Heritage Matters uses a FLIR Infra-red camera to help discover what lies behind the plaster or brickwork in historic buildings.
The photographs below show the normal view of the lath and plaster wall in ‘The Bull’ pub in Southam and the infra-red image clearly shows where a doorway had been and which has been blocked up in material other than lath and plaster.
In this case the Conservation Officer had asked for a non-destructive survey to check the presence (or not) of wall bracing struts in timber framework of Grade II pub. We were able to show conclusively that there were no such bracing struts and we did discover the clear outline of a previously unknown doorway that had been blocked up many years ago.