Drone Photography Roof And Building Inspections

At the beginning of 2020 we were contacted by the Trentham Estate to carry out a drone survey roof inspection for some derelict grade 2 listed buildings. A surveyor would also be present to view the photography and be on hand to make any special requests. The derelict buildings consisted of three buildings and a bell tower.

The Trentham Estate

The Trentham Estate is a visitor attraction in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and consists of the main estate, new shopping areas, eateries and the Italian gardens.

Due to the condition of the derelict buildings it was not considered safe for any physical inspections to be carried out by any personnel hence the use of the drone photography. With the help of the Trentham estate staff the area was secured so that members of the public would not approach the area of the drone flights.

Method

After many photos taken, from the side, from above, from various heights we were able to present data to the surveyor for assessment. The whole process without a drone would consist of erecting scaffolding around the three large buildings and closing off areas to the public for various days. This is one of the many examples of the uses and advantages of drones equipped with cameras.

Equipment

We chose the DJI Inspire 2 with the olympus 25mm for the majority of the inspection. However, another approach we could have taken would be with our Phantom 4 Pro together with Drone Deploy software to map out the whole site and create one large image which can be zoomed into to check the buildings in general and up close. The new Mavic 4 Pro also has several zooms which we have found to provide very good quality images up close without being very close to the building or roof in question.