When water invades your home—whether it’s from a burst pipe, a leaking appliance, or a sudden Iowa storm—your first instinct is to dry up what you can see. You grab towels, set up standard fans, and wipe down the surfaces.
But water is incredibly deceptive. It quickly seeps behind baseboards, travels up drywall, and pools under flooring. To the naked eye, a wall might look completely dry, but underneath, structural damage and mold could already be taking hold.
At Maxx Restoration, we don’t guess whether your home is dry. We prove it. That is why our team utilizes advanced moisture detection tools like thermal imaging (infrared) cameras on many of our water damage restoration jobs in the Des Moines area. We use these tools to find hidden moisture.
Here is how this high-tech tool protects your home, your family, and your wallet.
Thermal imaging cameras don’t actually “see” water through walls like X-ray vision. Instead, they detect temperature differences on surfaces. According to Flir a manufacturer of thermal imaging cameras states this The sensor inside a thermal camera, called a microbolometer, detects changes in infrared radiation and converts them into electrical signals. These signals are then processed into a colourised image where each hue represents a different temperature. This technique, known as infrared thermography, enables the non-contact measurement of surface temperatures with remarkable precision.
Now that sure seams like a lot to understand, so here is an easy way to understand how thermal imaging helps us find hidden moisture. Because wet building materials (like drywall, insulation, and wood studs) hold moisture, they evaporate heat differently than dry materials. This evaporation makes the damp areas slightly cooler than the surrounding dry structures.
When our certified technicians scan a room with an infrared camera, these temperature variances show up as distinct color patterns—usually deep blues and purples for cold, wet areas, and bright yellows or reds for dry, warm areas.
The Full-Service Advantage: Finding the water is only half the battle. Because Maxx Restoration handles both the emergency dryout and high-end remodeling, we use these thermal scans to pinpoint exactly what needs to be removed and what can be saved. We don’t tear down your kitchen or bathroom blindly; we act with surgical precision.
Mold spores can begin to colonize in as little as 24 to 48 hours in a damp environment. If moisture is trapped inside a wall cavity, you won’t know it’s there until you smell a musty odor or see black spots appearing on your drywall. By then, you are dealing with a much larger, more expensive remediation project. Thermal imaging allows us to catch that trapped moisture on day one, stopping mold before it can start.
When wood framing stays wet for too long, it begins to warp, split, and rot, compromising the structural integrity of your home. Infrared technology ensures that we don’t leave the job site until every hidden stud and subfloor is entirely returned to safe, dry levels.
Filing a homeowner’s insurance claim for water damage can be stressful. Insurance adjusters require clear documentation of the loss. The side-by-side visual evidence of a standard photo and a thermal image clearly demonstrates the true scope of the water migration. It proves to the insurance company exactly why certain materials needed to be dried or replaced, helping your claim move forward smoothly.
Many traditional restoration companies will extract the standing water, set up a few fans for a couple of days, and call it a night. But without advanced diagnostic tools like thermal imaging and moisture meters, they might only be doing half the job. Leftover moisture will almost guarantees future headaches. With Maxx Restoration we will address the full extent of the water damage and complete all needed repairs to your home, this is why we say we are your One Call Remodeling & Water Restoration Company.
At Maxx Restoration, we treat your home like our own. As a locally owned, fully licensed, and insured single-source provider, we manage the entire process from the initial emergency cleanup to the final, beautiful restoration of your living space.
If you’ve recently experienced a leak or want peace of mind that a past water issue was fully resolved, don’t wait for mold to tell you there’s a problem.
Contact Maxx Restoration today 515-802-7583 to schedule a professional inspection.
All information provided in this blog is of the sole opinion of Maxx Restoration, any statements, claims, or comparisons should be fact checked by reader, furthermore some information in this blog may be for entertainment purpose and should not be considered factual. Lastly, many photo’s shown are for visual reference and may not be real people or real projects . Should you find any information in this post to be inaccurate or protected please contact Maxx Restoration at 515-802-7583 or CLICK HERE To Send Message and our team will address it immediately.