As any homeowner or building owner will attest, worrying about roof damage is a major concern.  When it comes to roof damage, small issues can easily become major problems.  The roof of a home or building takes the largest brunt of mother nature’s wrath, so much so that even a well installed roof is subject to damage.  Small cracks, lifting tiles, or loosened nails can all lead to your roof springing a major leak.  These leaks sometimes can’t even be seen from the inside until it is too late and you are left with a large, moldy water stain on your ceiling or a collapsed roof.  Having to make major roof repairs can often be way out of budget for many property owners.  Depending on the size of roof needed, a new one can cost around $10,000 or more.  The best option is to have your roof inspected before any major issues arise.

Many roofing and construction companies recommend having your roof inspected annually.  Whether or not you agree with that could be dependent on the environment of where your roof is.  For example, someone who has a home in an area with regular severe wind and rain storms would need to check a roof more than someone in an arid climate.  Some inspection companies will charge around $100-$200 for an inspection, while others will not charge at all if you agree to hire them for the work. 

Traditionally the inspection is done by a trained roofer climbing onto your roof to get a detailed look at the overall health of the roof.  While these individuals are trained, each time they have to climb onto a roof they are putting themselves at risk.  If the roof being inspected is in a state of deterioration the inspector’s job is even more dangerous.  The process is also a lengthy one in which the inspector has to safely gather all pertinent data.  Once the data is collected it can be quite some time before it is fully analyzed and an estimate can be made.  This is why some more progressive roofing companies are turning to drones to complete roof inspections.

Today, high quality drones are relatively inexpensive.  They are a small investment that can provide a large payoff.  The most obvious reason why drones make sense in this situation is that they eliminate the need for roofers to put themselves at risk climbing onto a roof.  A drone can give a roofer a complete birds eye view of the roof in question, rather than the small sections they can see on their own.  While some may be skeptical, assuming that a drone simply can’t collect the same data a human could, that is wrong.  Drones used for roof inspection use high resolution cameras that pick up the smallest details.  The drones are also equipped with geo-tagging GPS to allow inspectors to pinpoint exact points of interest.

Inspection drones also have thermal sensors that allow an inspector to see below the surface of the roof for hidden damage, an impossibility with the naked eye.  Further more, inspection drones allow inspectors to create orthomosaic images of the roof.  This allows the inspector to analyze the collected data in pieces and a whole side by side.

The simple fact is that using a drone to complete roof inspections will give better results than a manual one.  Just like using a computer to compile and organize your taxes, using drone technology for roof inspections makes sense.  That’s not to say there is anything wrong with manually completing your taxes or inspecting a roof, they just may not be the most efficient means to an end.