Illustration Solution · For building owners and roofing contractors
Is your roof insulation wet?
An infrared moisture survey flown after sunset maps where insulation is probably saturated, on a scaled roof plan. Each area is verified by a core before it is reported as wet. Before a reroof, that turns recover-or-replace from a guess into a decision. Repair the wet areas, or budget the deck, on evidence either way.
- Method
- ASTM C1153
- infrared roof moisture
- Aircraft thermal sensor
- 640 × 512
- radiometric
- Capture window
- After sunset
- radiational cooling
- Deliverable
- Scaled roof plan
- PDF + DXF
What changes when the wet area is mapped first.
Guesswork is how the recover-or-replace call gets made today. Measurement is what an after-sunset flight puts on the table.
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.
Method
Why the scan is flown after sunset.
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.
The conditions are ours, and they are preconditions, not preferences. 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. When the conditions are not met, the flight moves. Some roofs read poorly whatever the weather: anything under pavers, stone ballast or gravel, a protected membrane over extruded polystyrene, and lightweight concrete or gypsum decks. We will tell you before the job if your roof is one of them. A daylight visual pass follows the thermal pass within two days. Cores confirm.
Is a warm area proof the insulation is wet?
Every anomaly is verified by cores: at least one per roof section, one in dry insulation, and one in each anomaly type. A moisture-meter probe counts only after it has been checked against a core on that roof. Non-invasive instruments complement that step; they do not replace it. That is why nothing is reported as wet until it is cored.
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.
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 03 RGB and thermal orthomosaics The daylight condition pass and the scanned surface, registered to the same plan.
- PDF 04 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.
Stated before you commission it.
Questions we are asked
What buyers ask before they call.
Q1 Should I recover or replace?
That turns on how much of the insulation is wet and where. The moisture survey gives you the wet area outlined on a scaled plan and totaled, so the choice becomes arithmetic. If saturation is localized, a scoped repair or recover is defensible. If it runs across the deck, replacement is the honest answer. The map supports either recommendation in front of an owner.
Q2 Do I still need core cuts if you do an infrared scan?
Yes. Every anomaly is verified by cores: at least one per roof section, one in dry insulation, and one in each anomaly type. A moisture-meter probe counts only after it has been checked against a core. Non-invasive instruments complement that step rather than replace it. What the scan changes is where the cores go. Into the anomalies, instead of on a grid across a roof that is mostly dry.
Q3 What conditions do you need — dry roof, clear night?
A day of sun, then a night. We fly from about an hour after sunset until sunrise. Not within 24 hours of appreciable rain, and 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. If the conditions are not there, the flight is rescheduled rather than flown and qualified into uselessness.
Q4 How many layers do I have?
The core cuts answer that directly. The answer matters because layers are weight, and they are tear-off cost when the roof finally comes off. The moisture map tells you where to put the cores. What they find, layers, deck condition and insulation type, goes into the report alongside the map.
Q5 Can you scan before we put solar on it?
That is one of the better times to do it. Once an array is installed, the roof under it is difficult to scan and expensive to repair. A pre-installation scan establishes what condition the assembly is in while it is still fully accessible. It also gives you a dated baseline for anything that shows up later.
Q6 Will the report support a warranty claim?
It gives you documented, dated, verified evidence of measured conditions, with the method and settings recorded. Whether a particular claim succeeds is between you and the manufacturer. We do not rule on warranty coverage. But a numbered moisture map with core results against it is the kind of record those conversations run on.
Q7 What if my roof is ballasted?
Ballast, pavers and gravel bury the signal the method depends on, and so do a protected membrane over extruded polystyrene and lightweight concrete or gypsum decks. We check the assembly type on the first call and say plainly if your roof is a poor candidate. Better that than flying it and returning a map with nothing in it.
Who this is for
Written for property management and commercial real estate. The next decisions in the chain: the portfolio roof program and post-storm damage documentation .
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