Historical Building

I would say conducting thermal scans on historical structures are probably harder to implement than any other scans.

You really have to research the building materials on these structures more thoroughly because materials used in the 1800's were  different. The structures themselves were engineered differently plus the location and weather conditions all play an important part of how to conduct a thermal imaging. We were hired by Oregon Parks and Recs to conduct these surveys. 

 

Vista House Columbia River Gorge May 2008

Ceiling under stairs shows moisture leaking in from second floor stairwell. Vista House May 2008

 

Exterior image of stairway. This is where water is making its way into the stairwell inside. Then

the water is making its way into the inside wall of the stairwell wall and running down to the first

floor.

 

Heceta Head Lighthouse
Built in 1893, Central Oregon Coast .
June 2008.

This image is the interior roof west side of lighthouse. This is a perfect example of a solar load

on the exterior of the roof. The sun is warming the roof, however the white area is warmer than

the red area. It appears that there is water inside of the roof, the water has been heated and 

shows a warmer temperature than the surrounding area. 

On the same day and time as the above image this scan was taken on the east side of the

roof. As you can see the blue area is cooler than the surrounding area. This a very good

indication there is water inside of roof. No solar load on the east side.

 

 This is an image of the west side. Over cast day 50 degrees and the sun is on the east side.

After giving this area a lot of thought to figure out why heat is showing up the only reason I came

up with is: Several feet below the rim at the top of the picture and going down to the ground the lighthouse

was constructed with two walls. There is a hollow space between these walls. There has to be

water running down the inside of this wall. The water has been heated from the sun and interior

heating source the previous day.