Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) use is rising for condominiums and HOA community Reserve Fund and Transition building inspections. However, the use of UAV’s or drones is not for everyone. Condo boards will face future decisions regarding drone usage by either service providers or unit owners so the board should be prepared. For this reason, I wanted to share some thoughts based on my condo experiences and firm’s nation-wide drone operations.
Two things to remember. A drone is simply a tool and as such it is only as effective as the operator flying it. For a drone inspection to be successful, the operator needs to know what building element to photograph and what are the pertinent forensic issues. Secondly, a drone is an aircraft. A UAV may be unmanned but it still carries many of the same safety concerns and potential property damage liabilities as a larger aircraft. This is why state parks prohibit their use and the airspace in some cities is Class C airspace requiring special FAA permission before a drone can be airborne. However, before I drone on and on about all the restrictions and why you should leave UAV operations to certified professionals, let us review why drones are in your future.
Drones can perform building inspections that were not possible in the past. This is because some inspections may present unacceptable personnel risks or prohibitive costs. For this reason, high-slope or metal roofs are typically inspected from the ground. Even when observing the roof with binoculars, important defects or surface damage can be missed. As an example, a community of triplex units was experiencing chimney flashing leaks, and the roofs were too steep to directly inspect. The original project drawings showed the chimney flashings were protected by roof crickets designed to divert water away from the chimney. These crickets could not be viewed from the ground because they were behind the chimney on the up slope. By using a drone, it was quickly discovered the designed crickets were not present pointing to the probable cause of the water infiltration.
The use of drones can eliminate the need for repetitive inspection ladder or scaffolding set-ups. High-rise facades and their elements including balconies, windows, flashing, wall joints, etc. can be closely observed with a drone while documenting issues more regularly. In cities such as Boston and Chicago, buildings over 70 feet in height are required by ordinance to have their façade structurally inspected every five years. Even though periodic high-rise façade inspections are not required everywhere, it is still a good practice. Drones can make it more affordable.
As with any type of service, there are grades of quality in drone image capture. At a minimum, most projects will require a high-definition (HD) camera attached to the drone. An even better quality product will result from using a 4k camera providing higher detail and allowing the operator to zoom in for clearer images and study the structure with greater scope. While video images may be more entertaining, still photos are more useful for building analysis. On the other hand, video scans of the grounds and drainage structures can provide timely wide-scale evaluations where appropriate including 3-D models of the building complex or high-resolution maps.
While handheld thermography cameras have been available for many years, their use on drones has proved useful for investigating façade water infiltration and energy conservation evaluations. Thermal cameras flying over a low-slope membrane roof can ‘see’ areas of missing insulation and locations of water infiltration since wet insulation and other damp building materials show a different heat signature than dry materials. Similarly, gaps in insulation and flashing can be observed with subsequent guidance on eliminating these points of heat loss or air infiltration.
The best way to determine if your project would benefit from the use of drones is by asking your engineer or a certified UAV service provider. FAA estimates there will be more than 10,000 commercial drones flying in the next two years to support a $5 billion industry. Those wishing to use drones must comply with FAA’s new ‘UAS rule – Part 107’ requiring the drone to be registered under the Unmanned Aircraft System Registration Service (https://registermyuas.faa.gov).
Of course, the issue of drones gets more complicated with unit owners wanting to fly them for recreation and other uses. Nationwide the FAA has received millions of private drone registration applications. FAA now forecasts there will be more than two million licensed drone pilots by 2025. Imagine how that will affect the future skies over condo complexes.
Now is the time to develop the new drone condo Rules and Regulations. The FAA is concerned about safety issues not functional permitted uses. Questions for condo boards should include the use of onsite drones (photography, videos, recreation, etc.); privacy; delivery services; liability coverage; and identification of drones and their operators. And this is just the start. There will be future issues associated with drones we have not begun to have imagined. So, before the sky starts falling, be prepared because it is coming.
Written by Jack Carr, P.E., R.S., LEED-AP, Senior Consultant Criterium Engineers
Published in Condo Media