Scott Wood Associates, LLC Consulting
About Us
Welcome to Scott Wood Associates, LLC.
Experts in building science thermography
Scott Wood, president of Scott Wood Associates, LLC, is an expert in Investigations of and Training in building science and infrared thermography for pre and post-design, construction, air barrier, condition monitoring, restoration, and water intrusion. Scott has performed investigations on hundreds of buildings, discovering defects as well as providing corrective recommendations to prevent heat loss, air infiltration, and moisture intrusion. In addition, Scott Wood Associates, LLC has provided the expertise in developing and providing training in building science thermography through cooperation between the Building Science Institute and the Infrared Training Center since 2003.
Our services: Scott Wood Associates performs building investigations during and/or post-construction providing forensic and consulting services to the designer, contractor or building owner/manager. For existing construction or new, from design review - through construction, to building completion, a thorough investigation will be completed providing our clients with a comprehensive evaluation and report.
Building Science and Infrared Thermography
Buildings have been our primary shelter from the elements for thousands of years. They have become increasingly more complex as new construction materials are discovered, implemented into the design, and integrated into our dwellings. With the rapid development and introduction of new building materials; building design, construction, and maintenance have had a difficult time keeping up with these advances.
Basic controlling factors for the physical, chemical, and biological reactions that occur in buildings are; heat flow, air flow, and moisture flow. When investigating a building these controlling factors are the investigator's key to what is occurring or what is the condition of the building. A very important tool in these investigations is infrared thermography. Thermography’s ability to detect heat, converting these patterns into visible images, makes it an indispensable tool for the building investigator to observe and evaluate heat flow, air flow and moisture flow.
Missing insulation, and variations in the thickness or conductance differences are easily observed with infrared thermography. In areas where the insulation is less, heat moves through the area quicker, providing a pattern easily observed with infrared thermography. Thus infrared thermography provides the investigator a non-invasive view of heat flow characteristics within the building enclosure. Thermography provides a view of the insulation conditions of the building.
Airflow through the building envelope can be monitored using infrared thermography by observing patterns of heat differences due to air of a different temperature flowing onto an object, heating or cooling the object. Air movement through a building envelope will transport heat as well as moisture through the building material. This reduces the energy efficiency of the building, as well as moves a tremendous amount of moisture vapor via air transport.
Moisture or evaporative cooling is observed as a cooler pattern on the wet building materials. In many cases, a cooler pattern may be no more than heat transfer differences and not evaporating water. This can produce inaccurate thermal pattern interpretations and poor or incorrect building diagnostics unless the thermographer has the experience and training to provide accurate results.
To effectively and accurately examine buildings it is important to understand the complex building’s systems and
components. In addition, extensive training and experience with the investigative tools such as infrared
thermography is necessary for an accurate investigation. Our extensive design, investigative, and forensic
experience as well as training provide, Scott Wood Associates, LLC the necessary tools to provide effective building evaluations.
Scott Wood, President
Excellent thermography classes and thermal vision.