EK Specialist Surveys

About Our Aerial Drone Surveys

Before drones, accessing elevated areas of a multi-storey building required a scaffold, access through residents’ or tenants’ demised areas or often unsafe passage from roofs. Inspecting at close quarters and taking the necessary photographs from the right angles was often a compromise. Now we are able to provide our clients with high definition video and stills through the use of state-of-the-art drones.  

Why use drone surveys?
A building surveyor armed with a drone is a formidable combination where access is difficult, unsafe or expensive to achieve. Here are some reasons why a drone survey may be ideal for your buildings’needs:

• Safety: Clients and managing agents have obligations to follow UK Working at Height Regulations. Operating a drone from the ground ensures the risk of a fall is eliminated. 
• Speed: A drone survey can be commissioned and a surveyor can be on site within a few days. That means immediate UHD video or stills available to us to analyse and report on, and also for your client to supplement our write-up. In most cases, there is no need to rely on the availability of residents or tenants to access areas visible from their flats (or through their flats to access the roofs).
• Cost: The use of a drone precludes the need for expensive scaffolding or safety harnesses. Where expenditure restrictions are in place for budgetary or statutory (‘section 20’) reasons, drones can fulfil a landlord’s obligations at a far lower cost. 

When are drone surveys particularly useful? 

The key applications for drones in a building surveying practice include:

• Major works surveys: Whether a landlord is obliged to carry out major works to a residential or commercial building, the chances are the costs are passed onto the leaseholders or tenants, who will wish to see accurate budgets. For service charge paying leaseholders in residential buildings, accurate costs are essential when raising funds before and during ‘section 20’ consultation period. That is why specifications of work need to be as accurate as possible. Often provisional sums are allowed for when it comes to areas of a building that are only accessible via scaffold, particularly roofs. A thorough drone survey of these areas will allow a surveyor to specify works accurately, thus providing far more certainty to tendering contractors. 
• Building pathology surveys: When it comes to design or material deficiencies, alleged problems with workmanship or environmental factors causing building defects, getting close enough to diagnose accurately can be challenging. A small water ingress problem is unlikely to warrant a scaffold however a drone survey is justifiable and ought to be detailed enough to establish the cause and present a solution to the client.  

Download the EK Specialist Surveys brochure here.