Roof Survey Report

Roof Survey Motivation Factors

We have already discussed drone roof inspections in a previous article highlighting advantages in terms of speed, coverage and cost savings over other methods. Our definition of a roof survey over an inspection is simply greater and more methodical coverage. Be it inspection or survey we can still include a RICS chartered surveyors report where larger commercial sales or claims are required. Roof surveys are normally issued for large properties as the first stage in creating a detailed and actionable maintenance and repair schedule. A detailed roof inspection report is also beneficial to property owners to pass to insurers and roof repair companies. This gives transparency between the client and contractor estimates for rectification works.

Roof Survey Process

A roof survey can take place as part of a wider building survey. A qualified professional surveyor may access the internal roof space to assess structural integrity, insulation and membrane material. At the very highest level a roof surveyor would assess a roof by hand using a cherry picker, ladder or scaffolding prising at different elements such as mortar, mastics, tiles and guttering. But this level of attention to detail is very unusual and is considerably more expensive.

This is where conducting a roof inspection using a drone provides considerable advantages. An old roof in bad condition could be dangerous to access with risk to the assessor and those below should anything be dislodged.Our survey process follows. Firstly an aerial photo of the entire roof area is taken, then methodically each of the following:

The Roof Survey Report

Our written roof survey report based on our drone survey images will categorise the severity of any problems we find. As part of routine survey this aids proactive maintenance actioning any faults that will escalate in the coming months or years leading to damage. It allows accurate cost estimates to be made for repairs and transparency to the client what needs to be rectified. Something as simple as finding a slipped tile or blocked gutter could save a lot of money in further interior damage after heavy rain. It is at the discretion of the client how the data is assessed, either to self assess, have one of our professions or their own appointed chartered surveyor. Faults can be systematically covered and reported in terms of severity.

Digital Reporting Tools

Our simplest option is to upload the images and report to the cloud and circulate an access link via email. However this doesn’t fully articulate the richness digital reporting can fully deliver. There are a number of online tools for data reporting drone data. For roof survey we recommend Scopito which allows surveyor and contractors access to the reporting. An example roof survey report can be downloaded here. All the images frim the roof inspection can be reviewed and accessed by different users to categorise and comment. The aggregated results can then be downloaded as either a csv file (spreadsheet) of as a rich interactive PDF report.

Our Offering

Our operators can perform a drone roof inspection of a small to medium property in around 30 minutes. For your piece of mind we are accredited by the CAA for safe use of drones via an Operational Authorisation. Our operations are also insured to £5 Million of public liability cover. On completion of the inspection we can provide you with the images via an email link. It’s your choice if you require a full set of images or just the highlights. We can also provide a digital report or provide a full survey via one of our surveying partners both for an additional fee we will quote ahead of any work.

How It Works? Just fill out the contact form below with you name, email, phone number and requirements. Most importantly please provide your full address or link to a map pin. We require this information to plan a safe flight. We can still fly near airports but require additional time to gain authorisation. Ahead of the day please make any family members or neighbours aware a drone inspection will be taking place. Some people are naturally wary given the bad press drones receive. On the day one of our operators will first meet you and go over any of your concerns.