When water gets into a structure, it destroys it beyond our vision. Without a quick solution, the wood, metal, and other components get ruined with time.
Before a person goes about doing any damage assessment, they should first be able to identify the moisture wherever it is.
Using just your eyes to detect moisture in any material is nearly impossible. Most water intrusions are hidden and require special equipment to enable proper evaluation.
What Are Moisture Detectors?
Moisture detectors or meters help in determining if building materials contain moisture or not. They are commonly used to detect leaks in a structure, especially outside the visual range.
How Do Moisture Meters Discover Non-Visible Water Damage?
These meters use how resistant a material is to an electric field or charge to determine the amount of moisture in it. They are popular and easy to attain on the market.
Moisture meters come in two types: non-penetrating (non-invasive) and penetrating (invasive).
- Non-invasive Meters
Professionals use these types often for inspection or troubleshooting.
A non-invasive meter can detect moisture and its source using electromagnetic sensor pads that don’t have to break or damage the surface they are reading.
It requires simple contact to read the moisture content in a material.
- Invasive Meters
Invasive meters have metal probes that penetrate the materials’ surface before reading their moisture content.
When switched on, electrical current flows from one pin to the other, and the resistance is measured.
This type is best for determining the moisture content in wood.
Why Are Moisture Meters Important?
Mold and mildew can only survive on wet surfaces. They spread rapidly to infect many materials in a short time.
You can stop their build-up in walls, floors, cabinets, and many other wooden structures if you can detect moisture in them early.
Here, the meters don’t just help you protect the wood molds east as food but prevent serious health risks that they pose to humans.
It is best to know the extent of water damage in an item to enable proper replacement.
Since some of the damage may not be visible, you can easily categorize a damaged material as okay during an assessment. This is dangerous and leads to several buildings collapsing even with regular examination for damage.
Moisture meters provide accurate readings when testing for water intrusion. They eliminate the need for several quality control mechanisms that save time and effort.
Even without much experience, the possibility of a professional engineer making mistakes when using this tool reduces significantly.
The ability to detect non-visible water damage in building materials protects consumers from buying substandard ones for their projects.
Many crooks attempt to pass off mold-infested wood or those salvaged from floods as new ones since the damage may not yet be evident to the eye.
Moisture meters help maintain the use of high-quality materials in the building industry.
Conclusion
You can’t trust your eyes alone when trying to determine damage, especially water-damaged wood. The quality of your work doesn’t just depend on your skills but also your tools.
Avoid wasting time and money as a consequence of being negligent. Use moisture meters to ensure that you do a high-quality assessment.