Still today, not all home inspectors offer Thermal Imaging. Our inspector, Brad Stinson CMI, feels it is
an essential tool for a quality inspection. In prior years Infra-red technology was not practical
or readily available. It is today. Back then, certain problems with a home were beyond what a
non-invasive home inspection could reveal. Because Thermal Imaging is readily available today,
serious home inspectors should be utilizing it, not at an added cost, but simply because the inspectors
should be proud to produce quality work.
In practical terms, a thermal camera is able to view heat that is emanating or emissive from any surface
in the image. The thermal image shows heat emmissions. When a trained home inspector is able to see temperature variance,
the inspector’s construction experience can generally determine the cause, which may in fact be a problem
that would not have been seen with the naked eye. Technically, Infra-red is part of the Electromagnetic
Spectrum adjacent to visible light. Infra-red has a longer wavelength than visible light but shorter than microwaves
or radio waves.
