Very often the inspection process will discover issues that the building owner does not want to acknowledge in their structure. Either air leakage, moisture, or conduction losses. All issues are going to cost money to correct, some more than others. The cost of these faults or anomalies can be quite high, to the point, where some building owners will try to discredit your findings. While many want to know the problems that exist in their structures it is the cost for repairs that can be discouraging. The ROI (return on investment) for many of the problems found just is not there. An air leak into an office that has expensive wall coverings (knotty pine planks) the leak may have a cost of $15 to $30 in air-conditioning or heating per month. Where the cost of the repair may total up to $3000.00 to $6,000.00 depending on contractor or DIY (do it yourself). Granted not all air leaks are going to cost as much to repair, in fact many of the leaks found during an inspection are inexpensive to repair, just requiring the time and effort to do so.

Insulation problems can be quite costly depending on the original insulation installed and the steps needed to correct the fault. Blown in cellulose or other similar materials may only require drilling a hole and refilling the voids, where as a spray applied foam or fiberglass batts may require the removal of wall coverings (drywall board, plaster / lath) at this point the costs rise very quickly. The building owner must make the decision if the problem is worth fixing, is there a cost savings to conducting the repair. Either heating and cooling bill reduction or resale of the building, even a combination of both, is there a ROI that is acceptable or in the best interest of the building owner.

We as thermographers should avoid making or getting involved in this process, our scope or mission is to locate anomalies and to report those anomalies to the owner or the owner’s engineering team. Granted if you are a part of that team, separate your tasks, be the thermographer, then the engineer. Concentrate on gathering the data and images needed to make those decisions. Then evaluate the costs, doing both at the same time may prove difficult and items may be overlooked, or it may take too much time away from the inspection itself.