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Thermal Imaging

Radio Recording for Thermal Imaging Inspections

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We have built a strong & credible name in the NZ house inspection & infrared thermal imaging industry over the years. If fact, Google have placed us as #1 in their rankings for the above topics…  hence why you have landed on the most comprehensive leaky building inspection website in NZ. 

We have uploaded a recent recording of an advertorial we recently did on Newstalk ZB so you can put a ‘voice’ to our name:

Listen Here (Runs for 1.5 minutes)

We have been thermal imaging houses for years, and also offering leak detection services for those home owners who have a leak they can’t find, or are worried they could potentially buy themselves a home with leaking problems.

Call us first… you’ll get the best quote, prompt service, and most importantly – experience. We offer guaranteed free quotes over the phone! (Our quotes don’t change once we turn up to the job).

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Even Newstalk ZB’s DIY Home Renovation Expert Peter Wolfkamp Has Used Our Services, and Recommends Us Live Online – Listen Here (Runs for 30 seconds)

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Methane Leaks Detected Using Infrared Camera

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Here are some sample photos we captured during a thermographic survey of a landfill site in NZ, in search of methane leaks and thin capping over the fill.

We were contacted by the project managers of the landfill to assist in detecting any signs of methane gas leaking through the surface of the capping over the fill. The compacted dirt capping is there to prevent oxygen being drawn into the fill from the suction of the well pipes. Oxygen can reduce the effect of processing methods when converting the methane into electricity at their onsite plant.

We also used methane detection equipment and a grid system for confirmation if the thermal imaging camera was seeing the methane gas leaks, or the breaches in the capping. (Detector provided by Envco Global).

In the image above, the yellow areas indicate a clear surface temperature difference (anomaly) when compared to surrounding ground temperature.

Due to the nature of the anomaly in this infrared image, it appears there is thin capping in this area over a wider area (When compared with the methane leak in the first image which indicates an isolated area).

In summary, the survey of the site was successful, with over 40 areas marked for further remediation work and thicker capping. The majority of the thermal inspection was done in the dark, starting at 5am in the morning when the air was coolest, therefore allowing the surface temperature where the gas leaks were occurring to stand out in the camera (Maximum Delta-T).

Our methane gas leak detection system using an infrared camera and methane gas detector is a simple and quick method to pinpoint any hot spots on the ground, even in areas where the grass or schrubs are over grown.

Give us a call today to discuss your project, and get a free quote over the phone.

Thermal Imaging Inspection Cost

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How much does a thermal imaging inspection cost?

Infrared inspection costs can vary depending on what type of imaging you require. Here are the most common types of inspections we perform weekly:

  • Pre purchase building, moisture and leak detective inspections
  • Infrared electrical inspections of switchboards
  • Pre sale house moisture testing for clients preparing to sell their home
  • ‘Piece of mind’ check ups to catch any issues with a house or commercial building before any hidden problems create further extensive damage.

So what are the costs?

Prices vary based on the size of the house, or in the case of electrical thermographic surveys, how many switchboards need infrared testing.

General leak detections vary between $220 up to $300… depending on how long the job takes.

Full house inspection costs can range from $300 for a small house, right up the $600+ for a larger house, especially when there is reporting and extensive invasive testing required. Some diagnosed leaky home inspection costs can be up to $1500.

As you can see, the variation in costs is quite wide for thermography inspections depending on application, but on average you are looking at around $450+GST for an average size home.

Some companies may offer inspections cheaper, but they could have a hidden agenda, like upselling repair services etc.

How to Sell a Leaky Building

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How to Sell a Leaky Building

Our core business in detecting signs of leaky buildings for buyers, sellers and builders who are in the business of carrying out remedial work (Pre renovation inspections). When your testing houses for moisture on a daily basis as a business, you come across some interesting scenarios… and some creative solutions to problems!

Frustrated Plaster Home Owner Sells House Fast!!

Interesting story: How frustrating do you think it would be if the potential buyer of your property hired a building inspector who then went on to detect leaking problems in your external walls… only to find out once the wall was opened up for further investigation, there is no signs of moisture anywhere?

Well… we recently tested a house on the North Shore where this exact scenario happened, but in this case the home owner replaced the gib board after finding out no problems existed behind the wall after the 1st building inspection had detected problems. He then did a nice plaster & paint job ready to sell the home all over again… but this time with certainty it’s not a leaky building.

What happens next? A new buyer comes along with their building inspection company and moisture testing guy, only to get the same high 20%+ moisture reading. Another sale down the drain… and the timber frame isn’t even wet!

How did he end up selling the house?

Through pure frustration, he ripped off all the gib board and pulled out the insulation and left it like that!!! The very next potential buyer ended up buying the home for the asking price. Why? Because they could physically see the timber frame wasn’t rotted, therefore they felt certain they had avoided buying a leaky building, regardless of all the negative publicity in the media about the common problems with plaster cladding systems. The deal was that the home owner would re-gib, plaster and paint before the new owners took possession once the deal was unconditional. Not a bad tactic hey?

This is not a common method to sell a plaster house, but it worked well is this case. Unfortunately, these are the lengths some sellers who own plaster homes have to go to, but that’s all part of the property ‘game’ isn’t it? SOLD!

Moisture Detection Companies and Services NZ

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With the leaky building crisis in full swing, and the building industry slowing down again, there is now a glut of new building inspection and moisture detection companies entering the market.

How do you know who the ‘newly registered’ home inspection companies are in the past year or so? Simple. Just go to the companies office website and do a search for their company name… that’s the fast and most accurate way to REALLY tell how long they’ve been in the business for!

We pride ourselves on being one of the longer standing moisture detection companies in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (operating NZ Wide) with some of NZ’s most high profile companies on our books, including several councils and publically listed companies who use our services time and time again.

What’s happened recently in the NZ building inspection services industry, is builders started to run out of physical building work, and as a result they suddenly turned into inspectors.

What happens next? They start inspecting homes with a potential ‘hidden’ agender. We called up 1o companies who have started inspecting houses in the past 2 years and asked them if they fixed any problems they found. 8 out of the 10 house inspection companies surveyed said “YES”, or they could refer someone who could. 5 of them did not carry a thermal imaging camera.

So now… is it really an independant inspection if they also sell repair services also? Possibly not. This goes for pre sale, pre purchase moisture detection and building inspection services.

The way we’ve built our company over the years, is by sticking to a policy of non-biased inspections, which means it makes absolutely no difference to us if we find zero leaks, or 10 leaks using our leak detection equipment and techniques. In addition, we do these moisture inspections with reports at the best possible price possible, based on the area where you live.

Thermal Imaging Consultants – Auckland

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Are you looking for an experienced thermal imaging consultancy firm in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and everywhere inbetween?

Now operating internationally!

Over the years, our thermography services have been commissioned by some of NZ’s largest public companies and insurance firms on a routine basis (mainly for electrical and mechanical thermographic surveys), and as a result we are now acting as thermal imaging consultants and further being deployed internationally to carry out infrared inspections, particularly in the oil industry.

Our infrared consultancy business has been experiencing steady growth, and has built a solid reputation in the electrical and oil industry in New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and now potentially into India in the very near future.

If you are reading this website from a country outside on NZ, it is important for you to know we are now available to operate internationally with flexibility to service your requirements at short notice, in all areas and applications of thermography. We also have a range of thermography consultants with vast experience across the USA that we deal with on a regular basis, therefore allowing us to offer you infrared imaging services at short notice with minimal travel time in both Nth and Sth America.

Email Dean at quote@findaleak.co.nz for all international enquiries.

Buying at Auction Costs & Tips

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Are you buying at action?

Sadly, many people get ‘caught out’ at auctions in NZ because they don’t know what to look out for.

It’s almost sickening how many properties we end up moisture testing in NZ for clients who ‘just purchased’ at an auction, only to move into the house and find signs of leaks (most of which were hidden under carpet and behind furniture etc). Most of them ‘thought’ the house looked fine from what they could see… before they purchased the house. In addtion, they thought they got a good deal!! I wonder why?

Basic buying at auction costs and tips:

Is getting a thermal imaging leak inspection a cost, and money I could potentially loose before an auction ? Yes it is… but don’t miss this step! It’s AMAZING how many times clients say to me “We didn’t want to pay for an inspection incase we didn’t win the auction”. Just plain silly thinking don’t you think? Absolutely.

99% of my clients have it written into their property contract to get a building inspection and/or moisture test prior to buying the house, so why wouldn’t you do the same in an auction scenario?

What should you look for prior to buying at auction? (From a leak detective’s point of view)

  • Look for swollen skirting boards
  • Look for discoloured carpet grip in the corners under the carpet. This will most likely mean a leak is coming in from somewhere
  • Look for any visual signs of joinery failures
  • Look for any bubbling of paintwork under windows, on ceiling, in bathrooms and on just about every surface of internal and  external walls
  • Cracks in cladding and around windows
  • Lack of ground clearence
  • Any leaks around plumbing, such as under sinks and in the corners of shower screens.

These tips listed above are only a hand full of what to look for in your initial ‘visual’ inspection. The next step is to get an experienced thermal imaging company to take a look using infrared technology to detect issues you will not see, like these ones… coupled with experience in moisture testing nz houses.

Do not buy at auction until you are 110% sure there are no moisture issues in the house… and we say this with certainty after seeing so many home buyers getting caught out buying lemons. If anything, we can do a verbal inspection for you (no report), which is cheaper and will give you certainty when you buy. If you are happy with the inspection results and win the auction, you can then request a report for a small fee.

Infrared Electrical Inspectors – Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch – NZ Wide

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If you are looking for infrared electrical inspectors in NZ, we offer an experienced nationwide service by certified infrared thermographers. Our most popular inspection type (normally referred to us by insurance companies), is thermal imaging of electrical switchboard panels.

To date, our company has infrared tested 1000’s of switchboard panels both onshore and offshore in NZ. We are a trusted provider of electrical thermal imaging services nationwide. No client is too big or small.

Here’s some photo’s recently taken during an electrical audit of an oil company in NZ…

A: T2 crimp needed to be replaced. Hot spot detected at over 100 degrees on a mud pump blower, requiring immediate further investigation due to the cable not being rated to the detected temperature.

B: Rig Air Compressor. The white phase was running 50% warmer than the black and red phase under the same load. This should be a balanced load.

C: Drill Water Pump: T3 White phase running hot. Incoming and outgoing should be the same temperature in this situation.

D: Load not balaced when all 3 phases were running the same amps.

We offer a prompt, efficient service nationwide… with the best pricing and quality reporting guaranteed.

Infrared electical inspectors and thermographic survey companies: Ashburton, Auckland City, Blenheim, Christchurch, Coromandel, Dargaville, Dunedin, East Auckland, Gisborne, Greymouth, Hamilton, Hastings, Invercargill, Lower Hutt, Manukau, Masterton, Matamata, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth, Nth Shore, Orewa, Palmerston North, Papakura, Queenstown, Raglan, Rotorua, South Auckland, Taupo, Tauranga, Timaru, Upper Hutt, Waiheke Island, Waikanae, Warkworth, Wellington, West Auckland, Whangarei

Electrical Thermal Imaging Surveys

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Our company is now specialising in electrical thermal imaging surveys across NZ, and the more switchboards we inspect, the more we begin to wonder why there hasn’t been more electrical fires!

Here’s a photo of a switchboard that was only inspected 6 months earlier… a perfect example of why routine preventative maintenace is so important. This photo is of a hot spot around the termination point of 160 amp breaker. The 3 phases were all running at 73amps, yet the red phase was running 50% warmer. This is called an anomaly requiring further investigation:

We have now detected so many faults during routine infrared scans of electrical systems, we can see why our clients are now switching to bi-annual thermographic surveys rather than annually. The fact that our biggest NZ clients use our service on a repeat basis is testiment to the value of infrared thermography surveys in general, and to the service we offer.

The look on the site managers face when a hot spot is detected which is very close to causing a fire, is one of relief… relief that they decided to get a thermographic inspection if the first place. Situations like this makes them quickly understand the value in what thermal imaging surveys can offer.

Internal Gutter Leaking

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Infrared Thermal Imaging Clearly Identifies Leaking Internal Gutter

Insufficient butanol join overlap causes major headache for home owner!

One of the very common signs that you could have a leak or moisture in your ceiling space (normally flat roofs), is you can see signs of the gib board pulling back down over the screws that are holding it up. Have you seen small round marks on your ceiling the size of a screw head? That could be more than meets the eye.

One of the inspections we did this week detected the exact problem as outlined above, although the home owner had no idea what was ACTUALLY going on. They called us in because they had a damp smell in the room and couldn’t work out where is was coming from.

Here’s what we saw with the infrared leak detection camera the moment we walked in the room…

Those big black round marks are leaks detected as seen through the thermal imaging camera on the ceiling of the ‘damp smelling’ room… and the home owner has absolutely no idea these leaks even existed.

The home owners issue was solved within minutes… but finding the source of the leak in the butanol lined internal gutter was the next challenge. Well actually it wasn’t a challenge at all. Instead of using the standard 100mm overlap at the join of the butanol, the 45 angle in the corner of the internal guttering has caused the issue by flapping up slightly thanks to a shortfall in overlap on the join… not to mention that water that was pooling the area!

On the ceiling you could clearly see the gib fixing screw heads where the water had basically saturated the gib above and under the weight (and gravity) caused by high levels of moisture caused a slight sagging in the ceiling.  What to do next?

Step one is always to fix the source of the leak first. Then it’s probably best to cut the area open and pull out the wet insulation, otherwise all that trapped moisture could cause the ceiling to eventually sag right down and make a mess! It’s always good to have a visual inspection of the area in a situation where a roof has been leaking for some time, as mould growth could be taking place.

Here’s another photo of a leak at the top of a wall thanks to leaking internal guttering. The thermal image is over the top of the visual image how we see it during an inspection…

If you have any ‘visual’ cues that something isn’t right with your home, or an unusual damp smell has suddenly appeared that wasn’t there this time last year, then jump straight onto it and get a moisture ‘check up’ on the house.