The renovation saga is slowly coming to an end. The first floor and attic will be done soon - only a few cosmetic details (last coat of paint) remain, oh, and the awnings and shutters, which are taking forever to arrive; substantial work remains to be done only on the ground floor. 

 

The architect and I thought and talked a fair bit about thermal bridges, and I ended up doing more than she advised (and paying extra for it, obviously). The fact remains that our assessment tools were (a) opening up walls and seeing that insulation was grossly insufficient or nonexistent, (b) using a simple wall thermometer (the one that shines a bright red dot), (c) feeling walls to figure out whether they are cold or damp.

 

Is there a way that I could find out reliably (and affordably) what thermal bridges remain now that the renovation is largely done? It may be too late for anything other than a postmortem, at least on the two top floors, but I'd like to have a way to evaluate the result - and it's not impossible that I'll carry out a second stage of renovations a few years down the road (replacing the attic roof by a higher and better-insulated one, or even adding an extra story), so I'd like to know where I am at.

If you have a smart phone you could consider FLIR 1.

Worked a treat for us.

Here's one I found earlier

Ask at the university to borrow a thermal imaging camera.

 

Alternatively, get a Frenchman to look at it, any Frenchman will do. They will all shrug and kaught the same, then say 'wait until the cheese goes mouldy'.

FLIR 1 looks neat. I can ask about borrowing or renting an imaging camera. 

 

Sigh. I wish I had asked this a month ago. Temperatures in Paris will not drop below 7C for the next month, meaning, most likely, till September. Even for 7C,  I'd need to stay awake until 4am or so next Tuesday...