Estimating and Project Support
Aerial Measurement Ordering for roofing contractors
A bought measurement describes the roof on the day the picture was taken. Everyone downstream treats it as describing the roof today.
The right roof, with its date attached
A report ordered against the structure you actually intend to work on, confirmed before the order rather than discovered afterwards. On rural parcels, corner lots and properties with more than one building this is where the money gets wasted.
The capture date pulled out of the report and carried forward into whatever is built from it, so that a quantity three steps downstream can still be traced back to when the imagery was taken.
And a note of what the report could not see. Tree cover, low-slope sections that read badly from above, additions, anything the provider has flagged or approximated. A measurement is trustworthy for what it measured, and the useful document says which parts those are.
Somebody else measured, at a time you did not pick
Ordering a measurement is genuinely a good trade. It is quick, it is consistent between jobs, and it does not require anyone to be anywhere. What it also does — quietly — is hand two decisions to a third party: when the roof was observed, and what counted as the roof.
Neither decision is visible in the number that comes back. A report gives squares and lengths with the same authority whether the imagery is from last month or three years ago, and a roof can acquire an addition, lose a shed, or be replaced entirely in that window. The document is not wrong; it is answering a question about a different day, and nothing about its appearance says so.
The same is true of edges. Where the provider drew the boundary of the structure, whether it merged a low-slope section into the main planes, how it handled a dormer under a tree — all judgements, all made without seeing the building, and all delivered as measurement. That is not a criticism of the providers, who are explicit about their methods. It is an argument for the number travelling with a note about its origin instead of losing it at the first copy-paste.
Which is why this desk treats the alternative as a real option rather than a fallback. Sometimes the right answer is that somebody goes and looks, because the question is about current condition rather than geometry. The two routes produce different kinds of knowledge, and the expensive mistake is not picking the wrong one — it is losing track of which one produced the figure you are now pricing.
Taking it yourself is a different undertaking
The alternative to ordering is capturing, and where that is done from the air it stops being purely a scheduling question. The requirement attaches to a person rather than to a company. Under 14 CFR 107.12, “no person may manipulate the flight controls of a small unmanned aircraft system unless” that person holds the relevant airman credential or is under the direct supervision of somebody who does.
The operating rules then shape when and from where a capture can happen at all. At 14 CFR 107.31, “With vision that is unaided by any device other than corrective lenses, the remote pilot in command, the visual observer (if one is used), and the person manipulating the flight control of the small unmanned aircraft system must be able to see the unmanned aircraft throughout the entire flight”, which the section then ties to a list of specific purposes. That is a constraint on where the operator has to stand, which on a tight urban lot or a large commercial roof is a practical scheduling fact and not only a paperwork one.
These provisions bind whoever is operating the aircraft. They do not bind this brand — nothing on this desk flies anything — and they are not a statement about what your own crews may or may not do, which depends on facts about your operation that we do not hold. They are here because the buy-or-take decision is usually framed as a cost comparison, and cost is not the only thing that differs between the two.
What this desk does is the ordering side, in your accounts, on your terms. Whichever provider you already work with — EagleView, HOVER, RoofScope or another — the order is placed under your own login, their invoice goes to you at their price, and nothing is resold or marked up. There is no arrangement of any kind between this brand and any of them.
This describes federal aviation provisions in general terms. It is not legal advice, it makes no determination about your operations, your equipment or anyone’s credentials, and other rules and local restrictions may apply. Those questions belong with your own counsel and the operating authority.
Roofing Back Office is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by any software vendor named on this site. All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The step before anything gets counted
This desk sits inside Estimating and Project Support, and the department boundary — including where preparation stops and a licensed party takes over — is set out there rather than repeated here. What is particular to this page is how early it runs: everything the department does downstream inherits whatever this step produced, including its date.
What owners ask about buying measurements
Do you resell reports?
No. Orders are placed in your own accounts with whichever provider you already use — EagleView, HOVER, RoofScope or another — and their invoice goes to you at their price. Nothing is marked up and no commission is taken. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or authorised by any of them; we are the people operating your account at your direction.
A report came back for the wrong building. How does that happen?
Almost always at ordering, not at production. A rural address that resolves to a parcel rather than a structure, a corner property, an address with a detached garage or a second building on the lot. The provider measured what it was pointed at. Confirming the structure before ordering is a fifteen-second step that prevents a report you have paid for and cannot use.
Why does the capture date matter so much?
Because a report is a measurement of the roof as it was when the imagery was taken, and nothing on the sheet warns you if that was some time ago. Additions, a previous replacement, storm damage and removed structures all sit invisibly between then and now. The date is the single most useful field on the document and it is the one people skip.
Should we just fly it ourselves?
Sometimes that is the better answer, particularly for current condition or for a structure the imagery handles badly. It is a different decision though, not a cheaper version of the same one — flying carries requirements that fall on the person at the controls, and those are set out below. Both routes are legitimate; what causes trouble is drifting between them without deciding.
What do you do when the report is obviously wrong?
Say so, with the reason, before it reaches an estimate. Reports have known weak spots — low-slope sections read as steep, small dormers merged, additions under tree cover. Where something looks wrong we flag it and, where the provider has a review process, use it. What we do not do is quietly adjust the numbers, because then nobody downstream knows which figures were measured.
Can you order for jobs we have not sold yet?
That is your call and it is mostly a cost question. Ordering early gives estimating a real number to work from; ordering on every enquiry spends money on work you will not win. Most companies settle on a rule — a stage in the pipeline at which a report is worth buying — and the useful thing is having the rule rather than deciding case by case.
The aviation rules quoted above
- 14 CFR 107.12 — Requirement for a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating — Federal Aviation Administration, via eCFR
- 14 CFR 107.31 — Visual line of sight aircraft operation — Federal Aviation Administration, via eCFR
Check the capture date on your last report
If nobody downstream could tell you what it was, that field is being lost somewhere between the order and the estimate.