Piers Dormeyer, Vice President of Construction at EagleView Technologies
From May 8 through 12, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) promoted its fourth annual National Fall Prevention Safety Stand-Down. The weeklong initiative encouraged employers and employees to pause the workday and discuss on-the-job safety.
The focus of the week — fall prevention — is especially pertinent to the construction industry, where roughly one in five of all worker deaths in the United States occur. Falls are the most frequent cause of fatalities in the construction industry. Of the 937 total construction deaths that occurred in 2015, 364 resulted from a fatal fall.
And roofing contractors aren’t an exception. Standards regarding residential roofing fall protection are among the most frequently cited violations by OSHA.
As any roofer knows, safety should be priority number one. Yet even bidding a job before the true work begins can be a dangerous endeavor.
For me, the topic of fall prevention brought to mind EagleView’s mission, which is answering questions related to millions of residential and commercial properties to save professionals time and money and reduce their exposure to risk.
That aligns perfectly with what roofing contractors are looking for: improved work flows, increased business opportunities, and greater on-the-job safety. The solution that brings about these results is, of course, technology.
Technology in the roofing industry isn’t just a fad. With the right resources, contractors can see all three of those advantages.
Ask most contractors how to obtain precise measurements for a re-roofing job, and many will likely say that it takes a ladder and some measuring tape. Seeing the details up close in order to make recommendations to homeowners might even involve balancing on a ladder to snap a shaky smartphone photo.
From there, a roofer may have to sketch the property. Determining the pitch of the roof and other features involves— of course—more measuring.
This potentially complicated and dangerous process doesn’t account for other obstacles, like human error and time-consuming calculations to determine material orders.
But does the process of measuring a roof really need to be so difficult?
When aerial imagery is geo-referenced, meaning that each pixel has latitude and longitude coordinates, it’s possible to measure the objects on the ground. While satellite imagery can show some details, higher-resolution aerial images from a manned aircraft reveal more of what’s happening on the ground.
Aerial imagery has become so advanced, in fact, that every pixel shown onscreen can represent less than an inch on the ground. Compare that to the low-grade satellite imagery found online, which represents about a foot of ground area per pixel.
How might roofers extract data from images? Contractors can calculate roof measurements themselves using photogrammetric software, yet for most roofers, that means learning an entirely new skill set. Fortunately, it’s possible to get all that information and
more through made-to-order property measurement reports created from those same aerial images.
What information can a roofer get from aerial imagery? Roof measurements would be the number one advantage, including the length, width, area, and pitch for all roof facets.
High-resolution aerial photos can also give insight into other roof features, such as the eaves, flashing, hips, rakes, ridges, and valleys. Three-dimensional roof diagrams can also be created based on this information, so contractors can take the guesswork out of determining the exact roof structure.
The bottom line: why measure by hand when technology will do that work instead?
If technology can save contractors time spent measuring, can it also put more money in their pockets?
Roofers measuring by hand might only see one or two roofs per day. Using highly accurate property measurements from aerial images, however, they can decrease their time spent measuring.
Imagine a roofer showing up to a bid with property information in hand, either on paper or in a mobile app. Not only does that contractor show that he can begin working quickly, but he can focus his attention on homeowners and their needs. Homeowners can feel at ease knowing that a forward-thinking and tech-savvy roofer can get the job done in a fast and accurate manner.
That also benefits the roofer, who can move on to his next prospect. There’s no loading up the truck with extra tools or blocking off hours on the calendar to perform the estimate. Roofers show up with measurements in hand, and they can easily go from prospect to prospect and put in their bids.
Measuring by hand also increases the chance for a costly human error. Handwritten information and sketches could be incorrect, and it’s possible to miss measurements for entire sections of a home if it’s large enough. The result: a shortage in supplies. This means that customers could see a sudden increase in costs for the additional materials, and contractors have to coordinate deliveries with their suppliers. Over-ordering, on the other hand, could lead to lost money and time returning the excess supplies.
Climbing onto a roof poses a risk for anyone. For roofers, who have to ascend the roof to complete their work, it’s not always possible to avoid it.
Residential properties, in particular, pose hazards due to their steep roofs and sometimes complex structures. Roofs with a pitch greater than 4:12 require a personal fall arrest system and other safety precautions, according to OSHA standards.
Time also factors in to these requirements. If a roofer has to wear a harness or other gear just to get up onto a ladder, then that takes time away from meeting with prospective clients.
And that, of course, impacts earnings. The longer an estimate takes, the fewer clients a roofer can visit—and fewer jobs equals less money in that roofer’s pocket.
Again, to complete repairs and replacements, a roofer will have to get on the roof no matter what. With the right technology, however, a roofer can avoid it or altogether eliminate that step while bidding for a job.
With roof measurements derived from geo-referenced aerial imagery, roofing contractors bidding for a job can save time, create more accurate material orders, visit more customers, and even reduce on-the-job risks. All this comes down to one thing, no matter which solutions roofers might opt for. Roofers can leverage technology to make their businesses safer, more efficient, and more prosperous. Sounds like more than a mere trend to me.
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