Have you noticed signs of timber rot in the corners of your window sills?
One on the ‘red flags’ that will normally catch my eye when doing a thermal home moisture inspection, is when the window sill has a soft spot up against the window joinery OR if ants are crawling out of the sill in the area.
Recently during a moisture inspection, my equipment detected signs of moisture behind the wall under a window. There was a builder with me at the time of inspection, and without hesitating, he pulled off the gib board on the spot.
Here’s what the thermal camera detected (Dark area in bottom right corner indicates a potential issue)
What did we find behind this area?
Ant nests, black mould, rotted timber and all the things you don’t want to see if you own the home. Who else was there? The tenant. The tenant had 3 kids and went into a panic due to the unhealthy aspect of the home… like black mould spores floating into the air etc.
Typical: The home owner didn’t even know the window sills were rotting, because the tenants didn’t say a word about these issues when they first appeared, and now the vendor has some serious remedial work to undertake. (The cladding was plaster with no cavity). On top of that, the tenant is now taking this to the rental tribunal to get out of the lease on the grounds of an unhealthy home.
The message here is that if you own a home that is rented out, and it’s built between 1992-2004, then you should consider a thermal moisture ‘check up’ to detect potential problems caused by joinery leaks and window condensation… before the whole wall rots due to gradual leak damage!
Should you bother getting an infrared moisture scan? Take a look around this website to see what other types of leaks our thermal camera has found behind walls…
