated insulation holds it. Through the night the wet areas read warmer than everything around them. That difference is the whole method.
Every suspect area is outlined and numbered on a scaled roof plan, with the estimated wet area totaled and each core location marked. A wet area is reported as wet only once a core confirms it. The report describes measured conditions and rates their urgency. It does not price a repair, act as a bid, certify a roof as serviceable, or determine warranty coverage.
Based in Boise, Idaho. Mobilized across the Intermountain West. Start with one roof. Vertical Recon. Calibrated to defend.
What you receive.
- PDF + DXF 01 Annotated moisture map Every suspect area outlined on a scaled roof plan or air photo, numbered, with an estimated wet area totaled and every core location marked.
- CSV 02 Verification readings What each core found against its anomaly: the roof construction at that spot, and how much water was in the insulation. Probe readings appear only where they were checked against a core. A wet area is reported as wet only once a core confirms it.
- GeoTIFF + JPEG 03 RGB orthomosaic and defect imagery The full roof in daylight, with zoom detail on seams, flashings, penetrations, drains and ponding.
- GeoTIFF 04 Thermal orthomosaic The scanned surface in radiometric thermal, registered to the same plan as the daylight pass.
- PDF 05 Condition report Findings rated for urgency, with the conditions on the night, the previous 24 hours of weather, the imaging system used, the flight altitude and the emissivity settings logged beside them.
How a job runs.
- 01 Scope Roof area, membrane type, leak history, and what the report has to support.
- 02 Daylight pass Full surface imaged within two days of the thermal scan, with zoom detail on every seam and penetration.
- 03 Thermal scan Flown at night, from about an hour after sunset, only when our conditions hold.
- 04 Verify and report Every anomaly marked on the roof and cored where we mark it, then mapped, totaled and issued.
What this is, stated precisely.
The standard this is written against.
Cited as the framework the report follows. We do not reproduce it.
- ASTM C1153-23 Location of wet insulation in roofing systems using infrared imaging
- Our roof moisture surveys follow ASTM C1153-23, the recognized practice for locating wet insulation with infrared imaging. We don’t reproduce the standard. This is a statement of alignment, not a certification.
Three ways this gets bought.
The flight is the same instrument each time. What changes is what triggers it and what the report has to carry. A single decision, a dated record of an event, or a year-on-year baseline.
- 01 Once · one building
The one-time inspection
A roof is leaking, or a recover-versus-replace decision is due. One scan, one map of the wet area, one condition report the decision can rest on.
Is your roof insulation wet? - 02 Event-driven · days
Post-storm documentation
Hail or wind has been through. The roof is documented while the evidence is fresh. Dated, geotagged imagery of the whole surface, with thermal moisture indication alongside it.
Post-storm damage documentation - 03 Annual or semiannual
A portfolio program
Every roof in the portfolio flown on a fixed cycle and assessed the same way. Capital planning is built on condition, and each year is comparable to the last.
The portfolio roof program
Questions we are asked
What buyers ask.
Q1 Can you support an insurance claim on this roof?
We produce the documentation, at the direction of the policyholder, their adjuster or their contractor. That means dated and geotagged imagery of the full roof surface, and radiometric thermal indicating where moisture is being retained. It comes with a condition report, with the weather, equipment and settings logged beside the findings. What that documentation means for a claim is read by your adjuster or your contractor. They are the licensed and qualified parties for it. We do not value a claim, deal with a carrier on your behalf, or offer an opinion on your policy.
Q2 Do you run recurring programs across more than one building?
Yes, and it is the form most property managers eventually want. Buildings are flown on an annual or semiannual cycle, each roof assessed by the same method. The route, altitude and camera settings are saved, so the next visit covers the same ground the same way. The output is a condition report per roof plus a portfolio view that ranks them. That is what a preventive-maintenance schedule and a CapEx forecast are built from. Every flight becomes your baseline, so the next one shows what changed.
Where this is used
The decision pages: is your roof insulation wet? , the portfolio roof program , post-storm damage documentation and insurance claim documentation . Written for property management and commercial real estate.
Next step · One roof
Start with one roof.
A short call sizes the roof and settles access and verification. It fixes whether you need the condition pass, the thermal scan, or both.
We reply within one business day.