Chris Bernhardt

I've got a sony GPS mounted in the inspection mobile that I got from last Christmas. I don't know how I would live without it anymore. One of my most favorite features is that it gives you an ETA, that way when I am running behind I can give them a pretty accurate ETA or decide which short cuts to take or how fast to drive to get to the inspection on time. Chris, Oregon

Caoimhín, Is Concrobium snake oil? I have been recommending the stuff a lot as of late; haven't heard that it doesn't work. Chris, Oregon

Concerning Jerry's photo I have followed enough new construction to their one year warranty inspections to know that the decking could have been installed in pristine looking condition and then develop the type of moldy appearance in Jerry's photo. I would bet my lunch that the mold in Jerry's case developed post construction. That the mold patterns change at the boundaries of the plywood panels is nothing but what I would expect. The panels vary in their density and degree of surface damage from the milling process. OSB panels on the other hand are much more consistent in density and surface damage and often present an even distribution of mold development across panel boundaries. From prior discussions it was my understanding that mold just doesn't have the power to break down undamaged cellulose, and that one of the main reasons mold infects the surfaces of OSB & plywood more readily then lumber is due to the degree of surface damage that exists as a result of the milling process. But in addition to that I also think that form and temperature significantly play a role in why the framing is the last to get infected. Correct me if I wrong, but in theory if one could cut/mill at a molecular level cleanly, there would be no compromised cellulose chains for mold to break down. That a spot of growth apparently spans from one side of a rafter to another again is not an indication that the growth took place before the panel was installed. I know this because I have seen enough decking before at the new home inspection and a year later at the warranty inspection to conclude differently. There are other plausible reasons for the growth to span across framing members (decking not full contact with the framing member for one, but I think it has more to do with the physical characteristics that exist in that area of the panel). One cannot reasonably come to a conclusion by looking at a photo what the moisture conditions are in an attic little alone if the mold is active or inactive. I know this because I routinely sample vapor pressure levels, probe & scan framing and decking with several different types of moisture meters and scan attics with IR, particularly suspect attics with moisture stains, moisture darkened decking and mold in the homes that I inspect with often surprising results. In Jerry's case I would conclude that after trying to get a reasonable indication of the moisture content of the decking, that indicates it's say below at least 16% and that the vapor pressure levels measured at the roof decking are on par with those on the exterior, that whatever was the source of the moisture is now not only gone but not even in the proximity, although I would try and figure out what it originally was. I can't think of any reason why anyone could justify removing the appearance of the mold in Jerry's case. In Bain's case that sure looks like bulk leakage and not condensation to me. Chris, Oregon

I was reacting to "that large delta T's are needed otherwise IR is worthless" type language that I have seen floating around, perhaps on other boards. Granted large delta T's make life easier, particularly at identifying points of energy leakage in a buildings envelope, but my point has been to show that you don't even need a delta T to find leaks involving water. I use my IR cam everyday. I use it in every inspection. I use it to tell if my kids are running a fever, which it's particularly good at. I use it at night to find where my dam cats are at. The point is I use it, and I am always comparing what it tells me vrs what I can see and what I can otherwise measure. If I guy takes a couple of expensive cert classes and then keeps the IR camera in the case to break it out only once in a while to do some work, how well he ever become a master of the thing? Many say they can't make it pencil out unless they promote it as separate service. I think they are missing the real opportunity. Clients don't want us to find more problems, what they want is for us to tell them if a problem that is found is a big deal, little deal or no deal at all. Tools, particularly moisture meters and the IR cam, can give you that edge. That translates to more referals. That pays for the IR camera. Chris, Oregon

This is simply not true, and we need to stop talking in these terms; it's mis-information. It's an oversimplification, and it's wrong to be pounding this into other peoples heads. If this is a result of these cert courses, then they are doing something wrong. How much delta T you're going to need to resolve anomalies you're looking for depends on a number of factors. Yea, if I was looking for energy leaks across the typical wall assemblies here, I'll want or rather I'll need to get a high delta T to observe most of them. But then there is no easy way to quantify how much loss I am not seeing because my delta T was not sufficient. You don't need any delta T to see water evaporating off of a ceiling from a roof leak. I don't use IR in my home inspections to perform any sort of protocoled energy loss inspection, and I never had planned to. IR is a tool that I use in conjunction with other tools in a home inspection to render an opinion if something I have found or something that has been pointed out to me is a big deal, a little deal or no deal at all. Chris, Oregon

John, you can find used ones on ebay. I already have 2 protimeters and 2 aquants and a hygrohawk that I snagged off of ebay. Chris, Oregon

Romex has separately insulated conductors with a jacket over them. With this cable there is no jacket, just the thermoplastic molded right onto the solid conductors. Chris, Oregon

What's the name of this type of grey zip looking cable? It was strippable like zip cord except it had solid conductors. Click to Enlarge 41.23 KB Chris, Oregon

I wish they would make a law against winterizing plumbing systems. I think it causes more problems than it saves. It's the process of dewinterizing the plumbing system then having to babysit it, and clean areators, filling the water heater and getting that going so I can check for shower shock and swaps that I hate. Often the dishwasher will leak on the first run. Gas fireplaces take forever to purge and get them going. If it's been cold long enough then I got false elevated moisture levels and condensation to figure out. And there's no one to inquire with for why those odd things are odd. Chris, Oregon

My current business model doesn't have me doing that. I think that a multi-inspector firm is more likely to make it pencil out, that is offering a menu of inspections that include the use of IR (mold inspections, energy audits, etc.) I think IR is a must for inspectors doing commercial buildings, hell, I think IR is a must have tool for use as needed in home inspections, but that's my opinion. Chris, Oregon

Correct, it's a radiometric representation of thermal energy across a certain waveband reaching the camera, how's that. The pattern and concentration of moisture emanated from the wall, confirmed with moisture meters. Yes, and in winter you find all kinds of duct leaks especially in older houses that use the joists as ducts. The usefulness of the IR cam I think depends on your region whether or not you have got good temp diffs between inside and outside. In our summer season here last summer I wasn't discovering much, but in the winter durring our rainy season, it's useful. Using IR is not like analyzing UFO photographs. You'll need to use a number of other tools in conjunction with it to try and make sense of what you are seeing. In just about every case I didn't need IR to tell me something needed to be corrected. For example, even though the roof was actually leaking all over the place, the damage at the skylight and prior roof inspection was all that was needed to call the roof for replacement. In otherwords there was already enough evidence to call for a correction that would cure the problem. It's just IR can put more nails in the coffin. You'll need to make a business decision whether you'll integrate IR in with general home inspection work or if you'll only approach it as an add on service. All I can tell you is that I couldn't afford the camera either, but I knew that it would substantially help my business, and it has. I usually pick up two or three new agents a year, and last year I picked up five and they indicated it was because of the IR camera. But It's not because you can find more defects, it's because you can nail down the defects you're finding. Hell, what agent wants you to find more stuff? Chris, Oregon

In this case unfortunately not, for they had just replaced the roof. I have run into several case's now where I have only found the leak because of using the IR camera. In another recent case I had a roof with torn rubber seals around some of the plumbing vent flashings. I looked in the attic and didn't see obvious drip paterns in the insulation and the P-vents were not readily accessible without getting on my belly in 14" thick loose fill straddling trusses. When I was scanning the master bedroom bathroom I came accross this: Click to Enlarge 34.06 KB Chris, Oregon

Click to Enlarge 78.12 KB Yep. Chris, Oregon

When I pulled up to the house, the roofer was just finishing up on the new roof. Yes and no. There's a larger temp diff across the framing then the drywall. If you step temps you'll also see differences due to the thermal mass of the assemblies you're looking at. If the temp diff on the inside and the outside is the same and stays the same then the different masses will eventually come to same temperature and you won't be able to distinguish anything. Yes. What I have found is that if the back of the drywall is wet, a surveymaster or an Aquant will barely detect it, but a tramex moisture encounter plus will peg the meter. In this case the drywall was so damp my Aquant was pegging. All that anyone knew about was leaking at the skylight. They had no idea that the roof had been leaking all over the place. I have not been thru the $1800 ($3600 if you add cert II) training either. I'm waiting to get it for free or when the unrealistic pricing drops to something more reasonable. Chris, Oregon

Some IR pics of wet ceilings in a POS house. They only knew of the leaking at the skylight not the leaks over the kitchen, dining, living, hallway and bedrooms. There was no visible wetness on the roof decking and framing in the attic although there was some staining. I probed the decking and framing with my moisture meter, which indicated about 14% MC in my small sample. Other than the stains at the skylight, there was no visible evidence from the interior that the ceilings were damp. Even looking at the insulation from the attic, it wasn't readily apparent to me things were damp. Click to Enlarge 27.34 KB Click to Enlarge 32.44 KB Click to Enlarge 45.22 KB Click to Enlarge 26.29 KB Click to Enlarge 32.02 KB Click to Enlarge 29.27 KB Click to Enlarge 31.14 KB Click to Enlarge 30.32 KB Click to Enlarge 23.16 KB The interesting thing was that I scanned the interior first before I turned the heat on (interior temps started at around 45 degrees) and found some things, but after I stepped the temperature up to 60 degrees, a bunch more damp areas popped out. It was great example of moisture's thermal lag. Also I did not feel any humidity, but the vapor pressure was up over 14 millibars. Chris, Oregon

I did. Chris, Oregon

He claims that the nails are hot and self seal against the roofing. I say it's BS. Chris, Oregon

I called out a patio poured against hardy plank siding on new construction, and builder says that he's been thru this before with other inspectors and has an OK from someone that it's OK to do. Are there any exceptions to pouring concrete against siding? Even if you use some sort of isolation barrier? Chris, Oregon

Anyone every heard of hot nailing asphalt shingles? I called out exposed roofing nails on some ridge end shingles on a newly constructed residence, and the builder shot back that he doesn't have to seal over the nails because they are hot nailed. I googled hot nailing shingles and didn't find anything. Sounds like BS to me. Chris, Oregon

I hear you. I ran into one agent that I remember in particular that had that reaction. What I noticed was that it is the old farts that tend to have that reaction. But personally I think the problem is in the way that IR is being packaged and sold as a separate service. I think that branding rather than marketing is a more effective way to go at it. Chris, Oregon

I waited about a year before I overtly started advertising IR's benefit in performing home inspections. I wouldn't be advertising it at all except the word got around on it's own and I gained double the number of agents that I normally do and in the worst year since I have been in business. In the last year, every time I had an opporturnity, I have IR'ed, moisture metered (with several different meters) and hygrometer'd every moisture issue I can get involved with, besides conducting my own experiments, to find I can pretty well tell you whats going on with confidence without getting invasive. 99% of the time I found the problem visually, but the tools help me determine if it's a big problem, little problem or no problem at all, and they continually help me improve my skills visually. Inspection tools help me close the question, not raise it, and I think that gets noticed and is translating into more business. Chris, Oregon

So can we then conclude that it's the condition of the surface of hygroscopic materials even after the hygric buffering capacity has been reached that determines also if mold will take root or not? Assuming that we had such a thing as an atomic saw that could make clean cuts of the constituents of wood. Chris, Oregon

By using a hygrometer, I haven't been so much interested in %RH as I am in determining vapor pressure. By getting an estimate of the vapor pressure I can set the temp alarm on my IR camera not for the dew point but for the temp where surface RH could be 80%. I have been correlating those areas with moisture meter measurements and they measure more often than not higher in moisture. Now, I am aware of (or at least I think I am) what Caoimhin is talking about aW, that you can present a hygroscopic material with all of the humidity you want, but unto the hygric buffering capacity is reached for that level of sponsoring humidity, mold can't grow. What I imagine, and hope to be corrected on, is that what happens is if you present a surface of a say a relatively dry hygroscopic material with high vapor pressure is that even though the surface moisture content may indeed rise quite high, the net flow of moisture into the material prevents any mold spore from getting starting since any nutrients it could break down flow away from it into the substrate, and until that stops (substrate has reached equilibrium with the sponsoring vapor pressure) no mold spores can get a foothold and get going. Is that true or ? Chris, Oregon

Joe L. concluded that for stucco two layers of building paper work fine as well as does a single layer of building paper over drainwrap. What didn't work was stucco directly over plastic wrap, which they have done alot around here. So what's the added benefit of the polymesh? The controversy is over using it in an attempt to make a rain screen wall, which Jim's example is not. In Jim's example I think it's waste and not good building science if he's installing the lath on top of the mesh. What you are doing is guaranteeing leaks (bulk water) into the cavity with the mesh. Why would you want to do that? You want to try and keep as much moisture out of the cavity as you can as there are just to many unknowns (adequacy of the weeps, increase moisture source for solar vapor drive, etc.). I think two layers of 60 minute paper should do the trick on a rain hammered south wall in these parts. Chris, Oregon