Drone Surveys

Drone surveys provide detailed insights into building and land, capturing high quality data, images or video to be able to analyse commercial sites in granular detail and support informed decision making. 

Based in the North West, Anderton Gables is a leading provider of drone surveys in the UK. We offer cost-effective, efficient, and safe surveying solutions across a range of sectors, including education, commercial, industrial, logistics and property development.

Usage examples of drone land surveying include asset inspections, topographic mapping and volumetric calculations. 

Our team utilises the leading drone technology to be able to provide the most accurate and reliable results for the purposes of commercial inspection and reporting.

Craig Greaves
Associate Director

Adam Wenmouth
Associate Director

Our Aerial Drone Surveying Services

As a multi-disciplinary building consultancy, we combine technical expertise with commercial insight to deliver tailored drone surveying services.

We are fully qualified, licensed, and insured to operate drones, ensuring compliance with UK regulations while managing all necessary airspace permissions and risk assessments on your behalf.

Our drone surveys include the collection, interpretation and presentation of the required data.

Based on the specifics of your project, we can advise on the types of data that would be most beneficial to help assess, monitor, and manage assets more effectively.

  • An aerial survey using drones provides highly detailed information, especially when required for the creation of 2D orthomosaic maps or 3D models.

    Drone aerial mapping can also be useful for property and infrastructure projects, with land measurement by drone being significantly faster and cheaper to complete than manual techniques.

    Our aerial mapping drone services can be beneficial for agricultural land assessment, urban planning or infrastructure projects.

  • Drone land surveying can be used to aid environmental surveys of land including coastlines.

    The ability to provide real-time data can be invaluable in the case of a major incident such as flooding. It can also be useful to provide ongoing monitoring for the likes of habitat analysis or coastal erosion.

    Another popular use for environmental drone surveys is to perform flood risk assessments on behalf of developers or local councils. 

  • Traditional roof inspections can be costly and pose safety risks. Likewise, surveying all angles of a building including from above can be difficult to achieve.

    Drone surveys provide a safer, faster, and more detailed way to assess roof conditions, structural integrity, and maintenance needs.

    We conduct drone property surveys for a variety of commercial property types and structures.

  • Drones can be equipped with infrared cameras to detect heat variations for the purposes of inspections or environmental monitoring.

    Thermal inspections are particularly useful for identifying heat loss, insulation gaps and defects in infrastructure.

    The imagery produced by a thermal inspection can be incredibly tangible due to the visible colour variations on the images which denote temperature changes. 

  • When looking to survey natural and man-made land features, drones for topographic mapping deliver accuracy, speed and cost-effectiveness.

    Sometimes referred to as a drone elevation survey for land, topographic surveys can be used to produce contour maps, digital elevation models, digital terrain models or 3D surface models.

    Alongside site planning, grading and excavation analysis, topographic surveys can also be useful for projects relating to agriculture, infrastructure, flood risk assessment or environmental surveys.  

  • Drones can quickly scale to the required heights to be able to perform detailed and highly accurate utility inspections.

    As well as assessing damaged utility infrastructure, drones can also be used to monitor potential hazards such as vegetation that is encroaching onto power lines.

    Our surveyors can perform drone utility inspections across all types of utility infrastructure including electricity cables, wind turbines, solar panels, substations and transformers. 

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Benefits Of Drone Surveys

Improved Safety & Accessibility

It is often not safe or practical to manually survey roofs due to the risk of falls from a height. Likewise, buildings that may not be structurally sound can also pose hazards to personnel. By sending a drone up to complete the survey, the data can be collected in a controlled manner that crucially reduces the risk of injury. Furthermore, the imagery and data revealed by the drone survey can also highlight new safety issues, due to the unique vantage point of surveying the site from above.

Exceptional Data Quality

Possessing exceptional technology and armed with high-resolution cameras, drones can provide invaluable insights when used to survey building structures or land. Whether your business requires a 3D model, detailed site analysis or professional reporting, drones can capture the data quickly, effectively and safely. Furthermore, as drone technology continues to develop, the data capabilities are also getting ever more powerful as a result.

Fully Customisable To Different Industries

Lots of industries can require a drone survey for various reasons. Depending on the purposes of the survey, we can intuitively program our drones to collect the most beneficial types of data in response. Examples of the data we can collect with drones include aerial imagery, LiDAR, thermal data, infrared data and GPS data. When you partner with us for your drone survey, we can explain our full range of drone capabilities based on your requirements as a business.

Enhanced Decision Making

Drones are a vital tool in surveys as they are capable of producing extremely detailed images and reports. Therefore, the purpose and overall outcome of the survey can be greatly enhanced. Not only can drones highlight the scope of work that may be required on a site, but they can inform your commercial interests as a whole by identifying issues at the earliest opportunity or providing real-time updates of any changes.

Cost & Time Efficient

Drone surveys dramatically cut the costs involved in completing an aerial survey using planes or helicopters. When the survey is needed urgently to survey property or flood damage, drones can be dispatched rapidly to provide real-time data. Even when assessing a site for commercial purposes, drones reduce the need for scaffolding and other equipment that can be time consuming or expensive to arrange.

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Drone Land Surveying FAQs

Have a question about getting an aerial survey using drones? We’ve answered some of the most popular queries below.

For anything else or to arrange a consultation please contact our team in Liverpool, Manchester or Preston today on 0161 696 3119.

  • Drone surveys use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect aerial data about land, buildings or structures. Equipped with high resolution cameras and sensors, drones are capable of producing incredible insightful data which can then be processed into 3D models, maps or topographic surveys. 

    The process of getting a drone survey involves pre-flight planning, data collection, data processing and data analysis. 

    At Anderton Gables, our drone surveys are conducted by our experienced surveyors who are fully qualified, accredited and insured in the UK. 

    Combining the most advanced drone technology with our experts ensures your drone survey benefits from professionalism at every turn.

  • As a business or organisation which has any commercial interest in the North West, drone surveys can be used to help you make informed, data-driven decisions about your project. 

    Based on the vast data sets our drones can collect, we can improve aspects such as cost efficiency, hazard identification, cost forecasting and regulatory compliance. 

    Ultimately, drone surveys can be invaluable in streamlining project planning and resource management to reduce costs and improve efficiency. 

    When you partner with us we can explore your commercial aims and objectives in greater detail when planning, performing and interpreting the results of your aerial drone survey. 

  • Traditional surveying using manual techniques will always have its place. However, when surveying large areas, complex terrains or hazardous sites, drone surveys can be invaluable. 

    Like with other aspects of a building project, traditional vs drone surveying relies on choosing the right tools for the job. 

    With a drone, the survey can be completed quickly and methodically using specific parameters. This data will be digitally recorded and interpreted to create the likes of 3D models or orthomosaic maps, depending on the nature of the project. 

    In summary, in any project where manual techniques wouldn’t provide the data required, or would present additional risks for personnel, drone surveys can offer an extremely reliable method of collecting the data instead.

  • In short, whenever there is a need to gather aerial data on behalf of your business interests, drone surveying can be incredibly useful. 

    Some of the commercial sectors we work with include education, hospitality, housing, industrial, logistics, office, residential and retail.

  • One of the many reasons why it’s essential to hire a reputable firm to conduct a drone survey on behalf of your business or organisation is to ensure legal compliance.

    In the UK, drone operators must be registered with the CAA. When flying a drone for commercial purposes, the operator must hold qualifications including A2 CofC. More complex drone work also requires additional qualifications. 

    By partnering with Anderton Gables, you will gain peace of mind that all drone operations are compliant with all applicable legal requirements, regulations and permissions.

  • At Anderton Gables, our mapping and surveying drones enlist various techniques including photogrammetry and LiDAR. 

    Photogrammetry allows us to produce overlapping high resolution images that can be used to create 3D models and maps. For the likes of construction, urban planning, power infrastructure inspections and topographic surveys, photogrammetry can be an ideal approach. 

    LiDAR is short for Light Detection and Ranging. It involves the use of a laser scanner which measures the distance to the target. When a project requires precise elevation data or there is a need to scan through vegetation, LiDAR can offer many benefits. 

    Since the aerial drone surveys we perform across Manchester, Preston and Liverpool are varied, we will adapt our approach based on the data required for your project.

  • To achieve phenomenal accuracy, drones utilise various ways of collecting data including 

    GPS (Global Positioning System) and RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) positioning.

    When this data is collected, it allows us to produce highly accurate topographical maps within land surveying, plus inspect infrastructure in a way that reduces errors. 

    In any scenario where drone aerial surveying may be required, GPS and RTK data seek to enhance the results.

  • Drones are capable of providing an exceptional level of detail about a building, structure or piece of land. Crucially, in a way that is often safer than manual inspection, especially as the risk of working at a height is eliminated. Likewise, when surveying a piece of land, using a drone is far cheaper and quicker compared with aerial surveying using an aircraft.

    As technology continues to improve, the level of insights we can provide advances by the day. Most importantly, these insights are supercharged when interpreted by our surveyors who can help you make informed and strategic decisions about your site. 

    Overall, investing in a land survey using drones can offer an unrivalled level of data and information that cannot be obtained through other means. 

  • While drone surveys can provide incredibly insightful data about a structure or piece of land, it is essential that a drone operator holds all the necessary qualifications and insurance to be able to legally operate in the UK. 

    Beyond legal compliance, having the expertise to collect and interpret the data is vital so that you can make strategic decisions on behalf of your company or organisation. 

    As a major provider of drone surveys in the North West, Anderton Gables, our drone operators have all the required accreditations. This includes being a RICS regulated firm which also allows us to validate drone survey data in-house. 

CONTACT US

CONTACT US

Get An Aerial Land Survey Drone Consultation

To arrange a drone survey for your commercial site, please get in touch with our team. 

Alternatively, give us a call on 0161 696 3119 to find out more.