Drones are increasingly being used by roofers and insurance specialists in Colorado. In the past they were only used to take aerial photos of projects for social media purposes. In the last few years there has been great progress at A.I. Drone software used by Colorado roofers to identify physical damage to the roof of their home. This article briefly reviews these advances and explains why you might want your next contractor to use a drone during your inspection.
As mentioned earlier, in the past, drones were only used for taking photos and occasionally assessing inaccessible areas of your home. The cost of the drones was prohibitive and the difficulty of using them made them unattractive to roofers. Additionally, the video quality was subpar, and while damage detection software was available, it was never incredibly accurate.
All of that has changed in recent years. There was a race by drone software companies to become the first A.I. Technology that can accurately detect hail damage on roofs. Aspen Leaf Roofing teamed up with the midsize Utah company that won the race. Not only have they developed technologies that are accurate in detection, but they have also used deep learning artificial intelligence that is constantly improving the accuracy of drone inspections.
Some have argued that drones tend to look over or overlook damage and are inaccurate when compared to a physical inspection. The facts couldn't be further from the truth. The reality is that the drones see everything. You don't miss any damage. If anything, the drones pick up too many pot marks and other bugs that look like hail but aren't.
It is important to note that after a drone inspection, a qualified roofer still has to check the detected damage to the drone for accuracy and legitimacy. Again, the drone sees everything, so most of the nicks will show up as hail, which may not be the case.
This shows one of the drone's best features, its thoroughness. This is a good thing as most insurance carriers require a certain number of hailstorms on a roof to approve a full compensation claim. It's always better to have too much feedback than too little, and the drones are better than a physical inspection alone in this regard.
Besides the general thoroughness of the drone inspection, the other nice aspect is how fast it works. A drone can scan your roof, detect damage and take measurements faster than a traditional manual inspection. Most drone inspections can be completed in 15 to 20 minutes. This improves the customer experience and is ideal for busy roofers like ours.
In our opinion, the positives of using drone inspections make a lot of sense. They're accurate, fast, and keep contractors much safer by limiting the time spent on the roof. Many of the larger insurance carriers are currently testing the exact same technology that we are using for their own claims process.
We have stated earlier that we would highlight some of the downsides associated with drone inspections, but the reality is that the only negative is the cost. The tools needed to conduct drone inspections are terribly expensive. To be accurate for roofers, the drones need to capture clear, transparent images. Taking high quality images requires expensive cameras mounted on equally expensive drones. In addition, the A.I. Software is also extremely expensive, costing tens of thousands of dollars annually to subscribe. However, this is a problem for the contractor, and not necessarily the homeowner.
Aspen Leaf Roofing sees itself as the most forward-looking roofing company in Colorado, and the cost of the drones is justified for our business model. The system that we use for roof inspections gives us a clear advantage over our competition. In our opinion, drones are a necessary component in damage detection and in a positive homeowner's experience with insurance claims. The next time you encounter a hailstorm and call a roof inspection contractor, you may want to ask if they are using drone technology to detect damage. Not only is it faster and more accurate than traditional methods, but it's fun to watch the drone in action and it delivers some nice pictures of your home!
