Drone roof surveys are an increasingly popular way to inspect the condition of a roof. There are many benefits to using a drone for this purpose, including cost savings, time savings, and safety. In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits of drone roof surveys for both homeowners and building managers
What is a drone roof survey anyway?
Drone roof inspections are aerial inspections of a roof that are carried out using a camera equipped drone. The drone flies just above the roof, taking pictures at intervals over the entire roof area. These images capture every element of your roof including hips, gulleys, and around chimneys.
Aerial roof inspections offer several benefits over traditional methods of inspection, such as scaffolding or scissor lifts. Here are 7 benefits to drone roof surveys you need to know.
1. Saves Money
Aerial roof surveys are usually much more cost-effective than traditional methods of roof inspection. Scaffolding and access equipment can be expensive to rent or purchase, whereas a single drone pilot on the ground can typically complete an aerial roof survey on their own resulting in a cost saving to you.
2. Saves Time
Drone surveys can save a lot of time. It can take hours to set up scaffolding or lifts and then dismantle them again afterwards. Similarly, access equipment like scissor lifts need to be maneuvered into place to assess each small area of roof one section at a time. Drone inspections are inherently much quicker than both options. We can deploy our drones in a matter of minutes, capturing high-resolution images of your roof structure to find areas of defect and damage before they get worse.
3. More Detail
Drones surveys capture the roof structure in much more detail. From the ground, it’s difficult to spot small defects or problems. Even with a scissor lift, it’s impossible to capture the detail that a drone survey can. Aerial photography provides a much better view of the roof condition, allowing us to quickly identify areas that require further investigation, preventing further damage.
4. No Access Headaches
Drones only need a small area in which to takeoff. Once in the air drones can freely access all the nooks and crannies of your roof to provide a comprehensive overview of the entire external roof structure. This is in stark contrast to motorised access equipment and scaffolding which need clear areas around the perimeter of the building in which to operate. Even then access to difficult to reach areas of the roof might be impossible because of safety concerns.
5. No Safety Headaches
Aerial roof surveys are much safer than traditional methods of inspection. There is no need for anyone to work at height, which is one of the UK’s biggest causes of fatalities and major injuries. The drone pilot remains on the ground at all times, operating the drone remotely.
6. Environmentally Friendly
Drones are inherently kinder to the environment than scissor lifts, cherry pickers, or scaffolding. There is no need for any petrol-powered access equipment, and no emissions are produced by the drones themselves.
7. Easy to Analyse
Drones are powerful tools for data capture in aerial roof surveys. Most defects are obvious for the eye to see thanks to crystal clear high resolution imagery.
For more advanced users and bigger structures GPS information baked into the images can be used in a variety of ways. Each image has a GPS tag which helps identify the location in larger roof structures such as factories and large office buildings. In addition, images captured by drones can be fed into photogrammetry software to produce accurate 2D maps and 3D models. For more information on drone mapping please visit our dedicated drone mapping page.
Conclusion
In conclusion, drone roof inspections provide several benefits for businesses and organisations. Many homeowners and businesses realise these benefits and are turning to drones for their roof inspections.
If you are interested in learning more about how a drone roof survey can benefit you or your organisation, please contact us. Our team would be happy to discuss the possibilities with you and answer any questions you may have. Thanks for reading!