How to Measure a Roof With a Drone

Roofing is a dangerous industry. Historically, that danger started during the inspection process for estimators before contracts were even signed. An estimator would need to:

• Remove the ladder from their truck
• Equip safety equipment depending on the pitch of the roof
• Place the ladder and climb the roof
• Meticulously take measurements of every facet, often accompanied with an inspection
• Add up facet measurements to receive a square count and additional items for the roof 

Luckily, there’s a better way. 

Today, instead of a ladder and measuring tape, you just need a drone and a tablet. Here’s how it works: 

 How to Take Roof Measurements with a Drone and IMGING 

1. Set up a job in IMGING
2. Launch the drone while IMGING automatically flies and measures the property
3. Push a button to upload the data and receive measurements back in the IMGING app

When you get to your work site, unpack your drone and tablet. Using the IMGING software on your tablet, you can use patented flight plans to automatically digitize a property. The resulting 3D model is sometimes called a digital twin as it is a digital representation of the existing physical structure. 

Before flying your drone, set up your flight plan. This usually takes about 90 seconds. Then you can watch while the drone does the rest of the work. The drone will fly around the property and take pictures and measurements, which takes about 10 minutes. 

If you need additional images, you can pause IMGING’s automated flight and take photos at any time during the inspection.   

2.     Explore and Analyze

Once the drone is done gathering property data, you can upload the information to the IMGING cloud for data analysis and measurements. Your options included fast measurements with a wireframe of house facets, or an interactive 3D model of the entire structure.