Friends in a high place

Upshot UK has the ability to take the eagle-eyed vantage point without its feet ever leaving the ground. It’s a nifty trick that means social landlords can afford the benefits of aerial photography for surveying those hard to reach high places

Forget helicopters. And thanks to the technology and the reach of Upshot UK, social landlords and also forget the scaffolding – at least for the inspection stage – because they don’t actually need to forget about aerial photography as a viable option.

The conventional approach to inspecting rooftops and other elevated structures involves erecting scaffolding – time consuming as well as costly – or hiring equipment such as cherrypickers. Repeat this across multiple properties and it clearly amounts to an expensive venture. Beyond the cost and logistical factors, there is also the consideration of time wasted, and the disruption to the people who live in and around the buildings being inspected.

Ordinarily, there’d be little choice for social landlords, but technology – and a little creative thinking to re-apply the techniques – has opened up the possibilities for reducing capital expenditure. By the same measure, it also opens up the scope for better targeting of resources by improving the diagnostic capabilities so that RSLs can plan more effectively on the basis of sound and detailed results.

Upshot UK’s approach not only provides a lower-cost solution to the conventional methods, it also provides the results far quicker and reduces to the barest minimum any potential disruption experienced by residents. Indeed, given that social landlords will be informing tenants and residents in advance of Upshot UK’s work, it is likely that the greatest impact for them is the provocation of a certain sense of curiosity.

The company has a nifty trick up its sleeve that allows it to provide aerial photography without ever actually leaving the ground. And at a price that competes favourably against the conventional inspection options. It means that clients only need to physically access these high places when they know that work needs to be done.

Decent Homes planning, as well as planned maintenance cycles are both areas of work where Upshot UK’s clients are finding the benefits, but the service is also proving its worth in property audits, quality audits, cost analysis, health & safety, trees and vegetation issues, insurance assessments, valuation and sales, and for auditing contractors’ works. The aerial photography has also been used to identify and prevent prohibited activities such as using roofs as balconies, which could otherwise lead to complaints and even fines.

The technique is called ground-based aerial photography. It makes use of special vehicles fitted with 26-metre telescopic masts that are fitted with high resolution digital cameras. From a control unit inside the van, operators can pan and zoom and take photographs from every conceivable angle, and focus in on the tiniest details to provide comprehensive coverage.

With the resulting images supplied on CD, clients, their staff and contractors can view the images at their leisure away from the site, to plan any works that need to be carried out. As well as providing key visual evidence demonstrating what needs to be carried out to a property, the photographs also demonstrate where work isn’t needed. That provides a further cost and time saver for today’s hard-pressed RSLs looking to extract the maximum efficiencies and value for money out of their operations.

The images are of such high resolution that viewers can focus in on a single nail head, says James Pickance, Upshot UK’s managing director. “You can really see the detail,” he added. “You can see if there is a broken tile, if windows are rotting, or if the roof has dropped slightly. Conversely, you can also see when a roof doesn’t need any work carried out. It enables a more planned, rather than a responsive programme of exterior maintenance, ensuring that repairs are carried out before defects require more expensive emergency repairs or replacement.

“Social landlords can use the images to gain quotes from their contractors for the work required. It is also a way of inspecting contractors’ work afterwards. While contractors themselves can use the images to inspect and record their work and it also means that no-one has to visit sites any more – they can pass the photographs around.”

Pickance founded the business in 2006, having worked in the telecommunications industry previously, where he became familiar with using the telescopic mast techniques for inspecting installations. After he left the industry he quickly realised the scope for the techniques to be applied to building inspection. Since then, Upshot UK has grown, trailblazing the field, to become the UK’s largest ground-based aerial photography provider.

Health and safety is an important factor, of course, and Upshot UK subjects every job it is tasked to undertake with a full risk assessment and method statement. All of its vehicles carry full HSE documentation on board. Each vehicle is also allowed to work on the highway and its staff are trained in accordance with the New Roads & Street Works Act (NRSWA) 1991.

The company works across a range of sectors, but in the housing and construction industries clients include the likes of Notting Hill Housing, Richmond Housing Group, Hammersmith & Fulham Borough Council, Harrow Council, contractors such as Kier and Balfour Beatty, Frankham Consultancy, Ridge & Partners, and more.

Clients have given positive feedback on the benefits that Upshot UK’s services have brought. A spokesperson for the Frankham Consultancy Group, for instance, said: “Many of the properties had London roofs, invisible from ground level. Rear elevations were also inaccessible in many cases. The clarity of the resultant photographs produced on a CD within a few days of instruction were sufficient to enable the report to be prepared on time.”

A spokesperson for Balfour Beatty Construction added: “Upshot provided professional and accurate information on the condition of the roofs, allowing an informed decision to be made by the project partnering team as to whether works should be carried out or not... saving considerable programme time and cost.”

And Notting Hill Housing said: “Upshot UK has impressed us with their efficient, informative and professional manner. This has allowed us to provide detailed and accurate specifications of work and plan programmes more effectively. The savings made are significant as scaffolding costs are reduced.”

Thermal imaging is another service provided by Upshot UK teams, whether that is conducted internally or externally to a property, including the ground-based aerial photography works. It’s something of a growing area, of which the company has been an early provider, using thermal images to visually assess the energy efficiency of a property. But, as with the regular photographic work, the thermal imaging service also sharpens the diagnostic process, allowing problems to be identified, solutions targeted, and thereby enable more effective and cost-efficient measures to be implemented.

“It may only be an image but it’s the only real way of proving visually any heat loss from a building, or of any water ingress, for that matter,” Pickance said. “If you have a burst pipe under a floor, say, a thermal image will reveal how far that leak has spread through the floor and you only then need to dig up the affected area. Similarly, for underfloor heating systems, rather than pulling up the whole floor you can see where the break is and just repair that patch.”

The advantages to Upshot UK’s aerial photography covers a wide range of bases that are prominent among the priorities of modern social housing, from reducing costs, improving services, and making the most of resources, to reducing the inconvenience to tenants and residents, and if nothing else it also provides a whole new angle on eye-catching visuals for the clients’ properties.

Thanks to Upshot UK’s ‘eagle eye’ social landlords can gain a whole new perspective on their portfolio and the needs of their tenants.

Upshot UK
Tel: +44 (0)1590 688 457
www.upshot-uk.com