A pilot holding the right Transport Canada certificate, either someone on your crew or a pilot you contract. We do not fly drones. We write the brief, the shot list and the consent step, and we edit what comes back.

Can we just use a drone under 250 g to avoid the certificate?

Transport Canada exempts drones under 250 g from registration, marking and the pilot certificate, but microdrone rules still apply, and the operating weight includes anything attached. Whether a microdrone suits your shoots is your pilot's decision; we plan for whichever drone you use.

How many photos do we get per roof?

Our standard set is eight to twelve finished stills per job, covering the full roof, each elevation, and the details buyers ask about. Fewer, better photos beat a dump of fifty near-duplicates.

Do you edit out neighbouring houses?

We frame to keep neighbouring properties out where possible, and blur faces, licence plates and house numbers that do not belong to the client. That follows the spirit of Transport Canada's privacy guidelines for drone users.

Drone Roof Photo Programs for Roofing Companies

A drone photo program is a written routine that produces the same high-quality aerial set from every roof you finish. Instead of whoever is on site grabbing a few shots, the pilot follows a shot plan, the homeowner has given permission, and the files arrive named and ready to edit. Within a couple of months you have a gallery that looks like one company did all the work, because it did.

What it is, and who it is for

It is the starting point for most roofing companies with fewer than a few dozen good photos of their own work. If your website still relies on stock images or manufacturer brochures, buyers notice. A consistent gallery of your own roofs, in your own towns, does more for trust than any slogan.

It suits:

residential re-roofing companies doing asphalt, metal or cedar replacements
commercial and low-slope roofers who need clean overhead views for property managers
companies with a certified drone pilot on staff who has never been given a clear brief

It is less useful if you mostly do small repairs that look identical from above. For those, close-up ground photos in the photo library work better.

What is included

The shot plan. A one-page list of angles for every job: the full roof from each corner, a straight-down overhead, each elevation, ridge and hip lines, valleys, flashing at chimneys and walls, vents and skylights, and the clean-up of the yard and driveway.
The pilot brief. Lighting rules (avoid harsh midday shadows on dark shingles where possible), altitude framing notes, file naming and how to send files. The brief asks the pilot to confirm which Transport Canada category the flight falls under before the day.
The consent step. A plain-language permission request for the homeowner, using placeholders you fill in, recorded in the library. Our consent guide explains the reasoning.
Editing. Colour correction, straightening, cropping for web, Google Business Profile and print, and blurring of anything personal that should not be published.
Placement. Photos added to the right service and town pages on your site and to your Google Business Profile, with descriptive file names and alt text.

The rules we plan around

We are not aviation advisers, and the pilot is responsible for every flight. But a plan that ignores the rules is a plan that falls apart on the day, so we build the brief around Transport Canada's framework.

Under Transport Canada's operation categories, drones from 250 g to 25 kg are "small" and need a certified pilot.
Basic operations require staying more than 30 m horizontally from any person, in uncontrolled airspace, and more than 5.6 km from a certified airport's centre. On a typical suburban street, neighbours and passers-by make that hard, so many roof shoots need an Advanced certificate.
Transport Canada's where-to-fly page recommends getting permission from building owners or occupants before flying near or over buildings.

Our drone rules guide explains these points in more detail, with links.

Timeline

Week 1: review existing photos, agree the shot plan and pilot brief.
Weeks 2–4: first three to five jobs captured; we edit and send feedback on angles and light.
Months 2–3: the gallery fills out across roof types and towns; photos go live on your site and profile.

The pace depends on how many roofs you finish. A company completing ten jobs a month will have a strong gallery much sooner than one completing three.

How we measure results

We do not count photos; we count what they do. Each month we report how often your Google Business Profile photos are viewed, which website pages with new galleries get estimate requests, and whether your estimators are using the gallery links in follow-ups. Over a season, we compare close rates on estimates where a gallery link was sent against those where it was not.

Mistakes to avoid

Flying first, asking later. Get the homeowner's permission before the drone goes up, not after the photos look good.
Neighbourhood tours. Wide shots that show half the street create privacy problems and say nothing about your roof.
Midday everything. Harsh overhead sun flattens texture on dark shingles; plan the shoot for softer light when the schedule allows.
Mismatched sets. Five different photographers with five different styles make a gallery look like five companies.

Ready to see what your existing photos are missing? Call, text or email, or compare plans on the pricing page.

Drone roof photo programs