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How to Recognize & Diagnose Stains on Building Walls - Causes of High Heating Costs InteriorAPedia © Enter your search terms Submit search form   Search This Website - InspectAPedia.com

• How to Recognize & Diagnose Thermal Tracking, Soot Stains on Building Walls - Diagnosing Causes of High Heating Costs
• How to recognize poorly insulated building walls or ceilings and how to pinpoint building air leaks
• A photo-guide to common indoor ceiling and wall stains and what they mean

This article describes How to Recognize & Diagnose Thermal Tracking, Soot Stains on Building Walls - Diagnosing Causes of High Heating Costs and discusses other various interior wall and ceiling stains and explains how to recognize thermal tracking, thermal bridging stains, building air leaks, and building insulation defects. Often these stains are mistaken for toxic indoor mold. When investigating a building for a mold problem, you can save mold test costs by learning how to recognize Stuff that is Not Mold or is only Harmless Mold but may be mistaken for more serious contamination. These are substances that you can easily learn to recognize in buildings. Save your mold test money, and increase the accuracy of your mold contamination inspection or test for toxic or allergenic mold in buildings: review these items to learn recognize non-fungal materials or even possibly harmless cosmetic "black mold" often mistaken for "toxic fungal growth." © Copyright 2008 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Air Leaks Causing Thermal Tracking Stains on Building Walls

Thermal tracking stains may appear on the building walls themselves, in a pattern of vertical "stripes" which may be roughly 16" or 24" on center, marking the (cooler) location of wall studs or ceiling joists. Thermal tracking stains may appear as dark black/brown wall stains appearing close to floor level, above heating baseboards mounted on exterior walls are probably due to thermal tracking.

Heaters can cause other dirt or soot stains on walls: But beware, a baseboard heater itself causes an air convection current up through the heating baseboards and in a dirty home or in a home occupied by pets or smokers similar stains may appear on other building interior walls (such as in this photograph) even if the wall is well insulated. If staining appears vertical and at intervals thermal tracking is probably occurring.

We welcome more thermal tracking, soot tracking, air bypass leaks, and similar photos of indoor stains as well as text suggestions to expand this detail and would be glad to credit contributors.

Usually soot marks, thermal bridging, or thermal tracking stains appear, if at all, in the building interior locations discussed in the remaining sections of this article.

Use links just below or at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Technical Reviewers

Particular thanks are due to experts and also consumers who read these articles and suggest corrections, changes, and additions to the material. Content suggestions, technical corrections and content critique are invited for any of the content at our website.

• Daniel Friedman - InspectAPedia.com ^TM Website Author/Editor
• Thanks to Alan Carson, Carson Dunlop, Associates, Toronto, for technical critique and content suggestions regarding thermal tracking.
• Critique, contributions wanted: Contact Us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution.

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