What is involved in a drone-based aerial roof survey

For anyone who hasn't done this before it may all seem a bit daunting. But a drone-based aerial roof survey is really quite straight forward especially for most standard residential properties.

Firstly, we need an area that we can have land owner (or their authorised agent - and by this we mean it may be a landowner or a managing agent or possibly some other person who is authorised by the land owner to grant...) permission for the take-off / landing of a drone on their land.

We need a reasonable space with no overhanging trees or telephone or power lines etc, ideally at the back of the property (unless the property is set considerably away from any busy road or footpath).

So no, we cant fly from the paving slabs directly in front of a property where bins might be stored unless it has a back garden which we can use instead.

But we can fly from this

We just need enough space to fly safely from and have the landdowners permission. In this instance we liaised with the neighbours on either side in case they had pets or children.

If you do proceed we would ask you for a 5 - 10 day window for the job and we would identify the best 2 / 3 days, weather-wise, and then weather watch / countdown 72 / 48 / 24 hours to the best day to carry out the project. Alternatively we can fly on a date(s) of your choosing (again weather permitting).

We provide as many images as the site provides, including a full aerial footprint of the whole roof for reference and then individual and overlapping inspection images from a grid either manually flown or via a survey tool (depending on the size of the roof, its composition [particularly varying heights], position in relation to any trees, power lines or similar). It is then easy to identify the precise location of any issues on the roof.

Similarly, if we spot anything in the flight, we will fly additional images from various angles / heights to allow for a comprehensive inspection of the structure as in the above example https://www.thamesvalleydrones.co.uk/hanoverbedford (commercial) or https://www.thamesvalleydrones.co.uk/clareroad (domestic)

We mark up anything that we see that might require further investigation / attention on the images.

We are on site typically for 1 or 2 hours, depending on the roof, and in the air 20 - 40 minutes. We normally check the images on site before we leave and where applicable we can leave the client with a full set of images. However we usually review the images on a larger screen and edit / mark-up where required.

We normally process images in 24 / 48 hours working days (for a standard domestic or commercial property) , and provide you with access to previews of your images & a hi-res sample image (for approval) via a private page on our website before invoicing.

We then invoice and then, on payment, provide you with a link to all the hi-res / hi-detail files via a download site.

Job done! It really is that easy.