Attack of the Roof Inspection Drones

Roof inspection via drones with HD cameras are safer and can deliver more comprehensive and cataloged inspections than a traditional roof walk-around.

The home improvement tech wave that brought iPads to in-home sales presentations and infrared cameras to home inspection is taking things to another level with drones. From home inspectors to roof replacement contractors to insurance companies to realtors, it seems drones are sure to find a permanent place in the home improvement business.

The FAA is still sifting through final rules related to drone use, but it isn’t stopping people from experimenting with drones for inspecting the back sides of chimneys or those steep-slope applications that even cougar paws don’t dare tread. This home inspection video from Louisville shows a few specific uses for inspection.

Insurance companies are exploring opportunities to reduce the number of field claims adjusters and to better establish boundaries of catastrophic hail or wind events. Drones could give better access to entire structures and more quickly evaluate larger areas before requiring further on-the-roof inspections.

A white paper from Cognizant explores the idea that large areas could be explored and evaluated remotely with high resolution imagery and could even keep an aging adjuster population closer to terra firma.

The segment most engaged with drones is the real estate market. Not only can a drone give you a first person all around overview of a property, but it also can deliver some beautiful imagery. In recent years, photography has come to be the most important part of property inspection for potential buyers. The “first look” appeal of a home online has been a game changer for realtors and buyers.

For larger properties, some realtors are adapting to the importance of aerial photography. Here are a couple examples of videos showing how realtors are using drones – United Country in MN and Royal Lepage in Ontario.

As drone technology improves, they will only become more valuable to the building industry and will increase accessibility for home improvement contractors. From a contractor marketing perspective, drones bring a unique view that will wow homeowners.

What’s next for drones? Maybe a tool to measure siding/roofing based on only a flyover?