Providing Drone Based Facade Inspection Services

Drones have proven to be an invaluable resource for helping to inspect and document wall and window conditions on commercial buildings. Implementing this tool into your practice enables you to present substantial time and cost savings to your client, further bringing value to their situation. By using drones with high-resolution thermal imagers and zoom capable visible cameras, we can help you observe suspected moisture, inspect caulk and sealant conditions, observe stucco conditions in great detail, study grout conditions, perform energy loss surveys, and much more without having to spend unnecessary time and money renting lifts, scaffolding or swing stages.

Call today to learn more about how drones can efficiently help you inspect commercial wall and window structures at (888) 408-3242 

Thermal Imaging

From Concrete Masonry (CMU) to Exterior Insulation & Finish Systems (EIFS), thermal imaging is capable of helping to understand facade conditions by observing suspected moisture and studying energy loss. Thermal imaging is capable of providing value at any point during the construction process to well into the structure’s useful life.

The purpose of an infrared inspection of a building’s facade structure is to locate and document abnormal thermal patterns that can indicate problems. Conductive exceptions observed often indicate insufficiently, improperly installed, damaged, or water-saturated insulation and/or structural components. Convective exceptions are usually caused by cracks and holes that permit the controlled movement of air across the building envelope. Applicable constructions include insulated building sidewalls, EIFS, and other building finishes which can absorb moisture.

Energy loss due to missing, damaged, or misapplied insulation or air leakage is commonly observed by thermal imaging. These inspections are commonly completed from the interior and exterior of the building, depending on what needs to be observed. Completing the surveys will help identify missing or poorly installed insulation and observe possible openings in the air barrier. The observations studied are considered suspect until further validated through further physical inspection.

Infrared inspections can be conducted to detect evidence of latent moisture within building materials. While these thermal inspections are commonly conducted on the interior or exterior, we typically survey from the exterior after the walls have undergone solar loading. The moisture in the structure will often cause a temperature change because it has more mass than the surrounding dry structure. I always recommend further testing on anomalies to confirm moisture where we suspect it.

Visible Imaging

Capturing RGB (visible images) documenting the exterior condition of the facade is a crucial step in the thermal inspection process, but also provides substantial value in documenting and studying exterior conditions. With a good understanding of exactly what needs to be studied and observed in the building, we can put together a flight plan that allows us to review those areas in sufficient detail. We organize our documentation process by proposed drops off the buildings, making it easy to take our data set and perform physical inspections or make repairs based on the observations.

I have seen it time and time again. If a building is not set up for proper safe access to inspect a building after storm damage is experienced, utilizing drone technology can substantially expedite the entire process, saving a lot of time and money. One project we were involved with out of Dallas, TX was a 3 tower building that got hit by a wind storm causing substantial building envelope damage. We were brought out to perform our drone inspection within 24 hours of the weather event. Our immediate involvement and partnership with the consulting group and contractor helped see this project to completion within just 9 months from the date of the storm. The process involved inspecting conditions, writing up specs and estimating costs for repairs, completing the insurance claim, and completing the remediation work through to completion.

We can capture as high of resolution as necessary to complete a job effectively. Our imagers are capable of documenting in 20mp resolution or higher and are capable of zooming in close to the structure to see more detail when issues are observed in the field.

The images referenced here are examples from a project we completed in downtown Dallas, TX. The purpose of the project was to capture detailed aerial images of the entire facade of the building to hold accountable the contractor to fulfilling their obligations to repair the facade structure. The image on the left is the entire front face of the building. We captured roughly 1,000 images of this whole face. The images needed to be systematically organized so you know where on the building your viewing problems. The lower left image shows our organization structure. The image number is referenced in red. The referenced red square represents the larger image in the middle below while the image on the right shows the resolution and quality you can study from the images captured. As you can see, a 20mp picture captured roughly 10′ away from the building produces a high resolution image capable of seeing great detail.

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Where We Work

We have offices in Lakeland, FL, and Dallas, TX. We regularly work throughout the country with the bulk of our work being in Texas and Florida. We currently service Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Ft Myers, Tampa Bay, Orlando, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Corpus Christi, and more.

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