“Thank God for Hygronet!” says Borge Enga one of Polygon AS [Norway] Project Managers.
Borge explained further details in a recent conference call with CDL, the makers of HygroNet™. The story began with an instruction for Polygon to deal with water damage in a rather unusual property – a house of some 180m2. The house not only had many rooms with many different construction techniques, but it had valuable wooden ceiling panels that were to be protected at all costs!
Borge proposed a drying plan involving a number of small capacity fans and dehumidifiers to create the minimal environmental stress to the building and the all important ceilings. He also installed Hygronet™ remote monitoring sensors to the property.
After 2 weeks the property owner called to say there were problems with the ceilings. Borge said “the first thing I did was to log on to the Hygronet Bureau from where I was and check what was going on via the remote monitoring. It showed a constant drying curve with no dramatic changes to either ambient temperatures and humidities, or the in wall measurements – all nice and stable”
The owner wasn’t convinced and returned to the insurance company who in turn brought the surveyors back into the discussion. Borge & Polygon remained convinced that they had not caused any problems – although there remained the mystery of what had caused it.
A month later the owner was on the phone again complaining of damage to a chimney. At a meeting with the Surveyor and with a potential claim for damages of €25,000 on the table, Borge showed him the Hygronet Bureau with graphs showing trends from all the sensors including ambient RH%, in wall / floor RH%, ambient and in wall temperatures, as well as Specific Humidities, all measured every hour, 24/7 throughout the length of the job.
At that point, and with comprehensive evidence of a gentle and consistent drying regime from the remote monitoring equipment, it was admitted that as well as an escape of water claim there was also a structural insurance claim on-going and in fact that had been responsible for the damage to ceilings and chimneys!
So as well as all the usual benefits of using HygroNet™ remote monitoring equipment [reduced site visits, alarms by email / SMS on all monitored parameters against both high and low levels, verification of drying processes through immediate trend graphs] on this occasion the availability of robust immediate data from site allowed rebuttal of what would otherwise have been a financially damaging claim, and one that could have larger effects on Polygons reputation and standing in the industry.
