An aerial damage assessment is a documented flight over a property, flown to a shot list and delivered as an organized gallery you can hand to anyone who needs to see it. It is not a handful of drone snapshots. A hail roof, a fire scene, and a tree strike need different coverage, so each flight type has its own plan, and one property is documented like the next.
It starts with context
The pilot opens with a wide establishing shot of the property in its surroundings, framed so the address can be identified. That one frame ties everything after it to a specific piece of real estate, which matters when the photos end up in a claim file or in front of a contractor.
The roof, straight down
Next comes the roof from straight overhead, the first section of the gallery. If you need the whole roof as one stitched, scaled image, add an orthomosaic map. It is the difference between scrolling through dozens of photos and looking at the entire roof at once.
Four cardinal obliques
North, south, east, and west, each flown at the same altitude and camera angle. Four matching views of the same structure means no side is missing and no side gets a better angle than another.
Detail matched to the loss
Then the close passes, and this is where the type of loss decides the shot list. After hail, that means slope-by-slope roof capture, soft metals, and elevations. On a burst pipe or leak, it means the roof, chimney, and flashing, plus gutters, downspouts, and drainage, so the roof can be ruled in or out as the source. After a fire, it means burn patterns, collapse extent, and exposures, captured without anyone on the structure.
Damage findings
Visible damage gets its own section in the gallery. Damage photos carry a scale reference, so the size of what you are looking at is not a guess.
Video
Every flight comes back as photos and video in the same gallery.
What lands in your hands
A branded web gallery tied to the property, organized into roof, cardinal obliques, detail, damage findings, and video, with a one-click download bundle of every file. The gallery has a permalink you can send to an adjuster, an underwriter, or a contractor, and it can be password-protected.
Add what the file needs, quoted with the job: a roof measurement report with areas, pitches, and squares for the estimate, thermal imaging, an orthomosaic map, a 3D model, an annotated damage report as a marked-up PDF, an evidence package with the original geotagged files and flight logs, or a matched repeat flight for a before and after.
Who flies it
Every lossmap pilot is FAA Part 107 certified and carries at least $1,000,000 in commercial drone liability insurance. We verify credentials when a pilot is onboarded and check renewals on a schedule. Near airports we fly with FAA authorization through LAANC, and we never fly over uninvolved people.
When it is worth ordering
Before the adjuster arrives, so you are not relying on someone else’s photos. Before anyone climbs the roof, so the record shows the condition the storm left. Before a tree or debris is removed, if it is safe to leave it, because once it is gone nobody can show where it hit. Before you take bids, so every contractor prices from the same images.
Weather
Drone flights need safe conditions, generally winds under 20 mph and no precipitation. If weather delays a shoot, we reschedule at no cost and keep you informed.
Related
Need only the roof? See drone roof inspection reports. Putting the gallery in front of a carrier? See aerial documentation for insurance claim files.
The housing side of a claim
lossmap documents the property. If the family also needs somewhere to live while the home is repaired, that is our parent company’s work: on-site RV housing from 1st Choice Living. For the adjuster’s side of housing, see temporary housing for adjusters and carriers.