You're not hiring someone to "take a look at the roof." You're hiring a radiometric pass that can flag wet insulation, ponding, and the path a leak is taking — without sending a crew onto a steep or wet deck just to find the wet field.
A walkable roof still hides moisture under the membrane. A wet deck is a fall waiting for a work order. The useful hire is a Part 107 pilot with a real thermal camera, a same-day RGB set, and a report your roofer or superintendent can mark up.
I fly this work commercially from Springdale, Arkansas. Eight years in, the jobs that help a GC or a facility manager are the quiet ones: a dated thermal packet, pin locations on the roof plan, and a crew that only gets on the deck when they know where to cut a core.
What thermal roof inspection actually is
This is a moisture and insulation scan. You are looking at the roof assembly — membrane, insulation, deck — for wet fields and leak paths.
A useful scan uses a radiometric camera. Each pixel carries a temperature. After the sun has loaded the deck and then come off it, wet insulation often holds heat longer than dry insulation. Ponding shows in the RGB and as a thermal smear. Leak paths tend to run from a penetration, a seam, a clogged drain, or a wall flashing toward the wet field.
That is a field method, not magic. Wind, a still-hot HVAC unit, a membrane still wet from last night's rain, and a metal edge that dumps heat will all write signatures that are not moisture. A good operator will say so.
Low-slope commercial roofs — TPO, EPDM, built-up, modified bitumen — are the usual fit. Metal roofs can be flown, but the signatures are easier to misread. Steep residential pitches are a safety hire as much as a moisture hire.
Time of day matters. Many roof thermals are flown after the sun has heated the deck, in the evening or at night, or in a morning window before the sun reheats everything. Midday on a black membrane can wash out the difference you paid for. Wet glass, active rain, fog, and high wind are typical aborts.
What you actually get
Wet insulation, as a map of anomalies
You get frames, and often a simple roof-plan markup, showing fields that are thermally out of family. That is a candidate moisture map. It is not a lab result. Confirmation is still a moisture meter, a core, or whatever your roof consultant already uses. The drone's job is to stop the crew from coring at random.
Ponding
Ponding is often obvious in RGB if you fly after a rain and before the deck dries. Thermal still helps when the water is gone and the insulation underneath is not. A dated pair — RGB plus thermal — is what you want in the file when someone later asks whether that drain has been a problem.
Leak paths
A single ceiling stain is a poor map of a commercial roof. Water travels. Thermal plus RGB can show a trail from a curb, a pitch pocket, a split seam, or a parapet down to the wet field above the room that is complaining. You are hiring a path, not a pretty heat picture.
Ask for pin locations on the roof plan, an annotated PDF, the radiometric files, and RGB of the same areas so nobody guesses whether that hot shape is an exhaust or a wet board. Date, building name, and camera on the packet.
Why you hire a pilot instead of sending a crew up
A crew on a steep or wet deck is a safety plan, a lift, and a morning. They still only see what they can walk. They do not see the whole field in one frame. They do not see under the membrane.
The drone does not replace the repair. It replaces the search. The roofer still has to cut, dry, and patch. You just stop paying people to walk a wet slope in order to guess.
Part 107 is required for commercial flight in the U.S. A roof inspection for a GC, an owner, or a homeowner who is paying is commercial. Ask for the certificate number and a COI your risk team will accept.
What this is not
Don't hire thermal roof work if what you want is a stamped moisture survey, a full invasive test, or a marketing flyover. Thermal flags anomalies. It does not by itself prove how many squares are wet, and it does not write a reroof specification.
Don't treat every warm patch as a leak. Mechanical units, dark membrane, wet leaves in a gutter, and reflected heat will fool a rushed palette. If the operator cannot explain an anomaly in plain language, keep asking.
How to hire
Operator checklist
- Current FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. Ask for the number.
- Certificate of insurance. Many GCs and owners ask for $1 million commercial general liability, additional insureds, and aviation / unmanned aircraft coverage. Use your risk team's minimums.
- A radiometric payload. Ask for the camera model.
- A written method: time of day, how long the deck has been in the sun, abort for rain, wet membrane, or wind.
- Airspace plan. A downtown or hospital-adjacent roof often sits under controlled airspace. Confirm they will file LAANC or work the ATC path before they show up. Need the law on LAANC? dronelaws.us.
Deliverable checklist
- Radiometric stills plus RGB of the same bays and penetrations.
- An annotated PDF or marked roof plan with locations a crew can find.
- Date, building name, camera, and a one-line weather note.
- Turnaround in writing. A common window is a few business days.
You still need a launch spot and a contact who knows the roof type and the known leak rooms. Write the slip rule: next flyable slot, not a silent skip.
What to put in the RFP
- Address, roof type if you know it, and approximate squares or building footprint.
- Known leak rooms, recent storms, and whether you want a full-roof scan or a bay.
- Deliverables: radiometric files, RGB, annotated PDF or marked plan.
- Any existing roof plan you can share.
- Date window and the weather abort rule.
- Part 107 proof, COI with additional insureds, and who files airspace.
- Where to drop files and who the roofer is.
If you don't have a pilot yet, search the directory by state or post that RFP on findadronepilot.com. You hire the operator directly. There's no broker in the middle and no commission on the job.
Find the wet field before you send the crew
Your people should get on a roof to repair it, not to wander it. Hire a Part 107 thermal pilot for a dated anomaly map, then send the roofer to the pins.
Search Part 107 pilots by state, or post the RFP, at findadronepilot.com.