Expert home inspector Roger Hankey looks up, notices an unusual pattern of ice and snow on a roof and investigates further: why is there light snow cover on other roof sections but not on the main slope?

This article series discusses how to inspect, diagnose and correct problems in building insulation or ventilation systems. We discuss Insulation R-values, Types, & other characteristics, Insulation types, R-values, installation, improvements, troubleshooting insulation & heat loss or un-wanted heat gain problems.

The insulation installer omitted this large area

- Roger Hankey

October 21, 2002 was an unusually cold fall morning in the NW suburbs of Minneapolis. I saw numerous cars with about 2 inches of snow cover as I drove to my morning inspection.

The house was a nine-year-old two story with an attached garage at the left. The inspection went routinely for about an hour, until I stepped outside to retrieve some equipment from the car.

As I walked back to the house, I noticed a very dramatic snow melt pattern on the roof. The majority of the roof had a light dusting of snow, but there was no snow at all on the one-story roof over the study/office at the front of the house.

The bare area of roof clearly marked the study/office (see photo). This was NOT the uniform snow covering I had seen upon my arrival an hour earlier.

I set up the ladder at the second-floor attic access and began the attic examination. The attic over the second-floor rooms was well insulated.

I walked over several trusses to the center of the attic and saw there was no access to the attic over the one-story portion of the house. Earlier, when I examined the garage, I found no access to the garage attic.

The lack of access made it hard for me to confirm my suspicion that the ceiling of the study/office was not insulated. Fortunately, I remembered the infrared thermometer in my tool bag.

I took out the thermometer and began checking ceiling temperatures. Every room in the house had ceiling temperatures of 69 to 71 degrees EXCEPT the study/office.

The ceiling temperature in the study/office was 56 degrees F.

I suspect that the gypsum wallboard for the garage walls and ceilings had already been installed when the insulation contractor arrived to place the attic insulation.

Without an access over the study/office, they had no way to insulate over that room.

My customer’s real estate agent was also the listing agent. This agent understood my findings completely since she stated that the room was noticeably cooler than any other room in the house.

Since the house was less than 10 years old, the agent successfully demanded the builder correct the insulation. They added an access hatch in the garage which enabled insulation to be installed over the study/office.

Had this inspection been done the week before, or even in the afternoon of the same day, the snow would not have been present, and there would not have been any readily visible signs of the lack of insulation.

The success of this inspection finding depended on

• the timing of the snow,
• the timing my view of the snow melt pattern, and
• the use of a moderately priced tool that exceeds the requirements of the ASHI® Standard of Practice.

Today, some inspectors using an infrared thermal camera could find this condition, IF they used the IR camera to scan ceilings AND they realized this was a modified two-story house and the study/office was a one-story portion.

Many inspectors in snowy regions have learned to read roof snow melt patterns to identify “hot spots” or other areas of heat loss.

Inspectors who work in areas with only occasional snowfalls can still benefit from roof snow melt pattern analysis if they are fortunate enough to see roof snow melt patterns that are not influenced by high winds or bright sunny days.

- © 2020 www.HankeyandBrown used with permission

• Roger Hankey is principal of Hankey and Brown Inspections, Winter Park, CO. Mr. Hankey is a past chairman of the ASHI Standards Committee and served in other ASHI chapter and national leadership roles. Mr. Hankey is a National Radon Proficiency Program certified measurement professional and a Level II infrared thermographer. Contact Roger Hankey at: 970-393-6604 - rogerhankey47@gmail.com . Website: www.HankeyandBrown.com
  
  Mr. Hankey is a frequent contributor to InspectAPedia.com. See AIR HANDLER DUST CONTAMINATION, and ATTIC INSULATION MISSING and BUILDING INSPECTION SURPRISE PROVES NEED for SCOPE, and CONDENSING GAS FURNACE INSPECTION & TESTS, and CORROSION & MOISTURE SOURCES in PANELS, and HEAT RECOVERY VENTILATOR FIRE, and others.

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Continue reading at INSULATION INSPECTION & IMPROVEMENT - topic home, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

Or see these

Recommended Articles

• COLD WEATHER ROOF TROUBLE
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• INSULATION LOCATION - WHERE TO PUT IT

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