Tag: <span>Roof Inspections</span>

Tag: Roof Inspections

Drones Helping Building Owners Assess Damage, Prioritize Repairs and Monitor Job Progress

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National Roofing Partners (NRP) has implemented the use of drones as part of its continued commitment to incorporate the latest technologies into its operations.

Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in the Fall of 2017, leaving the island in the dark and national corporations unable to communicate with their facility managers to determine the extent of damage to their properties. One of NRP’s client, a large national retailer had 12 locations on the island and needed a way to survey the damage to their buildings to prioritize and schedule repairs.

NRP partnered with a drone service and sent teams onto the island to conduct assessments of their client’s properties. By capturing that aerial view NRP was able to show their client the extent of the damage so they were able to evaluate and prioritize repairs. The buildings that had obvious visible damage such as holes in the roof were elevated to the top of the repair list.

Re-roof in progress.

Once repairs were underway on the roofs, NRP delivered weekly progress reports utilizing the aerial drone imagery. NRP Senior National Account Manager Mallory Payne said that the use of drone imagery has provided the client a clear understanding of how the repairs are progressing. “Before using drone imagery, we relied on contractors to send us photos but they were taken on the roof, which isn’t always the best angle for a true understanding of job progress,” explained Payne. “The drone imagery is captured from above and provides a view of the entire roof where is it easy to see exactly what has been completed and what is still left to do.”

The use of the drones in Puerto Rico went so well that Payne says NRP is making it a standard operating procedure. “Previously, we used to send clients progress reports using a drawing of the roof and marking it up with comments as to how the job was progressing,” said Payne. “Now we just send them a link and they can view the photos of the work from any web browser.”

There were some kinks to work out in the beginning since the drone flyers that NRP is working with are not experts in roofing, they are experts in drone operations. Payne worked on developing three different types of flights with specific instruction on what to photograph on each project. Those three types include HVAC equipment flights, aerial overviews with individual roof section images captured and project progress flights.

Re-Roof in progress, almost complete.

Since determining the types of photos needed and developing the three flight types, the drone technology has been a key part of every project.

Drone Photogrammetry Test: Are Automated 3D Roof Measurements Accurate Enough?

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By Dan Ciprari, CEO and Co-founder, Pointivo Inc.

Roofing is one of the earliest construction segments to begin adopting the use of UAS technology for gathering measurements.

The use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has grown tremendously in just a few years. Consulting firm PwC noted in its 2016 PwC Global Report that the global market for business services using this technology is valued at more than $127 billion. The report notes that the largest single application is infrastructure, valued at $45.2 billion. As the use of UAS continues to advance, construction companies stand to benefit the most, as these solutions offer improved safety, lower costs, and better workflow integration to convert data into actionable insights.

Roofing is among the earliest construction segments to utilize UAS technology. When roof measurement reports based on aerial imagery first appeared approximately 10 years ago, the precision and reliability of aerial-based measurements were still unclear. The debate about accuracy continues, even while UAS-generated measurements have shown they can be much faster and eliminate the potential for injury during manual measurement.

Haag Engineering, a forensic and engineering consulting firm, recently completed an independent accuracy study to validate the precision of UAV-based roofing measurement workflows. These processes use intelligence algorithms to automatically extract roof geometry and measurements from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery. The results were then compared to manual measurements.

How Haag Engineering conducted the test

Experienced field surveyors independently measured 13 roofs using traditional survey methods, while independent pilots flew autonomous Kespry UAVs over these roofs to capture images and generate 3D models.

The Kespry UAV was part of a proprietary UAS platform, which included autonomous UAV flight and the capture of high-resolution imagery, as well as 3D processing in the cloud. Once the 3D data was generated, it was then transferred to a 3D intelligence platform where computer vision and machine learning algorithms detected the roof structure, classified edge types, and extracted accurate geometry and measurements for the entire roof, and then generated a detailed CAD model.

These automated measurements–which included lengths for each roof edge, area and pitch for each roof plane– were then compared with the manually collected measurements. Automated measurements were rounded to the nearest millimeter and manual measurements rounded to the nearly ¼ inch, even though measurement to the nearest inch is a typical industry practice.

The roofs

Roof pitches ranged from flat to 12:12 and individual roof areas spanned approximately 10 to 62 squares.  The test included 17 buildings, totaling approximately 535 squares (one roofing square equals 100 square feet). Four of the roofs were too unsafe to measure and were verified through conventional reporting. All sloped roofs were asphalt composition shingles, the most popular type of sloped roofing in the U.S. Flat roofs were modified bitumen. All properties were located in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex.

Average variations fall well within industry benchmarks

When comparing roof area (See Figure 1), the Haag Engineering study found that for the 13 roofs that were measured, variations between the manual and automatic measurements ranged from +1.2 percent to -2.7 percent per individual roof. The average difference of 0.6 percent was within the industry goals of +/- 2 percent.  When comparing differences in absolute values, the average variation was 1.1 percent, still comfortably within the +/- 2 percent range.

Automated measurements were highly accurate on edge lengths when compared to manual measurements, and were thus shown as providing highly accurate area results.

It should be noted that these tests used GPS data gathered from sensors on the drone itself to provide scaling data. In the future, accuracy can be improved further by utilizing more precise scaling methods like ground control points (GCP’s) or RTK GPS when the need is required.

Detailed Results

The greatest roof area difference was 95 square feet (2.7 percent of the roof area) while the smallest was just 3 square feet (0.2 percent).  The roof with the greatest difference—#6—was covered by overhanging tree branches along its front edge.

Roof #9 contained a flat roof section that measured approximately 17 squares and was partially overhung by the adjacent sloped roof. However, the automated computed area for this flat roof section was still within 1 percent of the manually-calculated area.

Conclusions

Haag Engineering’s final report summed up the results well: “The automated solution proved reliable for the 13 roofs sampled, as the total area computed 99.4% accurate on average.” These results have proved the UAS can be a viable option to capture accurate roof measurements from the safety of the ground.

Furthermore, UAS enabled much faster measurement than manual means, and much safer. In fact, the original intent of the study was to measure 17 roofs, but 4 of the 17 were too slick and/or steep to reliably measure manually, without better weather and/or a rope and harness. These roofs were easily measurable by UAS.

As UAS technology continues to advance and 3D intelligence platforms become a mainstream solution, construction firms will find an increasing number of uses. Improved accuracy, enhanced safety, lower costs and improved analytics of UAS-generated data will make these solutions increasingly attractive in a wider range of applications.

 

Note: This article first appeared on the SPAR 3D website and can be viewed here.

Roof Maintenance – What is Happening on Your Roof?

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Although the great recession seems years in the past, the long-term ramifications of the downturn continue to generate problems for facility managers.  One of the lingering symptoms was the deferment of rooftop maintenance.  In fact, many facilities across the nation experienced deferred maintenance making rooftops age faster and leaving an enormous amount of repair and/or re-roof work in the hands of facility managers.

Deferred maintenance is maintenance, system upgrades, or repairs that are deferred to a future budget cycle or postponed until funding becomes available.  That happened throughout the recession and in the years following as national and regional companies recovered.  Now there are roofs in such bad repair that they cannot even be walked on.  In fact, there are estimates that 60% of all re-roofing was deferred at the height of the recession, estimated at 210,000,000 square feet per year.

For national and regional corporations, who are looking to renew their roofing systems, one of the best strategies is a strong service and maintenance program with a national commercial roofing network; National Roofing Partners (NRP).  Yet, many multi-building owners are still working with numerous contractors all providing information in different formats without a set process.  It creates a disjointed approach to repairing and maintaining roofing systems.  To truly begin rectifying failing or dysfunctional roofs, there must be a strong and consistent plan for inspections and review to determine a priority list for repairs or re-roof.

But unless there are strong inspections that layout good solutions, facility managers can be patching roofs that are no longer viable or may simply need different solutions.  Working with a national network of commercial contractors with central communications makes it easy to begin laying out a plan of roof maintenance, service, and repair.  It is important to build a relationship with your network so that they can not only provide a plan, budget, and ongoing service but can be there for you when you need that emergency help.

This last winter was the perfect example of success for corporations that were prepared and disaster for those that were not.  When a national facility group, incorporates independent contractors for each building, they are taking many chances.  First, it is hard to build a relationship with every company and those relationships are critical when there are incredible snow loads, rain or hail.  By incorporating a service contract in advance with one national provider, the management team knows the one number to call when they need anything rooftop.  They can protect their buildings quickly and securely.

A national network like NRP provides consistency.  That consistency can pay off with the type and volume of materials needed on each roof.  Although not all roofs are the same, with inspections and a priority plan, materials can be purchased for numerous buildings delivering volume pricing.  Inspections and service will be executed the same on every building and the reports will be in the same format instead of a different report and data for each building.

A key for this type of consistency is the use of technology.   For many when thinking of roofing, they may not think of high tech.  But in today’s age, technology is everywhere including the roof.  For excellent maintenance and service of the roof, technology has become one of the most important tools for roofing contractors and their national account customers.  From smartphones to tablets, the men and women who are maintaining the integrity of roofing systems across the country rely on effective communication and information.

Roofing professionals are employing software to manage everything including project data, work order/invoicing processes and most importantly customer communication and document storage.  Many facility managers have used the customer portals offered by leading commercial roofing networks.  Maintenance portals play a significant role for facility managers, allowing them to see exactly what is happening on their roofs.  Understanding that very few managers will have the opportunity to walk all their roofs, the customer portals provide a view of the roof that inspires confidence through ongoing communications, documentation and visual review.  In fact, contractors can upload unlimited photos and video to the portals providing real-time documentation with every service or repair call.

Customer portals are also used for more than review.  Facility managers can report a service request through the portal and track the status of the work.  Email alerts help to keep all parties aware of updates or repair requirements.  The future is the speed of delivery and that means mobile solutions.  Facility managers should be looking for national networks that utilize mobile devices on the roof backed with strong cloud solutions to enable communications for service, inspections, and emergency services.

By utilizing custom inspection checklists, roof service teams can quickly communicate roof issues or concerns along with the progress of the repairs.  Custom inspection reports include photos from the roof that correlate with early imagery or even satellite or aerial imagery to create a visual timeline for the facility manager.  All of this is shared through the online customer portal providing an effortless way to distribute information to management, purchasing agents or building supervisors.

In working with technology leaders in the roofing industry, it is acknowledged that technology is no longer an option on the roof, it is mandatory.  “At National Roofing Partners, we consider ourselves a technology company,” stated Dale Tyler, president of National Roofing Partners.  “We have worked to develop systems focused on customer communication.  To provide the best systems, service providers must have cutting-edge technology that functions effectively from the roof.  Technology and mobile solutions allow our national network of commercial roofing contractors to be in contact faster and easier for rapid response and ongoing communications through the customer portals.”

When it comes to knowing what is on the roof, facility managers can get a good look by incorporating service plans that include the use of technology to create processes for inspection, service, maintenance and emergency response.  Strong processes that are consistent, building-to-building, is the only way to be able to make good decisions preparing for upcoming budgets and emergency planning.  Without the technology, the network, and the consistency, roof repairs will continue to be deferred or inappropriately prioritized leaving building owners and corporations at risk.

This blog first appeared in Facility Executive and can be viewed here.