Traditional vs. Drone-Based Roof Inspections
Traditional, boots-on-the-roof inspections pose significant safety hazards, such as slippery conditions, extreme heat, heights, uneven surfaces, and even wildlife. This can limit accuracy, as contractors must prioritize their safety. Additionally, traditional roof inspections are often time-consuming and costly, involving extensive setup, as well as posing risks of human error and incomplete assessments due to physical and design limitations.
In contrast,
drone-based roof inspections offer a safer, more efficient and accurate alternative by allowing contractors to conduct thorough assessments from the ground. Drones can capture high-resolution images quickly and accurately, as well as leverage AI-driven technology to automatically detect damage. Drones eliminate the need for ladders or scaffolding, reduce labor and equipment costs, and can be used to inspect otherwise inaccessible or dangerous roof areas, providing a comprehensive, detailed overview that enhances both contractor efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Today, some drones come with autonomous flight capabilities — enabling contractors and roofers to take flight with a simple click of a button. Autonomous drones can operate and navigate without human intervention, relying on pre-programmed flight paths. This involves the drone being able to take off, fly along a planned route, avoid obstacles, complete its flight, and then land safely on its own.
Today’s drones can capture hundreds of aerial images, which can be used to create digital roof reproductions. The process starts with flight planning, where users can program a flight path for the drone, which then systematically covers the surface of the roof. This ensures consistent overlap between images, which is crucial for an accurate digital reconstruction.
Once the images are captured, they can be combined to create a complete digital roof reproduction for review. Contractors can then zoom in on areas and examine roof facets in granular detail from a computer. Contractors can also easily refer back to images any time they need them.
Using artificial intelligence (AI), drones are able to consistently and accurately identify hard-to-see damage. Subtle damage from hail, wind, and more gets picked up by built-in AI technology that automatically pinpoints problem areas.
AI-based damage detection is considered unbiased as it removes human involvement — making it difficult for insurance companies to refute claims supported by AI-based reports. Leveraging AI damage detection gives contractors a leg up in the bidding process as they can offer customers dealing with insurance a surefire way to get coverage.
While roof damage from many causes can evade the human eye, certain types tend to be more difficult to detect. Drones help capture the following:
Hail damage is notoriously difficult to spot because it often results in the dislodging of individual granules on a shingle. It’s easy to miss these tiny blemishes that indicate hail damage. As minuscule as hail damage can be, it can be widespread on a roof and cause serious problems if left unaddressed. Such damage compromises the integrity of shingles and can cause insidious water leaks over time. Just one compromised shingle can lead to internal roof and attic damage down the line. AI-powered damage detection from drone solutions like EagleView AssessTM allows contractors to automatically detect potential anomalies like hail damage.
Wind damage often coincides with hail damage and can be just as tricky to spot manually. Contractors need to conduct close examination of a roof to spot lifted shingles or ones that are creased in off-kilter ways. Drones can spot torn, cracked, or curled shingles that indicate repair is necessary before they loosen further and start to peel back from the roof.
Lisa Cimaroli, owner of Cornerstone Restoration and JM Home Repair, used EagleView AssessTM to capture images of her roof before Hurricane Nicole passed over her property. After the storm, her own project manager performed a roof inspection and cited plenty of damage to warrant an insurance claim, but it was denied. A post-storm inspection by an EagleView AssessTM drone detected 240 impact marks on her roof — forcing the hand of the insurance company. “They ended up paying for the entire roof in direct correlation with the drone report,” said Lisa.
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