Commercial Roof Moisture Surveying
Most commercial roof moisture problems don’t look like moisture problems. There’s no puddle, no stain on the ceiling, no obvious soft spot when you walk the roof. What there is, often, is insulation that has absorbed water over months or years — sitting between the membrane and the deck, slowly degrading your building’s energy efficiency and setting the stage for a much more expensive problem down the road.
If you’ve noticed any of the following, there’s a real chance your roof insulation is holding moisture:
Warning Signs Your Roof Insulation May Be Hiding Trapped Moisture
Why Wet Insulation Can Be Hard to Detect With the Naked Eye
Commercial roofing systems are built in layers. The waterproof membrane on top is the layer you can see and walk on. Below it sits the insulation, typically polyisocyanurate (polyiso), EPS, or fiberglass board. Below that is the roof deck. When moisture infiltrates through a seam, fastener, flashing, or micro-crack in the membrane, it doesn’t announce itself. It soaks into the insulation and spreads laterally.
By the time you see evidence of moisture inside the building, the saturation above you may cover a much larger area than the leak point itself. And, because the membrane surface often still looks intact, a visual inspection won’t catch it. This is the core problem that moisture surveying exists to solve.
What Happens When Insulation Stays Wet?
The System Gets Damaged
Moisture trapped beneath a membrane or fluid-applied (coating) system causes additional stress from thermal cycles. As water expands when it freezes and thaws, it works against the roof system from below. This causes blistering as the water evaporates and tries to escape through weak points in the system, such as seams, and accelerates cracking, delamination, and premature failure of the system.
Restoration Warranties Require Dry Insulation
If you are planning to apply a fluid-applied restoration (roof coating) to extend the life of the roof, or even overlay the existing system with a single-ply membrane installation, manufacturers require that the existing insulation be dry prior to the installation, and many have begun requiring documentation to prove that it is.
How a Moisture Survey Finds Wet Insulation
Moisture Survey Pros uses a three-part comprehensive survey method to map moisture across your entire roof system. We do this not just to identify that a problem exists, but to tell you exactly where the wet areas are, how large they are, and how much moisture is present.
What Do You Get From a Moisture Survey?
After a survey, you receive a detailed report that maps the wet and dry areas of your roof, shows pictures from our readings, documents the methods used, and provides data you can take to your roofing contractor or manufacturer warranty program. This report is the basis for every decision that follows, whether that’s targeted repairs, a roof restoration, or a full replacement.