In 2017, Grenfell tower was involved in a terrible fire that took 72 lives. The cladding material was pointed at to be the cause of this devastating tragedy. All the UK buildings and Hi-Rise towers that use cladding on their facades have now to be inspected and cladding panels replaced if made of combustible materials. The average cost of over 18m building inspection has been estimated at an average of £250 000 per building when using traditional methods such as Rope Access and Scaffoldings.
These methods of facade inspection consume a lot of precious time to be installed and put at risk inspectors having sometimes to work at insane heights.
As in now many other sectors of the construction industry, the use of Drone technology brings efficiency, speed, and safety to the workers, enabling inspectors and surveyors to assess the condition of the facades from the safety of the ground at literally a fraction of the cost.
When operating a Façade Inspection, our professional Drones equipped with High Definition cameras take crisp sharp, zoomable pictures, that can be shared with other inspectors, surveyors, property managers, and stakeholders and not only the ones present on the scaffolding or using other manned methods of survey.
CamFly Films has recently been instructed to conduct a drone Facade inspection of a 23 storeys building in London, to be used as a reference during the works scheduled on the facades of the building.
Our mission was to take pictures of all the cladding panels covering the tower, and to number each panel of interest for reference if necessary.
It took us about 65 hours to complete the facades inspection, delivering High resolution, zoomable pictures identifying every panel on the 4 elevations of the building.
After a visit to the site and a meeting with the Project Manager and Façade manager, it was decided to fly the drone manually from bottom to top in a horizontal scanning fashion, taking overlapping pictures of the panels to be numbered in post-production.
All the necessary permissions were then put in place to proceed to the facades inspection by drone, permission to operate from the owner of the building, the contractor, the Council, the Tower security office, and the London city Airport protection zone where the tower happens to be located. The Metropolitan Police was notified every day during the aerial works and the residents were made aware of the drone operation. The drone was taking off and landing in a safe zone away from the public path, and at 5 meters away from the facades of the building when in flight to keep away from the footpath and mitigate the risks for uninvolved people and property.
Every session started with an on-foot visit of the site and a dynamic survey and Risk assessment to identify any new or temporary hazard including checking the presence of working site engines, measurement of electromagnetic interferences, and strength of the wind, which was always a concern in this area, not only because of the location of the tower next to the Thames River on a wide, open and flat area but also because of the constant urban winds raised from the air circulation between numerous low and tall buildings present in the area.
​
Deliverables
​
All 3000 identified and numbered panels pictures were delivered electronically to the clients who could in turn start to process them for the purpose of their request.
Safety, Speed, Cost
-
Drones are operated from the safety of the ground, monitoring each camera move through live video transmission, keeping operators off the danger and risks of working at height.
-
Drones move fast. Taking high-resolution pictures, changing spot, taking new pictures, changing spot and so on. Complete Aerialphotography of the elevations may be available in no time.
-
Cost of drone use is just a fraction of what would be charged for scaffolding or rope inspection.
Identification mesh for facade survey
Facade and roof survey by drone
Identification mesh for Tower facade survey
Identification mesh for facade survey
Aerial drone photography allows to gather high precision data for a comprehensive assessment of the condition of building facades, able to show in details the condition of Building Materials, Joints, Waterproofing systems, as well as Windows, Window seals, Glazing, Cracks in the render or flaking paint. Please call us for a non obligation quote.
Facades Inspection
by Drone
Facades Inspection
.png)
A few Testimonials from our clients
Johnatan on 28/11/23
“Thank you very much for your assistance and photos all received. I will get your invoice processed as soon as possible.”
Gemma on 27/02/23
"Thank you so much, what a great report!"
Tom on 24/05/23
Marc on 14/11/23
“Serge, thank you for a great job. Kind regards”
Vince on 25/08/23
“Thanks very much for turning this around so quickly Serge. Very much appreciated.
I hope you have a wonderful bank holiday weekend. “
Gemma on 24/05/23
Yes all received thank you. Great photos and report again, 👌 The invoice is being processed.
Andres on 15/08/23
“Thanks you, the report and images will be very helpful. I’ll send the invoice to our accounts department to process as soon as possible. “
“Thanks for the speedy turn around, I have emailed this over to accounts.”
