On any major building restoration job, moisture is a constant concern. This is one reason why many experts carry moisture meters with them on their restoration jobs. However, there are more uses for a moisture meter than simply detecting moisture. Some alternative uses of these moisture-measuring devices include:
1: Identifying Mold Risks
Mold grows extremely well in damp, dark environments—such as in basements or in between walls. Using a moisture meter allows restoration experts to identify areas that are at high risk of developing mold so it can be remediated.
For testing mold risks, pinless moisture meters are great at quickly spotting excess moisture in wood planks, beams, and other solid structural materials, while pinless meters are reliable for testing insulation, drywall, and other materials.
2: Identifying Pest Intrusion Problems
Rats, ants, termites, and other small pests require several things to survive in a structure—shelter, food, and water. Excess water in different building materials can attract pests and create the ideal conditions they need to thrive.
Using moisture meters to find pockets of moisture and moisture intrusion sources allows restoration experts to identify specific risks for pest intrusion and fix them—hopefully before they can become a full-blown infestation.
3: Recording the Severity of Moisture Intrusion for Dry-Out/Tear-Out
For any professional, documentation is the key to success. Using moisture meters to gain objective, quantifiable measurements of the amount of moisture present in different building materials allows professionals to thoroughly document their dry-out/tear-out operations. This documentation, in turn, helps to minimize or prevent disputes regarding the necessity of labor for such operations.
Here, having a moisture meter that can store and export measurements with date and time stamps is especially useful. This makes it easy to collect documentation and share it with others to track restoration job progress.
4: Finding Moisture Intrusion Sources
Sometimes, there is a leaky pipe, a hole in a ceiling, or a crack in a foundation or wall that can serve as a moisture intrusion source in a structure—continuously allowing in more water and causing damage over time. Finding and fixing these moisture intrusion sources is a key part of preventing future damage to a structure after the restoration job is complete.
Moisture meters make it easy for restoration experts to identify moisture sources in a structure so they can be fixed as soon as possible and dry-out can be completed.
5: Verifying that Dry-Out is Complete
Once dry-out/tear-out is done, moisture meters are used to quantifiably determine that no excess moisture is left in the affected structure. Over the course of several days, tests can be repeated in a building to make sure that no new pockets of moisture develop, and that the building materials have reached their equilibrium moisture content (EMC) for the normal temperature and humidity conditions of the structure.
Verifying that dry-out has been completed in this way helps to prevent call-backs by making absolutely sure there are no moisture intrusion sources in the structure that were missed during the initial restoration effort. This, in turn, helps to protect the professional reputation of the expert or team performing the restoration by preventing client dissatisfaction.
By preventing call-backs, restoration experts can also save time and money for labor on jobs that were already “complete” while freeing up those resources for completing new restoration jobss.
Moisture meters can be surprisingly useful devices for any restoration job. Learn more about using moisture meters for restoration by checking out the free guide at the link below!
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