How Drones Are Streamlining Roof Inspections & Property Surveys

Drone Roof Inspections & Aerial Property Surveys

 

1) How drones are facilitating inspections in roofing, insurance, and solar
The drone industry is constantly evolving with new technology and solutions regularly entering the fold. Leveraging aerial data from property flyovers and drone roof inspections is just another example. Insurance adjusters, solar installation designers, and property managers now have the help of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to facilitate residential and commercial property inspections. Doing so saves them valuable time and thousands of dollars. They can utilize this drone data to gather full roof & property measurements, create damage assessment reports, and create architectural grade 3D models all while never stepping foot on a roof.

Traditionally, to survey a roof, professionals would need to bring a ladder onsite to climb on top of the home, inspect the roof facets by capturing images from a mobile device and take measurements around the roof and property. That process does not even consider the difficulties of analyzing that information to integrate it into the rest of the workflow. This slow and inconsistent process has become outdated thanks to UAS technology and AI integrated software. This type of aerial data can be seamlessly collected and analyzed with automated drone flights which acquires data on roof/property measurements, damaged areas, and generally will digitize the entire site in a half-hour or less. Not only is this method faster, but it reduces risk by keeping employees safer and creates consistency in the workflow.

Insurance Claims Inspections:
The insurance industry was created to help reduce risk. So it seems odd that for so many years, insurance adjusters had to take risks by climbing on roofs to gather the claim data needed to complete their claims adjustments. This is why property and casualty insurance teams across the country are turning to drones to collect this data safely. Insurance companies can reduce loss adjustment expenses (LAE) and cycle times by improving their risk analysis with high-quality consistent data.

Aerial Inspections For Roofers:
Roofing companies all across the world are realizing the benefits of drone technology. Roofers no longer need to haul ladders to and from sites for manual roof surveys to assess damage and create service estimates. They can now easily create consistent data via automated drone flights so they can focus on their sales process to increase bid output and win more work.

Property Surveys For Solar Developers:
Deploying drones for property surveys has many benefits throughout the solar installation process for residential and commercial solar developers. Before a PV system can be mounted to a roof, both the homeowner and the solar firm must feel confident that roof conditions are good enough to continue with the installation. If the roof is damaged and does not have at least 7-10 years of life left then solar companies may contract a roofer to fix these issues so they do not have to come back after 1-2 years and redo the whole installation. Additionally, solar engineers can facilitate their system design process by generating 3D models from these aerial property flyovers while reducing survey time and creation costs.

If you are a professional in one of these industries should you go ahead and start flying drones manually to obtain these images? That is probably not the best idea. First off, any professional using drones for commercial purposes must have their part 107 certification. Secondly, it takes time to build your skillset as a remote pilot if you plan to fly manually, but even if you are a competent pilot, you will likely collect inconsistent data over various properties.

So what is the best solution? Work with a professional drone company that has experience in this area who can provide the consistent data you need in a safe, efficient and compliant manner. Nationwide professional drone service firm, Skye Link, utilizes an automated flight software to obtain all drone property survey images safely and effectively in order to produce client deliverables such as 2D/3D models, roof measurement reports, and Xactimate/Symbility macro export data files.

Additionally, Skye Link leverages tools like artificial intelligence (AI) to produce automated property damage assessment reports. This is extremely beneficial for P&C or CAT insurance teams who need this information to accurately adjust claims, for roofers to formulate accurate service quotes, and/or for solar developers to assess damage before proceeding with PV installations.

Skye Link’s drone service platform gives clients the flexibility to scale and the customized solution they need to seamlessly integrate drones and aerial data into their operations. If you would like a free consultation on how you can use UAVs for aerial roof inspections or property surveys, just send us a note so we can set up a brief conversation to show you how you can benefit from drone data.