so ive been doing roofing estimates for about 8 years and my buddy keeps telling me to get into drone inspections but honestly im not sure if its actually saving time or just looks cool for the clients. like i get that you can get up there without ladders but how do you actually document it properly for insurance? are you just dumping photos into a report or is there software that stitches it together into something useful

i tried a demo with a Mavic 3 last month at a job site and the footage was great but i had no idea what to do with it after. just ended up with a folder of JPEGs and felt kind of dumb. im assuming people are using something like DroneDeploy or Pix4D but those subscriptions arent cheap and i dont know if the ROI makes sense for a small operation

also is there a minimum resolution you actually need for a proper roof inspection report? i keep seeing people talk about GSD but im not sure what threshold actually matters for spotting shingle damage vs just general condition stuff

yeah the software question is real, the drone is honestly the cheaper part of the whole setup once you factor in subscriptions and the time to process everything. ive been using DroneDeploy for about two years on commercial flat roofs and it works but for residential pitched roofs the ortho output is kind of garbage because of the angles ? you really need oblique shots which DD doesnt handle great

for insurance documentation most adjusters ive worked with just want clear timestamped photos organized by section of the roof, not some fancy 3D model. so honestly for a smaller operation you might be fine with Litchi for automated waypoint flights and just Lightroom or even Google Photos to organize. the GSD question ? for shingle-level damage youre looking at wanting something under 1cm/px ideally but a Mavic 3 at 50-60ft AGL will get you there no problem

im kind of in the same boat, just started offering this to clients and the hardest part wasnt flying it was convincing people it was worth paying for. most homeowners think im just gonna fly around and take pretty pictures lol. ended up making a sample report in just regular Word with screenshots and that actually closed more jobs than any fancy software output i tried