so i have a friend who runs a mid-sized roofing company and he basically wants me to set up a drone inspection workflow for them. they do mostly commercial flat roofs and some residential steep pitch stuff. i have my 107 and ive been flying for a few years but ive mostly done photography so the inspection side of things is kind of new territory for me.

main questions i guess are what software people are using for the actual deliverables ? like do clients actually want orthomosaic maps or do they just want annotated photos, and is there a sweet spot drone for this kind of work that doesnt cost a fortune. i have a Mini 4 Pro which i know is probably not ideal but wondering if its workable to start. also does anyone bother with thermal for roofing or is that overkill for most jobs. i know moisture intrusion is a thing but not sure if the roofing guys even know how to interpret that data

thermal is absolutely not overkill for flat commercial roofs, its actually kind of the whole point if you want to differentiate yourself. wet insulation under a membrane holds heat differently and you can see it clearly in a post-sunset flight when the roof is cooling. the tricky part is exactly what you said ? most roofing contractors have no idea how to read a thermal image so you kind of have to either train them or include interpretation in your deliverable. some guys i know charge a premium for the thermal + written moisture report combo and it does really well with property managers and insurance adjusters.

for software honestly it depends on the client. ive found that most roofing companies just want a PDF report with annotated photos and maybe a simple overhead map. full photogrammetry outputs are usually overkill unless youre doing something like tracking deterioration over multiple inspections. DroneDeploy has a decent inspection report tool but its pricey. Autel or DJI native apps plus something like Adobe for annotation is perfectly fine to start.

mini 4 pro will work fine to start tbh, dont let anyone tell you you need a Matrice to fly over a roof. the camera is genuinely good and for residential steep pitch stuff you really dont need anything fancier. flat commercial is where it gets more interesting because scale matters and you might want automated grid missions which the mini 4 handles okay through third party apps. just watch your wind on those big open rooftops, ive had some sketchy moments on tall commercial buildings where the air gets weird near the parapet edges