For building owners, managers & engineers
Drone Facade Inspection
Drone inspections from $175 near you
Free to post · Usually a reply the same day
229 inspection pilots listed · Pay the pilot directly, no commission
Independent FAA Part 107 pilots who cover your area quote and fly the job.
Free to post
Two minutes, no card, no commitment.
Pay the pilot directly
No commission or markup on their price.
FAA Part 107 pilots
The license all paid drone work requires.
Usually a reply the same day
From a pilot, or from our team if no pilot has answered.
How it works
Three steps, and the first one is free
Describe the job
The form opens with this page's answers already filled in. Add the location and anything specific to your site.
A pilot near you sends a price
Pilots whose service area and services match are emailed. Usually a reply the same day, from a pilot or from our team.
Book them and pay them directly
Check their certificate, kit and sample work, then pay the pilot. SkyLog takes no cut and adds no markup.
What to know before you book
What an aerial facade survey finds
Surface and interface conditions, in detail: cracking in masonry and concrete, spalling and exposed reinforcement, displaced or missing units, failed or missing pointing, sealant failure at joints and around openings, corrosion staining that indicates something rusting behind the face, distress around lintels and shelf angles, and the state of copings, parapets and flashings at the top of the building where problems concentrate and nobody looks. On cladding and curtain wall it picks up panel displacement, gasket failure, damaged glazing and fixing corrosion. What it also does well, and quietly, is document water paths — staining tells you where water has been running for years.
Where it fits with statutory inspection
Several jurisdictions require periodic facade inspection on taller buildings, and the requirements are specific about who signs the report and about hands-on examination of a proportion of the envelope. New York's FISP is the best-known, and it is not the only one. Aerial survey does not replace those obligations. What it does is make them cheaper and better targeted: the drone surveys the whole envelope so the qualified professional can decide where hands-on examination is needed, and the close-up work is scoped to those places rather than sampled arbitrarily. If your survey is for a statutory cycle, involve the qualified professional in specifying the flight, because their requirements govern.
Flying close to a building is its own discipline
This is not a job for the general aerial photographer. Near a facade the aircraft is in the building's wind shadow one moment and its accelerated flow the next, GPS multipaths off glass and masonry, and compass behaviour degrades near steel. Urban sites add flight over people and vehicles, restricted launch and recovery areas, and frequently controlled airspace. The mitigations are real and boring: pilots with close-proximity experience, appropriate waivers where flight over people is unavoidable, adequate liability cover for the value of what is below, and often a spotter. Ask what a pilot has flown at this proximity and what their plan is if the wind picks up.
Specifying the survey
State the building height, the number of elevations and whether any are inaccessible from the ground. Say what resolution you need in terms of the smallest thing that must be visible — a crack you can measure is a much tighter specification than a panel you can identify — because that sets the standoff distance and therefore the flight time. Decide whether you want the elevations delivered as image sets or as stitched orthographic views of each face, which are far easier to mark up and compare between cycles. Say if you want a 3D model. And flag the site constraints early: occupancy, adjacent property, pedestrian routes below, and whether the building operator needs notice.
What this settles
- Cracking in masonry and concrete, spalling, exposed reinforcement, displaced units and failed pointing.
- Sealant failure at joints and openings, corrosion staining, and distress around lintels and shelf angles.
- Copings, parapets and flashings at the top of the building, where problems concentrate and nobody looks.
- Panel displacement, gasket failure, damaged glazing and fixing corrosion on cladding and curtain wall — plus the water paths that staining reveals.
What it does not
- Satisfy a statutory facade inspection. Those regimes are specific about hands-on examination and about who signs the report.
- Sound or probe anything, or assess what is behind the face beyond what staining and distress imply.
- Suit a general aerial photographer. Near a facade, GPS multipaths off glass, compasses degrade near steel, and wind is unpredictable.
- Happen without planning on an urban site — flight over people, restricted launch areas and controlled airspace are the norm.
Where it earns its money is making the statutory cycle cheaper and better targeted: the drone surveys the whole envelope so the qualified professional can scope hands-on work to where it is needed rather than sampling arbitrarily.
Why post it on SkyLog
Every elevation, same standard
A flight captures all four sides at consistent distance and resolution, including the returns and setbacks that are awkward to reach and therefore tend to be under-documented. Consistency is what makes the survey comparable to the next one.
No suspended access to survey
The reconnaissance stops requiring the equipment. A rope team or stage still goes up for hands-on work, but it goes up knowing where to go rather than to find out.
A record you can compare
Cracking, displacement and spalling are progressive. Photographing the same elevations the same way each cycle turns a folder of images into a record of whether something is moving, which is the actual question.
Free to post
Posting and receiving quotes costs nothing, and SkyLog takes no commission and adds no markup. You pay the pilot you hire, at the price the two of you agree.
Inspection pilots with published profiles
Real published profiles. Open any one to see credentials, kit, service area and sample work before you post.
chris aldridge
Texas, United States
20 work samples
I’m a commercial drone pilot providing aerial mapping, property line overlays, topographic mapping, construction site data, radiometric thermal inspections, 3D modeling, real estate listing photography and video, property marketing, and professional aerial imagery for businesses and landowners.
Real estateWeddingEventInspectionMapping / surveyFilm / TVConstructionOther
Ududec Razvan
Suceava, România
15 work samples
Scopul meu este să transform fiecare idee în imagini captivante, care pun în valoare spațiul, proprietatea sau afacerea ta. Sunt pilot de dronă certificat EASA A1/A2/A3, pasionat de filmări aeriene și zboruri FPV, oferind perspective spectaculoase și soluții personalizate pentru fiecare proiect. Realizez filmări dinamice FPV, tururi imersive pentru proprietăți imobiliare, prezentări de spații comerciale, filmări pentru evenimente și inspecții vizuale cu drona. Pun accent pe siguranță, atenție la detalii, comunicare și respectarea termenelor stabilite. Fiecare proiect este adaptat nevoilor clientului, de la planificarea zborului până la livrarea materialelor.
Real estateEventInspectionConstructionOtherAgriculture- George Benes
Oregon, United States
13 work samples
I've been a Part 107 drone pilot since 2019, working with Pacific Northwest clients on Real estate, construction progress, mapping, telecom inspections, architectural photography and events. I am very flexible and can provide deliverables within 24 - 48 hours. I take great pride in my work and having a photography business, my delivered photos are edited and culled to the best of the best. I worked for 30+ years as a commercial construction Superintendent, managing multi-million dollar construction projects and this experience allows me to be very safety oriented and knowledgeable on construction sites, providing the construction companies with usable deliverables that they can share with all stakeholders involved in their building project.
Real estateEventInspectionMapping / surveyConstruction 
Michael Walker
Ohio, United States
12 work samples
I’m Michael Walker a local (Minford area) FAA Part 107 pilot, offering contract RTK accuracy drone services, including thermal imaging, infrastructure inspections, 3D mapping, stockpile volumetric data and recurring detailed site progress report data collection, from which you can pull reports. *I am also already OSHA 10 hour certified.* With my services, you don't just get images and videos, you get data that are "air gapped" and can inform you, your site managers and clients via detailed work (track-the-change) reports, along with RTK level accuracy, as well as high definition imagery. The best advantage to my services is, I am located only 19 minutes from Franklin Furnace, Ohio, so even in winter conditions, I will be minutes away with state of the art enterprise reality capture and thermal capabilities. I'm also available in Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton and Piketon as well. What does air-gapped mean? Air-gapping is a cybersecurity measure that completely isolates a secure network or device from the internet and any other unsecured networks, making remote hacking or data leaks physically impossible. For our drone services, this means: • Isolated Flight Systems: Our drones and flight controllers operate completely offline, preventing any live data, flight logs, or imagery from leaking to external cloud servers or foreign entities. • Physical Data Transfer: All high-resolution data and structural imagery are recorded locally onto encrypted, physical storage media and transferred directly to your hands or your secure servers, without ever touching the public internet. Managing complex projects demands absolute precision, strict safety adherence, and seamless communication with your stakeholders. Traditional ground-level reporting and manual inspections often lead to costly delays, logistical headaches, and unnecessary safety risks.
ConstructionMapping / surveyInspectionReal estate
WDWillam (Jeffrey) DavidsonNorth Carolina, United States
12 work samples
Offering aerial imagery and general photography
Real estateEventInspectionOther
Clifford Cox
Texas, United States
12 work samples
My main focus is mapping and critical infrastructure surveying. I fly both a mavic 3 enterprise ( mapping and videography) and a matrice 4T thermal drone. I'm always looking to meet new people to get jobs done. And to make sure that the customer/client that I am working with gets exactly what they are looking for. I'm pretty easy going and I do not mind the travel. I have over 7 years of experience with real-estate, power line, mapping and construction site surveying and much more.
Real estateInspectionMapping / surveyConstruction
Inspection pilots by state
Before you post
Does a drone survey satisfy a statutory facade inspection?
Not on its own. Regimes like FISP set requirements about hands-on examination and about who is qualified to sign the report, and a drone changes neither. It is used to survey the whole envelope so the qualified professional can target the close-up work — check with them before commissioning.
What does a facade inspection cost?
It scales with building height, number of elevations and reporting depth. Inspection quotes on SkyLog have ranged from $100 to about $1,550 with a $300 median across 13 quotes, spanning every inspection type — a multi-elevation facade survey on a tall building sits above that middle. Post the building and get real numbers.
How close can the drone get?
Close enough to resolve fine cracking, given a competent pilot and reasonable conditions. How close is a judgement about wind, the airframe and what is below, and it is one to leave to the pilot on the day rather than to specify from a desk.
Can it survey a building in a dense city centre?
Usually, but it takes more planning: controlled airspace authorisation, a launch and recovery area, management of pedestrian routes below, and sometimes a waiver for flight over people. Give the exact address when you post so pilots can assess it properly rather than optimistically.
Can I get a 3D model of the elevation?
Yes — the same capture supports a photogrammetric model, and orthographic views of each face are often more useful than the model itself for marking up defects and comparing between surveys. Ask for it up front, because it changes the flight plan.
What about glass and reflective cladding?
Highly reflective surfaces are harder for both photogrammetry and any thermal work, and they need more care with angles and lighting. Say what the facade is made of when you post; a pilot who has flown glass buildings will tell you what is realistic.
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Post your facade survey free
Give the building height, elevations and what the survey is for. Pilots experienced in close-proximity work will quote directly.
Free to post
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