Duct Blasting: Warming Popsicle Toes and Curing Runny Noses!

Popsicle toes?

While pricing a bid for a local company, I realized that several of the employees all had little heaters under their desks to keep warm. I had to ask? Popsicle toes and runny noses?

Runny nose?

(Yes, that is why I make a living as an infrared thermographer and not as a comedian.)

But it does raise the question: are your employees cold? Do they suffer from watery eyes, sniffles, sneezes and constant coughs?

The cause of these problems may be leaks in your duct work especially if your building or home is ten years old or older. Leaks in your duct work can cause the air in your building to loose heat and suck in contaminates.

 “But we just replaced the HVAC system!” you say. Unfortunately, many  HVAC contractors don’t check duct connections other than the ones directly connected to the new equipment so the problem could still exist. Over time heat in your attic (which can easily reach in excess of 120 degrees), can cause the mastics used to seal your ducts to equipment and supply registers can break down (and don’t even think about the damage unwanted visitors like mice, birds and squirrels can do). Add air pressure inside the ducts as your furnace or air conditioner try to heat and cool your building and those seals can easily fail. 

As the leaks increase, more and more of that expensive conditioned air is pouring into unwanted areas and depending on whether the leaks are on the supply side or return side of your system, they will also be pulling dust, dirt and biological contaminates like mold into your living space. You can imagine the effects of your staff breathing in all of that stuff year round.

Duct Blasting is a system of pressurizing your duct system then measuring the air losses to determine if leaks are present. I can even help to localize the location of those leaks. So let me see if you can warm those Popsicle toes, turn off your runny nose and stop those pesky leaks!

Interested in learning more? Call me at 803-328-2889 and let’s talk!

IR Infrared Services provides top quality thermographic service at a competitive price to commercial users in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit us on the web or follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/infraredscans. We are proud to offer the very best thermography services in North Carolina and South Carolina!

Roof Leaking in my Building - Again!

Roof Leaking in Your Commercial Building?

I was recently in a large retail store and right by the registers was a common sight - a yellow "Caution Wet Floors" sign and several large plastic buckets capturing water leaking from the roof. Now, you would think that a large retail store would be able to keep a leak-free roof, right? Not so easy, and if you work in building maintenance, you know it can be challenging and expensive to track down the source of the leak.

I started a series on roof leaks back in January - you can catch up with the series here and here. In our last blog, we talked about how leaks develop in Flat Roof systems. No matter what kind of flat roof system is installed on your building, they all have some weaknesses in common. Whether there is just one layer or several layers, the material in the substrate and the applied membranes will have seams that can become weak with age. Weather, foot traffic and UV rays from the sun can break down adhesives and materials, even PVC, asphalt and tar. Once water finds an opening in the outer layers it will continue to flow along the substrate until it finds another opening. Water will soak any insulation, wood or ceiling tile in the way until it reaches its saturation point, and then continue on its way until it finally reaches your floor.

You can see why leaks can be so difficult to locate; the water you are seeing on your floor can be a great distance from where it actually enters the building. You can call a roofer to fix the problem but even an experienced professional may make several attempts before he finally finds and repairs the problem. To add to your frustration and expense, he may have to take out areas of the interior ceiling in order to track the water. Unfortunately, with each failed attempt, you can expect even more damage with each subsequent rain event. Another complication will occur when you have wet insulation mixed with the heat inside the building; mold will begin to infest the insulation. Mold eradication is expensive and dangerous for anyone occupying the space.

Quickly Locating The Source of Roof Leaks

With Infrared Thermal Scanning I can help you narrow down the search area for your roofer to ensure a fast and targeted repair. How does it work? During the day the roof builds up heat. It releases heat as it cools in the evening. The interesting thing is that all that wet material under the roof will hold the heat longer than dry material. Those wet, warm areas show up clearly on an infrared scan allowing me to indicate the most likely areas to check for repair.

Calling a certified infrared thermographer is the quickest and most cost-effective way to identify the source of water leaks in your flat roofing system. Interested in learning more? Call me at 803-328-2889 and let’s talk!

IR Infrared Services provides top quality thermographic service at a competitive price to commercial users in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit us on the web or follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/infraredscans. We are proud to offer the very best thermography services in North Carolina and South Carolina!

HVAC Duct Seal Testing in the Carolinas

I know I promised to finish my discussion of commercial roofing systems today, but recently I have had several calls from some panicked homebuilders in the area asking for my help with a new building regulation in both North and South Carolina.

The 2012 building codes in several states including North and South Carolina have added HVAC Duct Seal testing to their building codes. Duct Seal Testing is a service for both builders and private home and business owners to ensure that the HVAC systems in their homes and businesses are performing at peak operating efficiency.

Why is Duct Seal Testing Important to You?

The government estimates that as much as two thirds of all the HVAC Duct systems in the United States leak. Leaky duct work can cause early equipment failure, health issues inside the building and wasted money. Leaks on the intake side of your HVAC system can cause your system to waste precious conditioned air by heating and cooling your attic, crawl space or garage. The extra work load on the system can seriously shorten the life of your HVACequipment.

Leaks on the supply side of your duct system can pull dust, particles of insulation or even toxic mold into the living or working space of your building, endangering the health and quality of life for you, or your employees.

For more information on the new regulations, please check NC energy codes.

If you are a Builder who needs Duct Seal system testing for your final Building inspection, give me a call. Interested in learning more? Call me at 803-328-2889 and let’s talk!

IR Infrared Services provides top quality thermographic service at a competitive price to commercial users in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit us on the web or follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/infraredscans. We are proud to offer the very best thermography services in North Carolina and South Carolina!

Flat Roof Systems: More Than Meets the Eye

To continue my post from last week I’m going to go over how the three most common flat roof systems are installed to help you understand how they leak and why leaks can be so difficult to find.

The first thing to keep in mind when discussing roof leaks with any type of roofing system is that water is sneaky stuff; it always follows the path of least resistance. Gravity pulls water along until it finds even the smallest hole to drop through, then it will flow further along, searching for yet another opening and on…and on….and on. As it moves along it will soak anything in its way: wood decking, insulation, drywall or ceiling tiles and facilitating the growth of hazardous mold. Eventually you see it as water stained drywall or a puddle on the floor.

Knowing how your roof system works can be a very big advantage when trying to decide the best course of action to deal with water leaks.

All roof systems start with a roof decking; this decking is most commonly a wood product like plywood or oriented strand board (OSB). The roof deck is a structural element and serves as the base for any roof system.

1) Built Up Roofing. Built up roofing (BUR) is the single most common roof system used in commercial and industrial buildings. It is comprised of layers of felt paper or a reinforcing fibrous material which is then covered by hot tar or asphalt. This process is repeated with each layer comprising piles of waterproof protection. After the final pile is completed, it is covered with an aggregate usually gravel. BRU systems generally have a long life, but when they do break down they are very difficult to inspect from above.

2) Single ply Roofing. Single ply roofing consists of a rubber-like membrane (rubber, thermoplastic or PVC) laid over a later of insulating board. The insulating board usually comes in 4’ by 8’ or 4' by 12’ sections with a water proof tape applied to the seams between boards. The roofing membrane can be adhered to the insulation board by different means depending on the product used. It can be heated and essentially melted to the substrate, fully glued or glued around the perimeter the weighted with stone to hold it in place. Seams in the roofing membrane are either heat sealed or chemically sealed with glue.

3) Modified Bitumen Roofing. MB roofing is also a layer system consisting of reinforcing fabrics covered with a rolled asphalt material. These materials can be adhered with hot asphalt that is mopped on, fully glued on, or some products come with a pre-applied adhesive backing. As with the single ply systems, the seams are either heat sealed or glued. All of these systems can work extremely well but they all have some of the same weaknesses - seams that can fail and mechanical penetration that can break down.

In my next post I will explain why leaks in these roof systems can be so difficult to locate and how Infrared Scanning can be an invaluable tool in your maintenance tool box. Interested in learning more? Call me at 803-328-2889 and let’s talk!

IR Infrared Services provides top quality thermographic service at a competitive price to commercial users in North Carolina and South Carolina. For more information, visit us on the web or follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/infraredscans. We are proud to offer the very best thermography services in North Carolina and South Carolina!