Large house water loss affects small areas across multiple floors

[Desk Jockey]

Saturday night we had a call for a water loss at a 6,000sq/ft home that had a toilet leak on to the marble floors through the ceiling (very ornate) and onto hardwood floors and antique oriental rugs.

Homeowner had taken care of most of the standing water by the time we arrived, the crew did some inspection and triage, setting up drying of the structure and the large rugs.

They returned Sunday and the on call crew and supervisor were there for 5-hours setting up Injectidry's and mats, moving contents so the rugs could be relocated and dried.

Using a thermal camera they could pinpoint what areas needed to be cut out so we could access the ceiling cavity and duct dry air into it.

Some water traveled from the marble floor into the HVAC ducting, the homeowner had cleaned the area up prior to our arrival. Not visible to the naked eye (or dressed eye) was the fact that the water traveled 30-feet in the duct work before leaking out on the other side of the room.

Another good reason a thermal camera is needed when processing multi level water losses. If you're doing water work and don't own a thermal camera, you need to consider the purchase of one.

 

[Dan]

Glad to see your on Flir payroll now too. Did you ever order the Flir One?

 

[Desk Jockey]

LOL No we still have older cameras. At the price we paid for these we have to wear them out.

I do believe a IR Camera is almost a "need to have" tool.

Not needed for every loss but certainly when the source is from above or unknown (broken pipe behind drywall), commercial, where it allows you to scan large areas faster.

We had a school last week that had a roof leak, two class room affected. Teacher already had workbooks laid out on the students desks (school starts Wednesday of this week), water ceiling tile debris fell onto all of it. The affected area seems obvious, carpet, desks, paperwork but less obvious is where it came from and when its dry. You could get a ladder and a Tramex and slide the whole underside of the roof and rafters.....or scan it with a thermal camera.