Type of Job/Services Completed: Building Facade and Roof Inspection

The Problem

The structure was originally a 5 tower + 4 connecting core building that was used for manufacturing. When it was no longer used for manufacturing, two of the towers and three connecting cores were converted into lofts. Since those parts of the building have been used much more heavily now, they have had extensive maintenance and repairs done on them.

ABJ Drones was hired by a forensic engineering company to image the entire building facade and roof to allow them to check that all the repairs performed were done properly, and to see if anything else needed to be fixed going forward. The buildings were seven stories tall, so they were difficult to see and image from the ground. Also, some of the building faces were difficult to see from any angle on the ground or on the roof.

ABJ Drones Solution

We flew and took images of the structure in two days. After imaging, each picture was organized according to an engineering diagram provided by the client. The diagram used a row and column system to label each location. In addition, we also sorted by tower and core number, and building face using cardinal directions.

Next, all data was uploaded to our online system, Scopito, where the client can view everything, make annotations, print a report of what they’ve found, etc. It allows the client a much easier interface to sort through images by selecting any combination of tower and core, building face, row, and column. We also sent a Dropbox link to all the files using the same hierarchy in a simple folder structure.

We performed mapping of the entire roof and generated a high-resolution orthomosaic and a 3D model of the roof to inspect the state of different roof structures.

ABJ Drones Benefits

There are numerous benefits to using ABJ Drones for roof and facade inspections. We provided imagery of the entire building, including areas that were extremely difficult or impossible to reach without using a drone. We also delivered the data in a format that makes it easy for the client to look through everything and correlate images with engineering plans.

Without drones, the client would have to take pictures from the ground and the roof, with some areas being impossible to image.