A reliable way to determine if a house is well built

There are always those, someone sells, and someone buys houses. Buy ready-made, tk. DIY construction or even hired crews is not an activity for everyone. This process should at least be captivating. But how to choose a house so that it is built with high quality, without obvious mistakes? After all, usually outside, and inside, everything looks beautiful.

It is almost impossible even for a specialist to identify flaws by eye. Better to resort to instrumental analysis. It can be broken down into two types - house structure inspection and house energy efficiency analysis. If the house is with a facade and with a fine finish, then it is difficult to study the structure of the house, so they immediately move on to the second: they do research on heat loss at home.

The most common instrumental analysis of heat loss is inspection with a thermal imager.

Produced exclusively in winter. In the warm season, you will not find those places where heat loss occurs. Explicit heat escapes can be seen immediately. Both outside the house and inside. They glow blue (inside the house) and red or orange outside. The equipment is expensive.

Nowadays, a thermal imager can be purchased in the form of a smartphone attachment. The most common model is Seek Thermal Compact.

Temperature range: -40... + 330 gr. There are models with connectors for Android and iOS devices. In old models of phones on Android - microUSB, and in modern models Type-C. Consider this. The prices are as follows:

A thermal imager-attachment is half the price of a full-fledged thermal imager. Such a compact device is useful not only for builders who check the work of teams, but also for realtors who are engaged in the selection of houses for clients. You can also see problems in the house with this simple device. But not always. If negative temperatures are insignificant, and the heat transfer of materials is high, then it is guaranteed to see heat loss only with the help of air doors.

This is a film that is hermetically hung on the front door. A fan is installed inside. It creates a vacuum (blows out) the air from the house. And when there is a differential pressure, the outside air tries to penetrate into the premises. If there are defects in the design, then they are immediately visible on the thermal imager. Cold air cools these places. The ventilation is closed for this time. It is a kind of air leak detector.

The air door creates a pressure difference of 50 Pa. Often, this difference is not sustained. The house is blown out. If the house is built using frame technology, then in those places where the vapor barrier film is poorly glued, where it is torn or missing, cold air will penetrate through the insulation. Cooling walls in such places will be seen by the thermal imager.

Sometimes they do the opposite, pump air into the house through the air door and look outside with a thermal imager: in which places the warm air comes out.

All data are recorded by a computer and analyzed. Because must correspond to certain values ​​for a specific area and volume of the premises of the house. An example survey is shown in this video:

The cost of such a service for 2017 was 16 thousand rub. Yes, not cheap. But the house is not like a refrigerator. It is better to bear these costs than to acquire a pig in a poke. And if the house turns out to be with structural defects, it will be too late.

I know that it is impossible to create a difference in pressure of 50 Pa in log houses in this way. Air enters the premises through all cracks. Perhaps, in this case, you can recall the phrase that many people like to repeat: "a wooden house breathes." He does not breathe - ventilation must breathe. It is simply blown out, especially during the wind. And the lost heat is additional heating costs.

What's the conclusion? If you are purchasing a ready-made house, then look for those who carry out such measurements for air exchange through the walls by an air door and inspection with a thermal imager. And only on their conclusion, make a decision. Inspect the house and plot in the fall and carry out such a study in the first frost. And if you find something, then you can request a discount to eliminate these flaws.

Earlier I posted an article about the study of concrete, in particular concrete foundation: How To Determine Concrete Strength On Site And Business Idea: House Survey For Their Buyers. It was about a mobile sclerometer device. If the house is in a draft version, then they can determine the brand of the foundation-slab, monolithic floors.

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Article with an overview and a list of the tools that I use in construction and in the country.