The hole is somewhere. We tell you where.
Electronic leak detection finds the actual breach in a waterproofing membrane and marks it, without flooding anything.
Electronic leak detection puts a low electrical potential across a waterproofing membrane and follows the current to the one place it can get through. Every breach found gets marked on the roof itself and pinned to a plan, so the crew doing the repair is standing in the right place.
It works on a roof that is already built, it finds breaches far too small to see, and it does it without putting a drop of standing water on the structure.
It is a diagnostic service and nothing else. We do not install roofs, we do not modify them, and we do not bid the repair we just found. We test, mark, document and report, and then the decision is yours to make.
Why not just flood the roof?
Because a flood test answers a different question than the one you asked.
What a flood test tells you
Whether water gets through. If it does, you still do not know where. You are now looking for a breach with the assembly saturated and the clock running.
It also needs the drains blocked and then cleared, puts thousands of pounds of standing water on a structure that may never have been designed to carry it, and cannot be done on a sloped roof at all.
What electronic testing tells you
The location of every breach, marked on the roof and on a plan. The membrane stays dry, the structure carries nothing it was not built for, and the output is something a roofer can act on the same day.
The fuller comparison is on electronic testing versus flood testing.
ELD, EFVM, LVIT, vector mapping
Buyers arrive using different words for the same test, usually because a specification used one and a quote used another. ELD is electronic leak detection. EFVM is electric field vector mapping. LVIT is low-voltage integrity testing. Some specs say electronic integrity testing, some say vector mapping.
They describe one principle: put an electrical potential across the membrane and follow the current to where it escapes. If your spec names one and you were quoted another, that is almost always vocabulary rather than a different scope. Send us the wording and we will tell you straight whether it matches.
Three ways to do it, and we carry all three
Low voltage by scanning platform, low voltage by pole where there is overburden, and high voltage on a dry membrane. The method is chosen by the roof, not by which instrument a firm happens to own.
Low voltage: the Detec IntegriScan, which is what we reach for first
Most low-voltage testing you will be quoted is vector mapping: a conductive boundary cable laid around the perimeter of the test area, every drain and penetration shunted off so it does not bleed voltage, the whole field energised at once, and two probes then worked across it hunting the voltage differential. It works, but the setup is substantial and the field is only as good as the boundary someone laid.
The IntegriScan does away with the perimeter wire entirely. The test field is generated directly beneath the scanning platform and travels with it. There is no boundary to lay, nothing to shunt, and no site-wide field to maintain. The unit is simply walked across the membrane, and it is testing its own patch of roof continuously as it goes, calling out a breach with an audible and visual alert the moment it passes over one.
The practical consequences are the reason we default to it. Setup is minimal, so more of the visit is spent testing. The platform covers up to 40,000 ft² in a day. And because the field moves with the scanner rather than being cast across a whole roof, coverage is complete rather than approximate.
It is also the only method available for testing black EPDM and other semi-conductive membranes, which every other electronic method simply cannot read. For vertical surfaces, rebar flashings and awkward corners a scanning platform cannot reach, the Vertical Scanning Unit does the same job by hand.
It needs a conductive substrate under the membrane to complete the circuit. Structural concrete and metal decks give that as they are. On conventional assemblies over wood, insulation or coverboard, TruGround conductive primer provides it, which is something to plan into a new roof before the membrane goes down rather than discover afterwards. Talk to us at design stage and it costs nothing.
The IntegriScan is the basis for ASTM D8231 and the only FM Approved ELD method.
Low voltage by pole, for testing over overburden
Where a roof is finished with pavers, ballast or a green assembly, no platform is going to reach the membrane. Here we use long-handled pole electrodes, on Buckleys equipment, to test the membrane through the overburden without lifting it.
It is slower than the scanning platform, which is why it is the second choice rather than the first. It is also a capability most testing firms do not have at all, and the alternative is taking the roof apart.
High voltage, in detail
A conductive brush is swept across a dry membrane carrying a low-current signal. The energy involved is comparable to the static shock you get off a car door: it is not a hazard to people, to the structure, or to building systems.
Where the membrane is thin or breached, the current arcs to the deck and the detector registers it, so the technician can mark the spot. Because nothing is wetted, it suits roofs that cannot be flooded or sprayed, and it works on vertical surfaces and parapet flashings where getting an even film of water is impossible. It also finds pinholes that a water-based method can miss. We test with Tinker & Rasor equipment.
Which one does your roof need?
IntegriScan scanning platform. The deck is already conductive, so nothing needs adding and there is no perimeter to set up.
IntegriScan. Up to 40,000 square feet in a day, complete coverage, and the FM Approved method if an insurer or a specification is asking for one.
IntegriScan, and only IntegriScan. It is the only electronic method that can test these at all. If you have been told your black EPDM roof cannot be electronically tested, that was true of whoever told you.
Workable, but the assembly needs a conductive layer. TruGround primer goes on before the membrane, so this is a design-stage conversation rather than a site-day surprise.
Low voltage by pole electrode, testing through the overburden without lifting it. Slower, and a capability most testing firms do not have at all.
High voltage. Occupied space below, an already saturated assembly, freezing conditions, or an owner who will not accept water on the roof.
The Vertical Scanning Unit for low voltage, or high voltage. Water will not sit on a vertical surface long enough to carry a conventional field.
High voltage. It resolves smaller defects than a water-based method will.
Tell us the membrane, the deck and whether there is overburden, and we will tell you which one your roof needs before anybody comes out. If the honest answer is that electronic testing is the wrong tool, we will tell you that too.
What it works on
If your assembly is not on this list, ask. The limit is usually the deck rather than the membrane.
When it gets used
Prove the membrane is watertight before anyone signs off, and before the overburden goes on.
Manufacturers increasingly accept, and specifications increasingly require, integrity testing at close-out.
When the interior signs are inconclusive and nobody can find where the water is actually getting in.
Know the real extent before pricing the work, rather than after opening it up.
Confirm the repair actually closed the breach, rather than assuming.
What the test runs to
The guide covering electronic methods for finding and locating breaches in a waterproofing membrane. The right citation when a scope needs to name the test without tying it to one method.
The practice for low-voltage electronic scanning specifically.
Our low-voltage scanning runs on the Detec IntegriScan, the only FM Approved electronic leak detection method. If an insurer or a specification asks for an FM Approved test, that is the one they mean.
Writing this into a specification? Paste-ready scope language, our registration numbers and the qualification package are on the specification page. Most testing firms make you email for that. Send us your draft scope and we will tell you where it is loose enough for a low bidder to walk through, at no charge and with no obligation to name us.
What you get at the end
A marked plan locating every breach we found, photographs of each one, and the method and the reason we chose it stated in writing. Field markings on the roof itself, so the crew fixing it is standing in the right place.
Repairs get re-tested. A report that says a breach was found and repaired, without confirming the repair worked, is worth very little in a dispute.
We do not sell roofs and we do not do the repairs, so nothing in that report is written by someone who profits from what it says.
Tell us about the roof
Membrane type, deck, roughly how big, whether there is overburden, and what stage the job is at.