Ken, I have been inspecting buildings with drones since 2016. I currently fly an inspire 1 with a 640 512 thermal Zenmuse. I am also a level 1 SUAS-certified drone pilot. I highly recommend being certified in thermography before inspecting roofs. First, metal roofs are pretty much impossible to inspect using thermal due to emissivity. Meaning thermal energy bounces off of the surface. Also, when doing an asphalt roof, it is important to do the inspection about one hour after sunset or one hour before sunrise. You do not want the roof to have thermal loading or show shadows or thermal load from the sun on either a cloudy or sunny day. I also visually inspect high-rise buildings in cities all over the country.
For these inspections they aren’t looking for data it’s post storm they just need documentation which at any point of day they are just using this for visuals. Secondly we outsource our thermal data and typically when we are inspecting there isn’t a thermal load. This video isn’t necessarily about the thermals. C
I will be flying a 3T for a industrial roofing company I work for. I know with some of older thermal cameras this was true, what I was wondering was with the ability to change what temp the drone is picking up, would it still be necessary to do an inspection at dawn or dusk? I am inspecting mainly TPO, PVC, BUR and EPDM flat roofs..
@@drewt.3885 I think what the first guy is saying is that if it’s super sunny and your doing thermal inspections something like that vent that was shown in this video will be blocking the sun from reaching parts of the roof while creating a hot spot on the other side. Which may throw off your images. Making you think there’s a problem with that part of the roof if your not carefully looking aa what your seeing.
@@drewt.3885 ask.your employer to pay for you to get a Level 1 sUAS Thermography certification. You will definitely learn what you need, when, and how to do the aerial inspections. It will help you immensely. Flying is the easy part, getting accurate data is the hard part.
I am very interested in the options this drone offers, I currently inspect properties for insurance claims part time with a mavic 2 pro, and would like to diversify my options into other fields as well.
This is legit work. If you are of age and/or don't want to climb a ladder to see/pay a crew to come inspect...something like this is a viable option. Granted I was just doing someone a favor but one of my neighbors saw a few shingles on in his backyard, knew I had a few drones, asked me and I helped him out to identify the problem.
Informative. I'm looking into offering roof inspection myself. So far I've noticed that local home inspectors here tend to use a sub250 drone for their inspections. Many are equipped with a MINI2 or MINI3PRO drone which they can operate without sourcing it out to a 3rd party. My feeling (so far) is that home inspectors may not want to operate a heavier drone with a thermal because it's a nice-to-have but it's overkill for the average home inspection job. Having a thermal drone would certainly appeal to some inspectors for some jobs but I just don't know if there is enough demand for me to get regular enough work at a reasonable price point to justify this investment. I think this M3T is going to be great for larger drone service providers who have enough clients that they can recoup the cost fast enough. it does set you apart from what they can do with their little drone. The question is do they want to pay for you to do it or just handle it themselves with photos only using their little drone and pocket the money. that right there is the filtering element that makes the M3T a pipe dream for me. I want one... but I need to grow my client list a little more before I dive into this thermal swimming pool. fingers crossed 🤞
I really enjoyed seeing your workflow on that roof inspection. And for showing us the value of the Mavic 3T on roofing jobs. Great video, and thanks for sharing.
Ken, this is FANTASTIC information. Truly appreciate the examples and explanation you've put forth here. As a past certified Water Restoration Tech I can say FLIR is definitely a must for ANYthing like this; thanks!
Man, I wish I had invested in drones a long time ago. My brother just gave me a Mavic Pro with the Fly More package. I love it. Night and day difference from all the drones I've seen anyone else fly.
Nice video. I’ve done a few roof inspections - always unsure what to charge. Do you have a per sq.ft. cost? Also how do you present the report to the client. Previously I’ve created a visual report with thumbnails, file references and a downloadable link to full res files images. Just wondering how you approach this? 👍
Nice VIdeo, I have ordered the 3T and plan of doing roof inspections. I am thinking the best time to inspect is after a rain and later in the day so I can see where heat is being held. I am also a commercial crabber and someone fishes my crab pots sometime in the middle of the night and I hope to be able to catch them and follow them to where they keep their boat.
A pvs 14 would work better for catching crab thieves. The refresh rate on the thermal sensor on this drone isn’t really up task for that kind of work. You need a US made sensor that’s ITAR restricted meaning you can’t take it out of the United States without State Department approval. Honestly, thermal has a lot of limitations including latency and the inability to ‘see’ through glass and other objects that reflect IR radiation. Basically anything thermal or image intensifier tech that’s imported into the US is going to be low spec gear unless it’s from a NATO country and subject to itar. China makes shit thermal. Same with Russia 😂
Brother, this is the video I needed to see to help me understand the power of the Mavic 3T Enterprise. This is an area of work I'm looking to add to my toolbox and the video was very helpful. Thanks for all you do for the drone community! 👍🏾
Great video I like the work flow. Do you process the images in a particular app. Like eagle view, roofr? Or are those just shown to the client? Thank you Dobo!!
Depends on what the client is asking for. Some provide a portal that the files have to be uploaded to. For damage and disaster documentation most insurance companies will not want anything processed
Great video! I currently have a Mavic 3 and have approached some local roofing companies but have not gotten any bites yet. I aways mention that I can do the inspection in a 1/3 the time of manual inspections, and less cost of liability to them. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I've even offered to do a freebee to show what I can do.
almost $5000? I just spent 5500 on mine yesterday, $6500 after tax and the extra batteries. The bad thing is, it feels like drone anxiety is coming back. I lost it pretty quick with my Air 2 though. I'm yet to send mine up, but am about to head out for that first test. Definitely helpful seeing what to expect in your video. Your buddies Nintendo tat was slick too
Wealth of information. Subscribed. Firefighter in Florida working on his 107. Hopefully I can serve some utility to your channel one day. Enjoying the education from your channel in the meantime.
I recently purchased a Mavic 3T - mainly for doing Thermal Work. However, when using it, I was a little shocked to see that all the functions on the Mavic 3 are not available on the Mavic 3T - No Raw, No Mastershots, No POI tracking etc. Sure, you may say, why would you need these on a thermal camera, but why not let the user decide. During inspections, you still need to use the camera, so why not RAW at least.
Good idea to go over pricing structure anytime something like this is introduced, because people oversaturate the market and undercut every other individual in the business trying to get new business. They don’t understand added value would always bring you more business and not lowering your price. The drone industry has been seriously damaged by people trying to undercut one another.
Serious question sir, I'm a real estate photographer and a home inspector, is the rgb camera good enough for exterior photos. I currently HAD a Mavic 3. Until it decided I was in a geo zone and took away my control and crashed. Question is can I do both with this 3t
Great video. I’m surprise that you didn’t address to complete thermal inspections after sunset to best capture the temperature Gradient also most companies that I fly roof inspections for residential and commercial require 24 hours without rain to avoid any type of pooling or false positives.
I am just getting into Inspections. I understand price varies on demographic and size of the structure but what is a good pricing structure or starting point for roof inspection? Awesome content by the way. You have helped me immensely with making my decision to enter the industry.
@@OriginaldoBo I get that. I am getting out of the automotive body shop world and deal with insurance on the regular. Now do you just approach the Insurance agent or company letting them know you offer those services?
@@OriginaldoBo awesome. Thank you. I’m really just trying to navigate my area pricing. Only a few people offer drone services in Delaware that people say are worth going to. They don’t list their pricing so I’m trying to gather as much info as possible. Thank you again for your response and information.
Thanks you for the video. I recently got my first roofing vendor contract with a company and I would like to up my value to them beside just taking pictures. Do you know of any software we could use along with visuals that could up my value as a drone operator. I saw sky browse but I don’t know if it can be used for roofing as the application I seen being mentioned was first responders
I did watched one of your videos and your saying that a thermal camera can give you idea of where the problems is.. I find this very argumentative because if you have an area of piegeon shit and an area that is clean . The area with the piegeon shit will show colder and as result it will show a problem to check. If you use a different paint that will also affect. the data. I do not find that very relyeble. More confusing then really useful. A part of it is because i buyed the mavic 3 and i could not afford to have the one with thermal. And then i was looking for a quick solution to attash a thermal camera to the body of the mavic but there is not thermal camera that has a streaming option and also cheap and light. Maby soon will be and i will have to use it myself aswell.
i am an envirnmental engeneer, i am starting now, im going to buy a mavic 3 T, however i was wondering, since mapping is one of the products im going to offer along with thermal nspections, is mavic 3 T good for Index vegetation, topography, georreferencing??
What's the cost array from residential to commercial ball park? I have an idea but my market is mid-atlantic and I wanted to compare to other markets, thanks.
@@jonmyers1017 Prefect timing. I was just at a car show and they went a little crazy because they said the parent organization, NCCC (Corvettes) says no flying over the show. I told them only the FAA can restrict airspace. To avoid a real situation I quit. I'm going to be busy emailing people on this matter. Thanks!!
@@Mike44460 The FAA rules state that you can't fly over advertised events (like the car show) without permission. Insurance would also be a good idea. In Canada here, you can't even apply for permission unless you possess an Advanced Drone Pilot's License. Things are a bit better in the US.
@@Mike44460 Sustained flight over an open-air assembly includes hovering above the heads of persons gathered in an open-air assembly, flying back and forth over an open-air assembly, or circling above the assembly in such a way that the small unmanned aircraft remains above some part the assembly. FAA - Operations over people.
Do you have any resources for how to properly set up the thermal camera and how to interpret the images? I fly a M2 Enterprise Thermal and can't figure out how to utilize the thermal camera and I don't understand what the temperature ranges are and how to set them up to get accurate readings.
What do you need to know? I run thermal and I2 night vision and am fairly knowledgeable, at least to pointing you in the right direction for resources and answers.
