Included Free on Every Inspection
Certified Master Inspector®Oregon City & Portland Metro
Thermal Imaging & Infrared Inspection, Included on Every Job
Thermal imaging comes with every Trusted Home Inspections job, at no extra charge, no exceptions. In a climate this wet, the infrared camera is how hidden moisture gets found at all, so charging separately for it never made sense to us.
5.0 Stars Google & Yelp · 3,000+ Inspections · OR OCHI #1898 · WA DOL #1856
Thermal Imaging Finds
$0
Extra charge, included on every inspection, no exceptions, no upsell at the door
Hidden moisture behind walls and ceilings
Active roof leaks before they reach drywall
Missing or failed insulation in walls and attic
Overheating breakers and electrical connections
Plumbing leaks inside finished surfaces
Air sealing failures and drafts
$0
Extra cost, thermal imaging included on every inspection
3,000+
Inspections completed with thermal camera included
Board Certified
Certified Master Inspector® designation
15°F
Minimum temperature differential for effective infrared imaging
WHY THERMAL IMAGING MATTERS HERE
36 Inches of Rain a Year. Moisture Hides.
In a wet climate, damage gets old before it gets seen. A slow roof leak soaks insulation for months before drywall stains. A failed window flashing wets framing for years before paint bubbles. A shower pan can drip into a subfloor for a decade before anyone feels a soft spot.
That's exactly what the camera finds. Wet wood, wet insulation, and wet drywall hold heat differently than dry stuff. The camera sees that difference even when your eyes can't. On a lot of Portland homes, the only sign of a problem is the picture on the infrared screen. No stain. No smell. Nothing on the seller's disclosure.
The gear is expensive and learning to read it takes years. We still don't charge extra for it. In this climate, an inspection without the camera leaves real findings on the table, and those findings are usually the expensive ones.
Master bathroom wall, Beaverton home. Standard photo on the right shows clean paint. Infrared on the left shows a cold blue patch from a slow shower valve leak that had been wetting the cavity for about two years.
36"
Rain a year in Portland, mostly October to April. That's also when the camera works best. The wettest months are the strongest months for infrared.
$2K → $15K+
What crawlspace moisture costs to fix early vs. after it eats your framing. The camera catches it early, before the studs go.
"The thermal camera showed moisture in a wall with no visible staining whatsoever. Turned out to be a slow shower pan leak that had been running for years. The seller didn't even know. That finding alone was worth far more than the inspection."
Amanda T., North Portland (Google)
WHAT THE CAMERA FINDS
Four Things Only the Camera Sees
These are the issues that show up on infrared and nowhere else. Hidden from your eyes, missing from the disclosure, and expensive to fix once you own the house.
Hidden Moisture & Water Intrusion
This one shows up the most in Portland homes, and it costs the most when it's missed. Wet insulation, wet drywall, wet framing, all hold heat differently than dry stuff. The camera picks up that difference even when the wall looks fine.
We scan every exterior wall, every ceiling under a roof, every shower wall, and every spot where pipes run behind finished surfaces. Around here, the camera turns up moisture often enough that it's a routine part of the walk, not a rare event.
Real example: A 1990s home in Beaverton showed a cold spot on the master bathroom wall. Nothing visible. A slow shower valve leak had been soaking the cavity for about two years. Fixed before closing, the repair ran $1,800. Missed, it would've meant tearing the wall out and dealing with mold.
Electrical Hot Spots
Bad wiring runs hot before it fails. A loose lug, an overloaded breaker, a corroded connection, all give off heat the camera can read. Long before a breaker trips. Long before anything arcs.
We scan every panel we can open, plus junction boxes, outlets, and switches when something looks off. A breaker running 30 degrees hotter than the one next to it is not a finding your eyes can make. The camera makes it easy.
Real example: A mid-century home in Lake Oswego had a Federal Pacific panel that looked clean. The camera showed two breakers running much hotter than the rest, consistent with the known Stab-Lok failure pattern where breakers don't trip under load. The buyer had that documented before closing instead of finding out later.
Lake Oswego electrical panel. The two bright breakers in the center are running roughly 40°F hotter than the rest. Visually, this panel looked clean.
Missing & Failed Insulation
Insulation that's settled, been pulled apart by pests, or was never put in shows up as cold streaks on the camera during heating season. With Portland power bills going up every year, missing insulation costs you twice. Comfort and money.
The camera maps where the house is bleeding heat. You see exactly which walls and which ceilings need work. Useful before you close, and useful for planning what to fix after you move in.
Real example: A 1970s home in Oregon City showed clean thermal banding across the north wall of the living room. Classic sign of settled batt insulation. The wall hadn't been opened since the house was built. The buyer got a thermal map of exactly which cavities were empty, which is the kind of thing you want to know before you own it.
Roof Leaks & Attic Moisture
A roof leak that hasn't hit the ceiling yet is invisible. By the time it stains drywall, it's been wetting your insulation and sheathing for weeks or months. Mold usually gets a head start too. The camera catches the leak before any of that.
We scan ceilings during the inspection, then cross-check what we saw against what's in the attic. Cold spots in winter or warm damp spots, both get two photos in the report: infrared and standard.
Real example: A 2002 home in Vancouver, WA showed a faint thermal anomaly along a ceiling-wall corner in the master bedroom. No stain. Nothing on the disclosure. The attic check found an active leak at a valley flashing, documented with photos before the buyer had to make any decisions.
Master bedroom ceiling, Vancouver WA. The cool patch in the upper corner is active moisture from a leaking roof valley two stories above. No visible stain at the time of inspection.
HOW IT FITS INTO THE INSPECTION
Not a Separate Scan. Built Into the Inspection.
The camera works best when it's in Russ's hand the whole inspection, not when it's a quick pass at the end after he's already made up his mind. It points him at the stuff that needs a second look, a moisture meter check, or a closer look in the attic.
Every flagged spot gets two photos. One infrared, one standard. Both go in the report, side by side, with plain words about what was seen and what to do next.
Why two photos? Because a thermal picture alone can fool you. A cold spot might be moisture. Or missing insulation. Or a stud bay. Or a vent right behind the wall. The camera shows you the spot. Russ tells you what's most likely behind it. The camera is the tool. The reading is the inspector.
1
Electrical Panel Scan
Every panel we can open gets scanned first. Hot breakers, warm buss bars, overloaded circuits, all get flagged and double-checked by hand.
2
Attic & Ceiling Plane
We scan ceilings before and during the attic inspection. Cold or damp spots on the ceiling tell us where to look in the attic, and the attic visit confirms what the camera showed.
3
Exterior Walls & Windows
Outside walls get a full scan. We're looking for insulation gaps, air leaks at window and door frames, and water sneaking in behind siding. Penetrations and corners get extra attention.
4
Bathrooms & Wet Areas
Every shower wall, every sink cabinet, every toilet base. Pan leaks, slow supply line drips, and bad wax rings all show up on the camera before they show up on your eyes, then the Protimeter meter confirms how wet it really is.
5
Crawlspace & Floor System
Floors above the crawlspace and the crawl itself get scanned for water tracks, cold spots where insulation has failed, and plumbing drips you can't see from above.
6
Documentation in the Report
Every flagged spot gets both an IR and a standard photo in your report, side by side, with a plain explanation. You see what Russ saw and what it likely means.
PROFESSIONAL-GRADE EQUIPMENT
The Camera Matters. Cheap Ones Miss the Important Stuff.
Not all thermal cameras are the same. The cheap ones, the kind you can buy for a few hundred bucks, have low resolution and poor sensitivity. They can find a giant cold wall or a panel on fire. They miss the slow leak, the warm breaker, and the insulation gap that just started showing.
Pro-grade cameras built for building inspection read down to fractions of a degree. That's a real difference. A cheap camera needs a five-degree gap to register anything. A good one picks up changes around 0.05 degrees, which is the range a slow leak actually lives in.
Gear is only half of it. Reading the camera takes years. A cold spot can mean five different things. Russ frames and finishes homes as a licensed general contractor, so when he sees a cold patch on a Portland 1970s ranch, he knows which framing pattern that is and what's most likely behind it. That's the part the camera can't do.
He's used the camera on every inspection for more than ten years, across 3,000+ jobs in Oregon and Washington. That's what makes it useful instead of just present.
High-Resolution Detector
Pro-grade sensitivity catches the small stuff cheap cameras miss. Slow leaks. Warm breakers. The early stage of insulation failure.
Two Photos per Finding
Every flagged spot gets an infrared shot and a standard shot. Both go in your report, side by side, so there's no doubt where it is or what it shows.
10+ Years of IR Experience
The camera has been in every inspection from day one. 3,000+ jobs with infrared in hand. Not something we tacked onto the menu last year.
Builder Context
Russ builds homes too, as a licensed general contractor. He knows where water goes when it gets into a wall, because he's built those walls. That changes what the camera readings mean.
CONFIRMED, NOT GUESSED
The Camera Finds It. The Meter Proves It.
A thermal camera reads surface temperature. That's it. A cold patch on the screen could be moisture, or it could be an air leak, a stud bay, or missing insulation. The camera points at the spot. It doesn't confirm what's there, and a report that stops at "possible moisture anomaly" leaves you guessing.
Russ doesn't stop there. Every spot the camera flags as possible moisture gets checked with a Protimeter SurveyMaster (BLD5375), a professional dual-function moisture meter. It's the same meter restoration contractors and water-damage pros use. Pin mode reads actual moisture content inside the material. Search mode scans behind a surface without leaving a mark. The reading turns a "maybe" into a number.
That number is what makes the finding usable. "The camera saw something" is a hunch. "The meter read elevated moisture at this exact spot, at this reading" is a measurement, and it's what a contractor needs to scope a repair.
Russ pairs the meter with the camera on every inspection, no extra charge. The camera narrows down where to look. The meter says how wet it actually is.
The Protimeter SurveyMaster (BLD5375) confirming an active leak at the base of a toilet, a spot the thermal camera flagged first. The camera points to the area; the meter gives the hard number.
Protimeter SurveyMaster BLD5375
Professional dual-function meter. The industry standard for moisture work, not a hardware-store gadget.
Pin Mode: A Hard Number
Probes read the actual moisture content inside drywall, framing, and trim. A real measurement, not a color on a screen.
Search Mode: No Damage
Non-invasive scanning checks behind a finished surface without a single pinhole. Confirms moisture without tearing anything open.
Documented, Not Guessed
A meter reading at the exact spot turns "that looks damp" into a number in the report. Hard data, recorded where it was taken.
ℹ️ Why it matters: A thermal camera without a moisture meter is half the job. The camera says "look here." The meter says how wet it is. You get both, on every inspection, at no extra cost.
HOW WE COMPARE
Thermal Imaging: Us vs. Everyone Else
Thermal imaging shows up on a lot of inspection menus as an extra. Here's what including it actually changes.
What You're Comparing
Trusted Home Inspections
Most Competitors
Thermal imaging included
✓ Every inspection, $0 extra
✗ Often a paid add-on
IR used throughout inspection
✓ Integrated from start to finish
Often a final pass if included at all
Findings confirmed with a pro moisture meter
✓ Protimeter SurveyMaster, every flag, $0 extra
✗ Skipped, or a paid add-on
Dual-image documentation
✓ IR + standard photo, every finding
Inconsistent
Inspector's construction background
✓ Licensed general contractor
✗ Rarely
Certified Master Inspector®
✓ Board-certified designation
✗ Most inspectors do not hold it
ℹ️ Bottom line: Thermal imaging is built into how Russ inspects, not a box you check at booking. The price you see on the pricing page is the price you pay, and the camera is already in it.
HONEST LIMITATIONS
What the Camera Can't Do
A good inspector tells you what the tool does and what it doesn't. The camera is strong. It's not magic. Here's where it stops.
It Doesn't See Through Walls
The camera reads surface heat. It can't see through drywall. A cold spot tells you something's different in that area. It doesn't tell you exactly what. That's why we follow up with a moisture meter and a hard look.
Temperature Differential Required
The camera needs at least a 15°F gap between inside and outside to work well. In Portland that means October through April is the strong season. Mild summer days show fewer findings, not because the house is clean, but because the physics need a temperature gradient. We'll tell you straight up when the weather is fighting us.
Moisture Has to Be There Now
Wet or recently wet stuff shows on infrared. A leak that dried up six months ago might not. That's why we still crawl the attic and the crawlspace by hand. Dry leaks leave stains and rot that the camera misses but our eyes catch.
Anomalies Have Multiple Causes
A cold spot on an exterior wall could be moisture. Or missing insulation. Or a stud bay. Or an air leak at a penetration. The camera flags it. Russ figures out what's most likely behind it. The camera is a finder, not a diagnostic.
It Adds To, Doesn't Replace
The camera works with our eyes and our Protimeter SurveyMaster moisture meter, not in place of them. The meter gives a hard number that backs up what the camera showed. Crawling the attic or crawlspace gives us proof the camera can't. All three tools, every inspection.
Finished Surfaces Only
The camera reads what it can see, finished walls, ceilings, and floors. It can't check pipes buried in concrete or framing deep inside a cavity that isn't sending heat to the surface. That's why we still go in the crawlspace and the attic on every inspection, no matter what the camera shows.
ℹ️ Note: We tell you this because anyone who sells the camera as the answer to every hidden defect is selling you something. The camera is strong. It also has real limits. You should know both.
CLIENT REVIEWS
What Buyers Say About What the Camera Caught
5.0 stars on Google and Yelp. Real buyers, and the findings the camera turned up on their houses.
★★★★★
Russ is extremely knowledgeable and personable. I have used his services several times. In addition to his extensive experience in home inspections, he also has a solid construction background, so he really knows what's what. Highly recommend!
DM
Dimitriy M
Google • 5 Stars
★★★★★
My wife and I had an excellent experience with this home inspector and couldn't be more satisfied. From the very beginning, they were professional, punctual, and extremely thorough. They took the time to explain every part of the inspection in a way that was easy to understand and never rushed through any questions I had. This inspection gave me complete confidence in my home purchase.
VI
Vladimir Ignatovich
Google • 5 Stars
★★★★★
We had an excellent experience working with Russ as our home inspector. He was professional, punctual, and extremely thorough throughout the entire process. Russ took the time to clearly explain his findings, answered all of our questions, and made sure we understood both the major concerns and the smaller details. His report was detailed, easy to follow, and delivered promptly. We felt confident moving forward thanks to his expertise.
EK
Erika Kushtan
Google • 5 Stars
★★★★★
I am a real estate agent in the Portland area that loves when my clients pick Russ, he is an incredible inspector. He has a non alarmist way of describing his findings that helps each person to learn and understand in a better way. I appreciate his expertise and also, his sense of humor!
AR
Amy Rhew
Google • Real Estate Agent • 5 Stars
★★★★★
Russ was a pleasure to work with throughout the home inspection process. He communicated clearly, arrived on time, and conducted a thorough and detailed inspection. Russ took the time to explain his findings, answered all of my questions, and was transparent and upfront about both minor issues and potential concerns. His professionalism and attention to detail gave me confidence in my home purchase decision.
R
rueben97
Google • 5 Stars
★★★★★
Russ was very detailed and found out way more details that were missed by other inspectors. He is very knowledgeable and detail oriented! Will definitely go with him next time I need an inspection.
PL
paul lukyanov
Google • 5 Stars
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Thermal Imaging FAQ
It's free. Every inspection. No checkbox to add. No line on the invoice. The price you see on the pricing page already includes the camera, because thermal imaging is part of how Russ inspects, not an extra you can add or skip. In a climate this wet, charging for it would mean handing you a less complete inspection. We don't do that.
Depends on the weather. The camera needs at least a 15°F gap between inside and outside to give clean results. Portland summers don't give us that gap. We still use it, and big obvious problems still show, but the sensitivity drops compared to heating season. October through April is the strong window. If your inspection is in July and the house has no AC running, Russ will say so on the spot. Book online or call (971) 202-1311.
Not always. A cold spot can mean moisture. It can also mean missing insulation, a stud bay, an air leak, or a vent in the wall. The camera flags it. Russ figures out the most likely cause, documents it with two photos, and tells you what to do next. Not every flag turns into a defect. But every flag gets looked at. See the full FAQ page for more on what inspections cover.
No. Mold has no heat signature of its own. What the camera does find is the wet wood, wet drywall, and wet insulation where mold likes to grow. If the scan turns up moisture, you can add mold air quality testing to the inspection: air and surface samples sent to Sporecyte, an accredited laboratory, with real data on what's there and how much.
Yes. Condo inspections are interior-only by nature, since they cover your unit and not the building's common systems. But the camera is still in there. The best spots to scan in a condo are bathrooms, exterior walls, windows, the electrical panel, and any ceiling under a roof or under a neighbor's wet area. See the pricing page for condo rates.
Every flagged spot gets two photos. One infrared. One standard. Both go in your report side by side, with what was seen, the likely cause, a severity rating, and what to do next. The two-photo setup means you can see exactly where on the wall or ceiling it is. You get a report delivery window when you book.
Yes, and we push hard for it on any home in Oregon City or the Portland metro. Radon has no color, no smell, and the thermal camera can't see it. You need a separate 48-hour radon test that we deploy at the start of your inspection. Radon testing is $150 added to any inspection. EPA rates Clackamas County, which includes Oregon City, as Zone 3, but individual homes still test high, so we recommend testing on every purchase. Full add-on pricing is here.
Yes, every time. The camera only reads surface temperature, so a cold spot is a clue, not proof. Every spot it flags as possible moisture gets confirmed with a professional Protimeter SurveyMaster (BLD5375) dual-function moisture meter, the same tool restoration and water-damage pros use. Pin mode reads the actual moisture content inside the material; search mode scans behind a finished wall without leaving a mark. That turns a "possible anomaly" into a hard number in the report. Russ pairs it with the camera on every inspection, no extra charge.
