We interview the homeowner to see what specific problem areas we need to address and if there are any areas of the home that are preferred for us not to enter. We will also need copies of the last year's worth of utility bills. If you don't have copies, they are easily available from your utility company. Test day prep instructions will be left with you or emailed to you ahead of time. A Building Performance Institute (BPI) certified building analyst from The Building Doctors is assigned to each "Whole Home Performance Check-Up" and it takes at least 4-6 hours to collect all the data. It is not necessary for the homeowner to be home for the full test period but they are always welcome to stay because sometimes questions can arise that only you can answer. It helps to have big pieces of furniture pulled away from exterior walls and to run either the heat or AC for a few hours before we perform our tests. This ensures that the true temperature is absorbed into the framing and not just on the surface, which is extremely helpful when using the infrared camera. The infrared camera works best when there is a 10-degree difference between the inside and outside temperature. This can be hard to achieve during the Spring in Fall seasons but we will do the best that we can according to the weather.
Upon arrival on test-day, we will do an outside inspection of the property. We will measure the perimeter to confirm the square footage of the building and we will also measure the roof and all of the walls and windows for our energy modeling software. We will notate and photograph any issues with the exterior area. We will place one of our data loggers in your crawl space, which will record the humidity and temperature variances over a period of time. We will retrieve the logger before we leave and download the information for analysis.
Please note – The Building Doctors treat every building with the utmost care. Protective drop-cloths are placed on the floor and on all workspaces and we wear covers on our shoes and Building Doctors scrubs during our testing procedures. We respect your home and property and take great pride in protecting it during the test.
Some of the tests that are done in our Comprehensive "Whole Home Performance Check-Up" include: