Texas has seen a surprising amount of inclement weather over the last several weeks. From Houston all the way up to the Dallas/Fort Worth area, storm season has caused significant damage across the state.
One of our clients reached out and requested a thermal inspection of a flat roof in a Dallas area suburb. This particular area saw the worst of the recent inclement weather.
When we spoke to the client, they told us that, during a particularly nasty storm, a large part of the roof had been picked up/lifted off the building structure by the wind. So, we knew going in that the roof would likely be in rough shape. We set out to perform a thermal roof inspection to assess the damage.
Flat Roof Inspection and Analysis
As always, we started the project with a brief site survey to check for any obstacles that could hinder the inspection process. Thankfully, there were minimal obstacles; the only relevant obstacles were power lines that lined the perimeter of the parking area. We double-checked that the flight route we programmed would keep the drone away from the power lines, and then we were ready to get started.
We ran the autonomous flight plan, and the drone captured 300 images of the roof. We later uploaded these images to the post-processing software we use to create a 2D thermal map that we include in our inspection reports.
Below is the 2D thermal roof map we generated.
After running the autonomous drone mapping mission, we performed a manual infrared inspection. As always, we flew the drone around and captured critical photos that highlighted any suspected moisture damage (or lack thereof) on the roof.
As you can see, this roof has quite a bit of suspected moisture damage. Based on the color palette we used and the time of day the inspection was performed, areas indicative of moisture ingress are depicted in yellow/orange (warmer than the surrounding roof).
The majority of the suspected moisture was concentrated around the edges of the roof, and there was a significant amount evident in the southwest portion of the roof.
There was also an obviously damaged area on the western edge of the roof. And lastly, you can see minor moisture-damaged areas scattered throughout the remainder of the roof.
The End Product
Just like with any thermal roof inspection project, the end product we deliver to our clients is a comprehensive inspection report. This inspection report contains a synopsis of our general findings, the environmental data from the time of the inspection (ambient temperature, humidity, wind speed, etc.), a screenshot of the 2D thermal roof map, and a selection of critical photos manually captured during the inspection.
The intent is to make this product an all-encompassing information guide to steer the client in the right direction from a decision-making standpoint.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day, this was another successfully diagnosed case of moisture ingress. Though some of the damage on this roof would have been visible to the naked eye (such as the obvious damage along the western side), aerial thermal imaging capability provided enhanced insight as to the condition of the structure.
Equipped with this information, the client (which is a roofing company in this case) can now help their client make a more informed decision regarding the roof repair and restoration process.
