Trapped moisture
Wet insulation under a flat roof holds the day's heat after sunset and glows against the dry field around it. The survey maps the wet area — so the repair is a patch where the water is, not a tear-off where it might be.
Inspection & Survey
Thermal imaging & moisture survey
Water under a roof membrane and heat leaving an envelope are invisible in daylight and obvious in infrared. A radiometric survey finds the problem while it is still a repair, not a replacement.
What infrared sees01 02 03
Heat loss
Missing insulation, failed seals, and thermal bridging read as warm scars on a cold facade. Chicago winters supply the indoor-to-outdoor temperature difference that makes an envelope survey legible — the season most aerial work goes quiet is the season this work is best flown.
Verification
The same survey flown after a repair shows whether it worked — the anomaly is gone or it is not. Before-and-after radiometric pairs close out a project with evidence instead of assurance.
How it is flown
Conditions matter more than the camera.
A thermal survey is only as good as the temperature differential it is flown in. Roof moisture surveys fly after sunset, once the dry field has shed its heat and wet insulation has not. Envelope surveys fly in cold weather with the building heated. Scheduling around those windows is part of the job — a scan flown at the wrong hour produces confident-looking imagery of nothing.
Every thermal frame is paired with a visual-spectrum frame of the same view, so an anomaly can be checked against what the surface actually shows.
Specification
| Sensor | 640 × 512 radiometric thermal (DJI Mavic 3T) |
|---|---|
| Paired capture | 48 MP visual-spectrum, same gimbal |
| Deliverable | Annotated radiometric imagery with located anomalies, paired with visual-spectrum frames of the same views. |
| Turnaround | Delivered within 5 business days of the flight |
| Pricing | Quoted per project — same-day number for most work |
Scope
- Flat and low-slope roof moisture survey
- Building envelope heat-loss survey
- Facade thermal anomaly scan
- Residential heat-loss survey
- Post-repair verification
- Radiometric capture — 640 × 512 sensor
Part of the inspection practice
Thermal flies under the same discipline as the facade and envelope work — same preflight planning, same airspace compliance, same annotated deliverable format your engineer or roof consultant can reference directly.