Melissa Home Inspector owner Jeff Cardile, president of Lookout Capital Inspections talks siding.

There are many types of siding used on residential single family homes.  We are going to talk about manufactured  wood products.  These have become very popular in the last few decades.  They add rigidity  to a building and are effective at reducing air movement and baffling noise through walls.  They can be made to look like natural wood or stucco or they can be profiled like board and batten.  Manufactured wood products display some of the same properties of wood and have some unique properties.  Like wood, they are subject to rot and insect attack.  Most require paint and stain to ensure their durability.  They are also prone to water absorption along the edges.  There are three types specifically that we are going to speak about.  They are plywood, hardboard, and OSB siding.  Today, we are going to talk about hardboard siding.

Hardboard siding is a type of fiberboard.  Fiberboard is produced using high temperature and pressure to form wood or other plant fibers into panels.  Hardboard is a very dense, compressed wood fiberboard.  In hardboard manufacturing, the wood fibers come from wood chips that have been mechanically or thermally broken down.  In one manufacturing process, water is used to transport the wood fibers, then the heat and pressure drive the water out.  In this process, the natural glue in wood, called lignin, bonds the fibers together.  In a dry process, air moves the fibers along, and a synthetic adhesive provides the bonding between fibers.

Hardboard sold as siding comes in either panel or board form for lap siding.  The panels are typically 2′x8′, 4′x8′ and 4′x9′.  The lap boards can come in 4″-6″ widths.  Common thicknesses are 5/16″ to 1/2″.  Most are only primed at the factory and require finishing within 30-90 days.  Some are prefinished at the factory.

Hardboard is usually manufactured to look like wood or stucco.  It is more dense than wood siding and is not prone to cracking or splitting like conventional lumber.  It has no knots and is completely consistent.  It does not expand and contract as much as lumber does, and it holds paint well.  Some products are prefinished with a vinyl, or other, coating that makes painting unnecessary.

Hardboard lap siding made to look like wood.

Hardboard is not as strong as plywood.  Like natural wood, hardboard is vulnerable to water intrusion by submersion, direct wetting, capillary action, or humidity absorption.  However, it swells more than natural wood once its wet.  This is because it is more dense than natural wood, so it has fewer voids.  Fewer voids means that when water gits in, it has fewer spaces to fill.  The water that doesn’t fill a space has to be absorbed by the material, which then swells.

In our next blog, we will continue our discussion about siding, specifically plywood siding.

Melissa Home Inspector is owned by Jeff Cardile.  Jeff is a Certified Thermographer and a licensed state inspector.  Lookout Capital Inspections is proud to be a leader in the inspection industry.  Call Jeff at (469) 853-7336 for any of your inspection needs.

Plano Inspection Company owner Jeff Cardile, president of Lookout Capital Inspections answers the question, What is Infrared?  Part 6

Infrared is also known as Thermal Imaging or Thermography.  Infrared is the combination of the physics of light, physics of heat, and the physics of infrared.  The physics of light consists of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, the Frequency, and Color.  The physics of heat consist of (CCR) Conduction, Convection, and Radiation.  The physics of Infrared consists of Delta-T, Emissivity, Reflectivity, Transparency, and Thermal Mass.

Today, we are going to continue our discussion of the physics of Infrared. Specifically,  we are going to talk more about Transmittance.

Light transmitting through glass.

In our previous blog, we discussed the three factors that determine how all objects respond to thermal imaging.  (Transmittance, Emittance, and Reflectance) Lets talk about transmittance a little more.

Definition: Transmittance, a ratio of incident light,  of a specific wavelength, that passed through a material.

The electromagnetic radiation,  can pass through objects as in the image above.  Glass windows allow visual light to pass through them but do not allow infrared light.  The infrared light will not pass through the glass, it is reflected.  Transmittance can also change the frequency of the light.  Ultra-violet light is changed to Infrared light as it goes through glass, but it becomes trapped because glass reflects infrared light rather than transmitting it.  Basically, this is the green house effect.

In our next blog, we will go into more detail about the imaging factors of Emissivity.

Plano Inspection Company is owned by Jeff Cardile.  Jeff is a Certified Thermographer.  Lookout Capital Inspections is proud to be a leader in the inspection industry.  Call Jeff at (469) 853-7336 for any of your inspection needs.

Melissa Inspection Company owner Jeff Cardile, president of Lookout Capital Inspections answers the question, What is Infrared?  Part 5

Today, we are going to continue our discussion of the physics of Infrared. Specifically,  we are going to talk about Transmittance, Emittance, and Reflectivity.

We must first understand Kirchoff’s Law of Thermal Radiation:  The sum of Radiation exiting an object is equal to 1.   Transmission + Absorption + Reflection= 1.   The total sum of energy in an object will either be transmitted, absorbed, or reflected.   Scientist study thermal radiation using a theorem called the black body.  The black body is a perfect emitter of all heat energy the object absorbs therefore it sets the standard by which  all other material is measured (in theory).

The 3 factors that determine how all objects respond to Thermal Imaging:

1. Transmittance, a ratio of incident light,  of a specific wavelength, that passed through a material.
2. Emittance, a ratio of energy radiated from a material to the energy radiated by the black body theorem.  A black body has an emissivity of 1, therefore all other materials/objects have an emissivity of less than 1.
3. Reflectance, a ratio of incident light striking an object to the amount of light reflected off the object.  Light reflecting off an object may not be accurate of the actual light being emitted by that object.  An object that has a reflectivity of 1 would be a perfect reflector of infrared light.

All of these values, Transmittance, Emittance, and Reflectance, are measured in ratios.  Their values are expressed between 0-1.

In our next blog, we will go into more detail about the imaging factors of Transmittance.

Melissa Inspection Company is owned by Jeff Cardile.  Jeff is a Certified Thermographer.  Lookout Capital Inspections is proud to be a leader in the inspection industry.  Call Jeff at (469) 853-7336 for any of your inspection needs.

Richardson Inspection Company owner Jeff Cardile, president of Lookout Capital Inspections answers the question, What is Infrared?  Part 4

Today, we are going to talk about one part of the physics of infrared.  Delta -T.

Delta-T is temperature differential.  Infrared light is commonly used by inspectors to measure temperatures using an Infrared Thermometer.  Inspectors use these to measure the actual temperature of an object.  We can use a Thermal Imaging camera to measure actual temperature of objects too.  IR Cameras are more commonly used to measure the difference in temperatures over different areas and to display these differences visually instead of a numerical value.  When you view the different areas being scanned the information being relayed is derived from the differences in temperature on the different parts in the image.  Ideally, when using a thermal imaging camera the inspector would prefer a Delta-T (temperature differential) of a minimum of 10 degrees or greater.  The inspector’s ability to manipulate the temperature and create a Delta-T  is crucial in having a successful scan.

In our next blog we will discuss the three other major factors of the physics of Infrared.  These include Emissivity, Reflectivity, and Transparency.

Richardson Inspection Company is owned by Jeff Cardile.  Jeff is a Certified Thermographer.  Lookout Capital Inspections is proud to be a leader in the inspection industry.  Call Jeff at (469) 853-7336 for any of your inspection needs.

Allen Inspection Company owner Jeff Cardile, president of Lookout Capital Inspections answers the question, What is Infrared?  Part 3

Today, we are going to discuss the physics of Heat: The physics of heat consist of: Conduction, Convection, and Radiation (CCR).

Conduction, Convection, And Radiation

1. Conduction: Heat is transferred by means of direct contact.  Conducted heat transfer occurs when heated atoms transfer the heat to nearby atoms through each others atomic bonds.  There are factors that affect conductivity.  These factors are: the type of material, the cross section, the temperature difference, the distance/thickness of the path of transfer.

2. Convection: Heat is transferred by the movement of fluids, gas or liquids.  Heat is transferred through fluid movement which is a result of direct contact and begins with conduction.  Convection can be effected or caused by condensation and evaporation.  A circular air flow motion is created.

3. Radiation: Heat is transferred by electromagnetic waves.  All objects radiate some amount  of infrared radiation.  The distance in the wavelength are used to measure the temperature of objects.  The shorter the wavelength the hotter the object.  The longer the wavelength the cooler the object.  This is the main use of Thermal Imaging.  The measurement/differences of objects temperatures that are being scanned.

In our next blog, we are going to discuss the physics of Infrared.

Allen Inspection Company is owned by Jeff Cardile.  Jeff is a Certified Thermographer.  Lookout Capital Inspections is proud to be a leader in the inspection industry.  Call Jeff at (469) 853-7336 for any of your inspection needs.

Frisco Inspection Company owner Jeff Cardile, president of Lookout Capital Inspections answers the question, What is Infrared?  Part 2

Missing Insulation

Today, we are going to talk about Frequency and Color.

How do we see?  When light falls on objects a portion of the light is absorbed and a portion of the light is reflected.  When light falls on a tree, all of the visible light is absorbed except for the green portion of the visible spectrum, which is reflected.  We see the light that is reflected and our eyes come to the conclusion that the tree is green.  Similar,  a black shirt absorbs all of the spectrum and is seen as black.  A white shirt reflects all of the spectrum and is seen as white.  The important question is what happens to the absorbed light?  Atoms absorb the energy and the electrons raise to a higher energy level and exit.  When the electrons exit they want to return to there normal state. They release there stored energy as electromagnetic energy.  This energy is emitted slowly.

The structure of the atoms and their valence shells determines the wavelength of the emitted energy.  The greater the temperature, the higher the frequency of light omitted.  Example, iron glows red, then yellow, than white as it gets hotter.  Due to the structure of atoms and the low temperatures of common objects, most of the absorbed energy is released in the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.  When objects are heated they release heat as infrared radiation.  Now, how this energy is stored and/or emitted is dependent solely on the material emitting or absorbing the energy.

There are 3 different types of Infrared Radiation

1. Near Infrared: This is the area of the spectrum closet to visible light, just below red light, and has a wavelength of .7-1.3 microns.
2. Mid-Infrared: This the area of the spectrum used by electronic devices. (ie. television remote controls).  These have a wavelength between 1.3-3 microns.
3. Thermal Infrared: This is the area of the spectrum that is used for Thermal Imaging because this is where light is being emitted from an object compared to being reflected.  The emitted light is energy that comes from the atoms of the object not the energy that is being reflected by the object. These have a wavelength between 3-30 microns.

In our next blog we will discuss the physics of Heat: Conduction, Convection, and Radiation

Frisco Inspection Company is owned by Jeff Cardile.  Jeff is a Certified Thermographer.  Lookout Capital Inspections is proud to be a leader in the inspection industry.  Call Jeff at (469) 853-7336 for any of your inspection needs.

Mckinney Inspection Companyowner Jeff Cardile, president of Lookout Capital Inspections answers the question, What is Infrared?

AC Venting Cold Air inside the Floor

Infrared is also known as Thermal Imaging or Thermography.  Infrared is the combination of the physics of light, physics of heat, and the physics of infrared.  The physics of light consists of the Electromagnetic Spectrum, the Frequency, and Color.  The physics of heat consist of (CCR) Conduction, Convection, and Radiation.  The physics of Infrared consists of Delta-T, Emissivity, Reflectivity, Transparency, and Thermal Mass.

Today, we are going to talk about the Electromagnetic Spectrum.  Our eyes only see objects that reflect light in a limited band on the electromagnetic spectrum.  The spectrum stretches from microwave rays to cosmic rays.  The middle  of this spectrum is where visible light can be detected by the naked eye.  On the spectrum, to the right of the visible spectrum is infrared light.  This is known as heat waves.  On the Electromagnetic spectrum this the portion that Infrared images use.  In our next blog we will discuss frequency and color.

Mckinney Inspection Company is owned by Jeff Cardile.  Jeff is a Certified Thermographer.  Lookout Capital Inspections is proud to be a leader in the inspection industry.  Call Jeff at (469) 853-7336 for any of your inspection needs.