Edmonton Skylight Experts | Technology Behind the Scenes: How We Really Diagnose Skylights!
Hi, I’m Ryan with Alberta Skylights Elite Roofing. Today, I just wanted to take a minute and show a few of the cool tools that we use to help get us an accurate and reliable estimate and understanding of what’s happening with your home when we come to do an inspection or an estimate.
A lot of companies might not have these things. They’re kind of cool. I like using them. It really takes away a lot of the guesswork, a lot of the uncertainty. Personally, I’d rather know so that I can tailor a proper solution for your home. So, let’s take a look at some of the cool things that we like to use.
Probably one of my favorites, you’ll see me wear these in a lot of my videos, are my Rayban Metas. So, these little camera glasses here. We can go live on Meta with them. We can take pictures. We can do videos with them. But what’s really nice about these ones is if I’m in your attic and I need my hands to get around or to do some other stuff, I can use these things and do something simple like say, “Hey Meta, take a picture.”
And there you have it. I can take videos with these and they just upload straight to my phone. Really, really cool tool. Helps me show you what’s going on, document a lot of stuff. Probably one of my favorite tools out there.
Why We Use Advanced Tools for Every Inspection
Also on that camera line, we have our GoPro. Not really revolutionary. A lot of people have GoPros. But what this allows us to do is some really nice time-lapse photography. We can set this up in a corner of your room while we’re adding a skylight or a sun tunnel and give you a real transparent look as to what we’ve done on your home. It’s quick, simple shots. Takes a little bit of time to set up, but really, really nice to have. It just helps us be that little bit more transparent with you.
We have one more camera to look at today, and that would be my DJI Mavic, or sorry, my DJI Mini 4. This is a pretty cool little toy. I call it a toy, but we use it quite often. If your house has cedar shakes on it, if your house has a wood roof, for example, or stone coated steel, you probably don’t want a lot of people walking around on there, especially if it’s older. It’ll do a lot more damage than anything.
So, with a little drone like this, we can fly up over top. We can get really, really nice pictures of tight spots in there. We can get a very good assessment of what’s going on with your house, all while being safe, as well as not damaging your roof.
Those are some of those things there for regular cameras, regular photography. What about this little gizmo here? Well, this here is actually a FLIR infrared camera. So, I can tie this on to my phone. I can tie this onto my iPad. I can use it handheld like this.
Camera Technology That Shows You Exactly What We See
What’s really nice about this one is I can see things through your drywall. If you’ve got a leak that’s being very difficult to find, I can actually trace down where it’s coming through in some cases with this. If your skylight is condensating and you can’t find the reason, more than once we’ve taken and used this without even going in the attic. We can see where the insulation is missing through the back half of it.
We’ve even had customers have us walk around their house and find missing insulation, cracks in their foundation. It’s a very, very valuable tool to have. Very nice to have whenever you’re looking for stuff that isn’t exactly obvious. Another one of my favorites there.
Sometimes when we go into your house and it’s 25 degrees below zero and your skylight is leaking or your roof is leaking, we have a problem. First of all, your roof can’t leak at 25 below. Very, very unlikely, because there’s nothing melting on your roof for that water to come in.
So, we take and look at one of these things here. You probably see me use this if that’s your circumstance, because this is what’s called a hydrometer. This is going to tell me what the relative humidity is in your home.
Now, as a rule of thumb, not exact, but as a rule of thumb, for every 10 degrees Celsius the temperature drops, your relative humidity doubles. So, when you’re having problems with your windows, your doors, your skylights, they’re sweating, they’re causing all sorts of grief, we need to know for sure what the humidity is in your house.
Yes, you can buy those ones for ten or twelve dollars on Amazon. This is a pretty pricey toy. It’s a lot more efficient, a lot more effective. It’s going to tell us exactly what you’ve got going on there.
Finding Hidden Problems with Specialized Diagnostic Tools
So, what happens if you do have high humidity? Well, what are you going to do with it? That’s where this little gizmo comes in here. No, it’s not a vape. This here is actually a smoke machine.
So, we can do all sorts of things, like take and fill your bathroom up with smoke. At that point there, we turn on the bathroom fan and we get to see what happens with all of that smoke. Does it just recirculate? Does it stay in the room? Or is your fan actually working?
We use this in kitchens for your hood fans. We use it in the bathrooms. A lot of times people say they have a lot of drafts around their skylights. We can use this there to see how much air is coming through. So, a very valuable tool. Once again, it’s just a great visual representation of things that we suspect. This lets us prove it.
So, those are some of the physical tools that we actually use to make sure you’re getting your project done correctly. We also have access to another platform from GAF, and that’s called the GAF Quick Measure.
Accurate Measurements and Manufacturer-Approved Planning
What that is, is aerial photography of your home citywide. We can take almost any home and it’s going to give us a very, very detailed takeoff of the square footage of your house. That helps us be accurate so that we make sure we’re not over ordering or we’re not under bidding on your job. It helps us be accurate so you’re paying what’s fair for it.
But another really, really crucial tool of that is the GAF Quick Measure actually has a ventilation calculator built right into it. So, we’re going to take and have a link here for you to see. What this will actually do is show us your home with what GAF requires for ventilation on it.
That makes sure there’s no guesswork. The manufacturer who’s going to carry the warranty on your shingles is telling us this is what we want for ventilation, and we make sure that we get it done right for you.
So yeah, that’s some of the cool tools that we use to make sure that your house is taken care of properly. No guesswork, just doing things properly.
Anyways, if you have any questions about any of these things, feel free to give us a call, go on our website, send us an email, drop us a line. I’d love to come and show you some in person. Thanks for watching.