Surveying equipment and tests

Buildings with cavity walls may incorporate potential faults that are likely to enable moisture to pass from the outside to the inside of the building. A borescope is a fibre-optic device that can be connected to a camera or video camera to record images. It can be used to inspect cavities by inserting it into a small hole drilled externally in the mortar course, or it can be inserted into other voids (e.g. floor).

Borescopes (sometimes called borendoscopes) are not particularly easy to use. The image is rather limited, although instruments are improving through advances in technology. More advanced instruments can be fitted to a camera or video so that images obtained can be captured and stored. Nevertheless, in floors you would probably see so much more by lifting a few floorboards. The presence of insulation within cavities would severely hamper a borescope investigation.