DRONES FOR ROOF INSPECTIONS?
There is no substitute for an actual trained 
professional’s eyes, ears, and or hands when it comes to roof inspections – damage, missing shingles, problem areas. For a homeowner, pulling the ladder out of the garage may seem like the easiest way to go about inspecting the roof of your home, and it used to be – but not anymore.
Traditional methods of inspecting a roof are antiquated, inefficient, and more importantly just plain dangerous. Drones have replaced the ladders and are absolutely better for performing roof inspections.
First – where are drones utilized when it comes to roof inspections:
- Real Estate Roof assessment for Home Inspections
- Roof Repairs
- Assess Storm Damage for Insurance Claims
- Solar Panel Installation Assessments and Inspections
- Real Estate Appraisals
- Insurance Adjuster Claims
- Regular Home Maintenance (gutter, shingles, tuckpointing)
Multiple real-life scenarios which have supported
the growing need for drones in roof inspections:
SAFETY
The fact that drones enable an individual to perform a roof inspection while remaining safely on the ground may be the single greatest advantage of their use. More than 300 people die each year in the United States falling from ladders, and over 150k ladder-related injuries are treated in the emergency room. The use of drones all but eliminates this risk entirely.
EFFICIENCY
Industry studies show utilizing drones for inspecting a roof can cut the inspection average down time from three hours to one. For a roofing estimator or an insurance adjuster, this can prove invaluable allowing them to inspect far more properties in a single day with a higher degree of accuracy.
ACCESSIBILITY
It goes without saying that there are some buildings and homes with roofs 
that are either inaccessible or simply too daunting to just pull out the ladder. A drone-based roof inspection performed by a skilled pilot can yield images a person would never be able to access. Can you really picture yourself atop that fourth-story gable with a tape measure and a camera, holding onto a ladder; or dangling under an overhang?
MANPOWER
Compared to a team of people with ropes and tape measures, generally a single individual is required to inspect a roof. For larger commercial properties a drone pilot may bring along additional VOs (visual observers) to aid in maintaining LOS (line of sight) 
during the data collection process. Even in this instance, a two-man crew would be completely done before a traditional team even accessed the roof.