The plumbing of your home is a crucial part of the home's function and a major contributor to the home's livability and your own level of comfort. The plumbing fixtures of a home include equipment such as water heaters and the piping system for delivering water to the bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry area, in addition to the faucets on the exterior of the home.

Problems with plumbing leaks are common in residential homes, however, and these leaks can go unnoticed for weeks, months and even years. Plumbing leaks can occur under kitchen or bathroom sinks, around the bases of toilets into the flooring, and from punctured pipes or around faucet handles into the walls. Water can seep or travel inside the walls from upper floors into the lower floors or basement, where it can collect and slowly destroy dry wall, ceilings, flooring, cabinets and more.

Some of the common causes of plumbing leaks are:

Plumbing leaks often occur slowly and can go undetected for some time without the owner knowing the problem exists. Even minor leaks cause building materials to become wet which can quickly promote mold growth and mold-related problems if the leaks continue.

Insight Thermal Diagnostics can perform a non-invasive infrared thermal imaging scan that measures surface temperatures and temperature variations to safely and efficiently examine:

Our Thermal Diagnostics Survey report will document the issues we find and our evaluation of each problem. The report will include natural and infrared photographs where necessary to demonstrate our findings

Examples:

The thermogram of this kitchen ceiling clearly shows moisture soaked drywall. The water leak was originating from the upstairs hydro-bathtub. There were no visible signs that an anomaly was present. Without the use of an infrared camera by a trained thermographer, this leak would not have been discovered until the ceiling collapsed.

The thermogram of this vinyl-sided, three-story apartment house clearly shows the path of a significant leak from a washing machine on the top floor. Notice the dark streak, which shows moisture soaking the building materials in the first image. The leak is hidden from typical visual inspections inside the wall. Without the use of thermal imaging, this leak could go undetected for months or years – or until the exterior wall buckles.

Radiant heating tubes installed in the floor are only visible with an infrared camera, so it can isolate anomalies that are hidden from the human eye. Plus, if repairs or renovations over the radiant heating tubes are necessary, the use of thermal imaging can provide a map of the tubing so that no damage is done to the heating system during the work.