Infrared Camera/Thermal Imager for Leak Detection

Is anyone using an infrared camera/thermal imager to find roofing leaks? We are thinking about purchasing one, but were wondering if anyone has any experience with them or recommendations about which one works well for roofers.

Thanks for your help!

Also keep in mind that infrared doesn't find leaks. A great deal of investigative work and understanding of roofing is required to turn a mere "anomaly" into the source of a roof leak. Infrared does not shjow cracks, splits, or holes in the roof. Infrared merely shows a Delta-T (temperature difference) between wet insulation and dry. If the roof has no insulation it's pretty much useless. If it has nonabsorbant insulation, like foam/ISO it will only show the wetness at the edge of the insulation panels.

Wet insulation hold heat longer than dry insulation does, and this heat is what infrared sees, not the moisture. You have to do your infrared inspection in the evening after the sun goes down, after the dry insulation quickly cools and the wet insulation retains some heat from solar-loading.

Btw, I'm a certified Level One Infrared Thermographer, educated at Snell Infrared.

Thanks everyone for your help.

We are actually looking at the Flir I series and were planning to use it just to help out in locating the leaks once we have the repair job, not really offering the service to the clients. We still haven't decided if it's worth going ahead with, so would appreciate any additional feedback anyone may have.

elcid Said: We had a nuclear scanner that was about 1/3 the price. We were able to sell some jobs on it, however, the AEC was the regulatory agency we had to deal with and the fees and paper work was mind bogling. It was a sophisticated tool to provide for your clients, who really didn t appreciate its economic value. Unless you actively pursue customers and make it your primary business, just not worth it. We sold it to a company that specialized in roof surveys.

That was pretty much my experience. I found that custiomers had a hard time understanding why they should pay me to help identify roof problems, but that fee didn't also fix them.

The average customer has no clue that identifying a roof leak can be so hard - they think you go up there and its source is obvious and you fix it. They don't realize that half your time is spent tryin to find the leak source.

We had a nuclear scanner that was about 1/3 the price. We were able to sell some jobs on it, however, the AEC was the regulatory agency we had to deal with and the fees and paper work was mind bogling. It was a sophisticated tool to provide for your clients, who really didn t appreciate its economic value. Unless you actively pursue customers and make it your primary business, just not worth it. We sold it to a company that specialized in roof surveys.

I had a Raytheon PalmIR Pro but there are better ones now that aren't $18k. A thermal imager won't detect leaks. They can detect the resultant wet insulation from a leak, assuming there is absoprbant insulation such as Perlite or Fesco. They are fun but there's a lot of detective work involved to make them useful.

Also keep in mind that you'll need to be on the roof after the sun goes down to make it useful. I found that wandering around a strange roof at night, especially for a one-legged guy, was a little on the risky side.