Technical Inspections

Ensure the safety, performance and reliability of your building’s structure and systems. Our experts identify present and potential issues and devise effective loss mitigation strategies.

Our fleet of drones and certified drone operators inspect areas that are difficult or unsafe to access, confined spaces like attics and crawlspaces, elevated surfaces such as roofs, high ceiling of commercial and industrial buildings, barns and silos, and locations impacted by an extreme weather event or a catastrophe.

We can provide mapping of the damaged areas, which enables quick development of any required repair drawings for the damaged properties.

Our drone-assisted inspections are fast, often less than an hour, and provide our clients with many high-definition photos and videos, which enables fast and accurate structural assessment of failed connections and members. We live broadcast our drone-assisted inspections to our clients to observe the damaged property in real-time from the comfort of their offices.

Drone Inspection Services
We deploy a wide array of compact drone systems to restricted scenes and confined spaces to accurately collect data, photographs, and videos crucial to an investigation.

Our team of structural engineers direct our certified advanced drone pilots to fly inside areas which otherwise would be hazardous or unsafe. Our ability to fly the interior and exterior of a site, when access would be otherwise prohibited or dangerous, provides our clients with all the information required for a structural evaluation of compromised facilities without costly shoring measures and delays. The capability of our drones to live broadcast means our structural engineer and pilot can perform an aerial inspection without attending the site at the same time, and our clients can view the scene in real time from their office.

Applications

– Damaged structures which are prohibited or dangerous to enter
– Interior and exterior drone inspections of trusses and roof lines
– High resolution photographic documentation
– Flights in confined spaces, including attics, crawlspaces, and collapsed structures

Key Features

• Flexible lineup of drones for a multitude of both interior and exterior inspection
  applications
  
• Drone operators with Advanced Drone Pilot Certification by Transport Canada
  
• Pilots able to deploy anywhere in Canada
  
• High-definition digital photography and videography collected
  
• Unique perspective to our investigations both to the interior and exterior of structures
  
• Complete 2- and 3-dimensional models for structural engineers for measurements, slope and area calculation with Drone Deploy software
  
• Increased site safety by keeping investigators on the ground
  
• Self-heating drone technology allows aircraft to fly in below-freezing temperatures
  
• Detailed Inspection report from engineers includes drone aerial photos, maps and Aerial Panorama 360
  
• Short videos with labeled damage for client review as a supplement to a report

Damage to soil-supported and soil-retaining structures such as foundations, swimming pools, above and below ground tanks, and retaining walls can be caused by a variety of factors including settlement, vibrations, flooding, water intrusion or a combination thereof. Many of these losses require full understanding of the interaction between the structure and the soil around it. Most of our forensic structural engineers received graduate level training in soil-structure interaction, slope stability, and geo-structural engineering. They have utilized their high-level academic training and the most advanced software tools in this field to help demystify complex losses involving foundation walls, retaining walls and road embankment failures. Our geo-structural experts expeditiously examine and document the loss, conduct the necessary geo-structural analyses, identify the most likely cause of the damage, and devise effective loss mitigation strategies.

Our investigators have decades of experience in the design and assessment of building envelopes and have been called upon to assist with numerous litigation cases involving large building envelope losses. Our building envelope professionals completed over 500 investigations that covered all aspects of building envelope losses including: roofing failures, curtain wall leaks, ice dams, wet basements, and faulty insulation. Our engineers and building scientists are equipped with the best technology in the field including infrared thermal cameras used to identify the locations of thermal and moisture leakage in walls, floors, roofs and ceilings. We are one of the very few in the industry to be equipped with thermal drones which we utilize to investigate large commercial or industrial buildings.