Does the home you’re purchasing have a chimney flue?
Did you look on the ceiling to determine if it’s leaking or not?
Below is an infrared photo of what a ‘hidden’ leak looks like in an NZ home. During a routine infrared moisture inspection today in Glen Eden, the thermal imaging camera instantly revealed moisture pooling on top of the gib board around where the flue penetrates the gib board ceiling. The ceiling itself was in perfect condition, leaving the leak going undetected to the human eye. Would your average building inspector have detected this ‘invisible’ leak? (Unlikely).
Although this type of water penetration isn’t a major concern to some investors, it’s still nice to know the leak is there before handing over your money. This infrared photo alone could certainly help your to negotiate the price down (Visual images like this are very powerful when negotiating). The interesting part about this home was the 4 other leaks we found… you couldn’t see any of them with the human eye. The roof itself had a slight pitch on it, but was still failing in multiple areas.
Even though we found several issues with this property, the buyer felt really good about herself in the end, because she had a clear picture of what she was actually buying.
NZ has a very wet climate as we all know, so shouldn’t it be logical to get your next property tested for moisture and leaks? Here’s a photo of why you should consider our unique leak detection service as part of your due diligence.
Can you see the leak around the top of the flue in the infraed image?
