Airffic Inspect
Drone facade inspection: cheaper and faster than scaffolding
Most of what you pay for in an exterior wall survey is the cost of getting a person up the wall. Photograph it with a drone and let AI read the pictures, and both the bill and the calendar shrink by an order of magnitude.
Cost: where the money actually goes
The expensive part of a traditional facade survey is not the survey. It is the scaffolding: designing it, getting permits, notifying the neighbors, erecting it around the building, and taking it down again when the surveyor has finished. A boom lift is cheaper, but it still needs a crew, a road-use permit on most streets, and a day of the building’s frontage.
A drone makes that preparation disappear. Airffic Inspect then takes the next step: the photographs are read by AI rather than by a person going through them one at a time. What remains is the flight and a look at the results.
If a photograph needs tidying before it goes in a report — brightening a shadowed wall, blurring a face that wandered into frame, stamping “South elevation, 3rd floor” on it —Airffic Photodoes that in the browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Three ways to look at the same wall
| What it costs | How long | What you arrange first | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scaffolding | The largest line item by far: materials, crew, permits | Days to weeks, most of it erecting and striking | Permits, neighbor notices, street or sidewalk closure |
| Boom lift | A daily hire plus operator | Half a day to a day per elevation | Road-use permit, a clear parking bay |
| Drone + AI review | Three reviews a month free; paid plans on the legal notice page | A flight of thirty minutes and up; results on screen when the review finishes | Confirming that the airspace allows the flight |
Paid-plan prices are published only on the legal notice page so that this page never contradicts it. Scaffold and lift figures vary so much by city and building that we do not print numbers.
A sensible way in: use the three free reviews on one building, and switch plans when the number of buildings you manage makes it worth it. No card is needed to start.
Speed: the waiting disappears
Commission a survey from a contractor and the timeline is mostly waiting: waiting for a site date, waiting for the scaffold, waiting for the written report. The hours of actual work are a small fraction of the weeks of elapsed time.
With Airffic Inspect, the review starts when you press the button and the report is on screen when it finishes. Up to 20 photographs go through together, so a full set from one elevation is one batch.
The two workflows, step by step
| Scaffold survey | Drone + AI review | |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation | Scaffold design, permits, erection | Plan the flight |
| On site | Erect, survey, strike | Fly and photograph |
| Reading the wall | A surveyor inspects by eye | AI detects and rates each defect |
| Getting the result | Wait for the written report | On screen when the review finishes |
| Keeping the record | A PDF in a folder | A history you can reopen and compare |
How long a scaffold survey takes depends on the building and the contractor. The table compares the shape of the work, not measured durations.
Three steps
No special hardware and nothing to install. It runs in the browser.
- 01Name the propertySomething you will recognize later: "Harbor Tower, south elevation". Each review is filed under that name.
- 02Upload the photographsDrag and drop up to 20 images at a time. JPEG, PNG and HEIC are accepted. Drone, handheld camera or phone — the review does not care where the picture came from.
- 03Start the reviewAI locates the defects, rates each one High, Medium or Low, suggests a next action and assembles the report on screen.
Where it fits, and where it does not
To be direct: an AI review of photographs is not a universal instrument. What does not show in a picture — a void behind the render, the depth of a lifted tile that only a tap test reveals — cannot be rated from one.
It fits when you want to know where the problems are before commissioning a full survey; when you manage many buildings and need to decide which one gets attention first; and when you want a dated record of how a facade changes year to year.
It does not fit where the law requires a qualified professional’s signature. In Japan that is the periodic report under Article 12 of the Building Standards Act; in New York it is the Facade Inspection and Safety Program (Local Law 11); Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and others have their own facade ordinances. Use Airffic Inspect as the screening pass before that professional goes up.
Questions people ask
Why is a drone facade inspection cheaper?
Because the largest cost in a traditional survey is not the surveyor. It is the scaffolding or the boom lift that gets the surveyor to the wall, plus the permits, the neighbor notices and the crew to erect and strike it. A drone removes that entire line item. Airffic Inspect then has AI read the photographs, which takes the per-image labor out of the diagnosis as well. Three reviews a month are free, with no card on file.
How long from photographs to results?
The analysis runs as soon as you start it and the report appears on screen when it finishes. There is no waiting days for a written report to arrive. Up to 20 images go through in one batch, so a set of photographs taken elevation by elevation can be processed together.
Which defects does it detect?
Anything that shows in a photograph of a facade or its fixtures: cracks, delamination and loss, suspected tile lift, rust staining, spalling with exposed rebar, soiling and biological growth, and sealant failure. Each finding is rated High, Medium or Low and paired with a recommended next step.
Do I need a drone?
No. The review works on photographs, not on drones. Many customers use a drone for the upper floors and a handheld camera or phone for what they can reach from the ground, balconies or walkways. The result is the same report.
Does an AI review replace a statutory or engineer-signed inspection?
No. Where a law or a lender requires a qualified professional — in Japan, the periodic report under Article 12 of the Building Standards Act; in New York, the Facade Inspection and Safety Program; in other cities, their own facade ordinances — that professional must make the call. Airffic Inspect is a first-pass screen that tells you where to look, and a record that shows how the wall changes over time.
Can I try it free?
Yes. Sign in with a Google account and you get three reviews a month at no charge. No credit card is required.
Related
- Try Airffic Inspect →Upload photographs and run an AI review.
- Field guide to facade defects →Nine defects: what they look like, what causes them, how urgent.
- AI facade inspection service →What you get, what is delivered, how it differs from a site visit.
- How to fly a drone in Japan →The registration and permits a survey flight in Japan needs.
- Pre-renovation survey for condominiums →Using the same review to prepare for a major repair program.
- AI building inspection: roofs and fixtures too →Triage across a portfolio of buildings.
- Managing autonomous drone operations →Tracking and recording the flight itself.
- 日本語版 — ドローン外壁点検を安く・速く →The Japanese guide, with the Japanese statutory context.
Start with three, free
No credit card. Sign in with a Google account, upload the photographs you already have, and read the result on screen.
Run an AI review →