Drone Roof Survey
Landlord and Managing Agent Roof Surveys
Scheduled roof surveys across a portfolio or a block, with one written report per address and a consistent record kept year on year.
If you look after property you do not own and cannot see, roofs are the part of the building that costs the most and gets checked the least. Nobody rings about a roof until water is coming through a bedroom ceiling, and by then the cheap fix has already been missed.
Flying a portfolio changes the economics of checking. Several addresses can be covered in a day, each gets its own report, and the imagery from one year sits alongside the next so you can see what has actually moved rather than relying on memory.
For blocks and communal roofs it also produces something a committee or a freeholder can read. A photograph of a blocked parapet gutter ends an argument about whether the service charge is being spent on the right thing.
What is included
- One report per address, not one report for a batch
- Communal roofs, parapet gutters, flat sections and rooflights
- A record you can put in front of a freeholder, a committee or a leaseholder
- Year on year comparison from the previous survey imagery
- Insurance certificate supplied up front for your compliance file
- Multiple addresses covered in a single visit where they are close together
Communal roofs and the service charge
Communal roofs are where the money goes and where the disputes start. A parapet gutter that has silted up, a single ply membrane that is ponding, a rooflight seal that has perished: none of it is visible from any window in the building, and all of it turns into an internal damage claim eventually.
The value of a survey here is as much political as technical. Leaseholders who can see the photographs tend to stop asking why the work is needed, and the freeholder has a dated record of the condition before and after.
Building a record rather than a snapshot
One survey tells you the condition today. Two surveys a year apart tell you the rate of change, and that is what actually drives a maintenance budget.
Because the same elevations get captured the same way each time, moss growth, mortar loss and the spread of ponding can be compared directly rather than argued about. Deciding which of nine roofs gets the budget this year becomes a question with an answer.
On the day
How a portfolios and blocks runs
- Step 1
Address list
Send the addresses. Airspace and access are checked for each one and anything awkward is flagged before a date is set.
- Step 2
Route the day
Properties grouped by geography so travel is not being paid for twice, which is what makes portfolio work worth doing.
- Step 3
Fly the round
Each address covered to the same standard, with the same elevations captured each time so future surveys compare like with like.
- Step 4
Reports out
One report per address within 48 hours, plus a short summary of which properties need attention first.
Behind the work
Kit, cover and qualifications
CAA registered
Operator ID and Flyer ID held, plus the A2 Certificate of Competency. Every flight is planned to the rules that apply to the site, and the paperwork is available before the visit if your agent or insurer wants it.
100 megapixel camera
A DJI Mavic 4 Pro with a Hasselblad camera and 6K video. The resolution is what lets a survey stand off the building at a safe distance and still show a hairline crack in a single slate.
Radiometric thermal
A DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced carrying a 640 by 512 thermal camera. Used where a leak needs tracing rather than just photographing, because water shows as temperature long before it shows as a stain.
Insured with Coverdrone
Full commercial cover for the operation. Certificates go to managing agents, block committees and insurers as a matter of course, without anyone having to chase for them.
Portfolios and blocks
Landlord and Managing Agent Roof Surveys questions
- Do tenants need to be told?
- It is good practice and it makes the visit easier. A short note explaining what is happening and when is provided to send out, and the aircraft is working on the roof rather than looking at windows.
- Can you do several addresses in one day?
- Yes, and that is usually the point. How many depends on how close together they are and how big the roofs are, and you get a realistic number back when you send the list.
- Will you supply your insurance certificate?
- It goes over with the quote as a matter of course, along with the operator registration details, because most agents need both for the file before they can instruct.
Where
Landlord and Managing Agent Roof Surveys across the South West
Also on this site
Get it looked at
Book a roof survey with Drone Roof Survey
Tell us the address and what you need looking at. Sam Hembury will come back with a fixed price and the next available slot.