Throughout many roofing professionals’ careers there has been technology that has literally changed the way they do business. Some are easy to recognize such as fax, cell phone and the Internet while others are very industry-specific such as software for estimating, accounting and production. 

Throughout many roofing professionals’ careers there has been technology that has literally changed the way they do business. Some are easy to recognize such as fax, cell phone and the Internet while others are very industry-specific such as software for estimating, accounting and production. A new technology that is again changing the course of the roofing industry has been developed and perfected over the last two years by EagleView Technologies out of Bothell, Wash. - aerial roof measurement reports.

For generations, roofing estimators have been climbing ladders and measuring roofs. “Measuring roofs takes time, money and is a huge safety concern for our company,” stated Bill Gabel, an estimator for Interstate Roofing of Portland, Ore., since 1994. “It easily adds two hours to estimating for every job that I could be spending on the next estimate.” When asked what he has done to change that, he was very definite: “We pull an EagleView report.”

Software as a service is the new terminology for what EagleView is providing the roofing industry. “We are in our sixth generation of aerial measurement software technology and improving it every day,” stated Chris Barrow, president and CEO of EagleView Technologies. “It is the next revolution in high tech. Instead of roofing contractors spending thousands installing software and maintaining crews in-house, they simply place an order on the internet for a roof measurement report and they are ready to estimate the job in hours.”

Interstate Roofing, one of Portland’s largest residential and commercial roofing companies, started out using the EagleView reports on just large and complicated jobs. What they have seen since then is an overall shift in how they do business utilizing the EagleView reports.

“Before I would pull up to a house and see the complexity of the roof and after talking to the homeowner, go back to the office and order an EagleView report. Now I know which neighborhoods have the large cut-up roofs and I am starting to order the reports before my appointment. Now when I show up, I am prepared and it is making a huge difference with homeowners,” stated Gabel.

“What it really does is give you a sense of confidence in your estimate,” agreed Sean Clay, an estimator with Interstate Roofing since 1995. “The accuracy of these reports is unbelievable. We are finding that we can take the EagleView measurements which include square footage, lineal footage and pitch, calculate the waste from the report’s waste table and we are right on with our estimate. In this economy, homeowners want to know that they are getting exactly what they need, no more, no less.”

“I have two jobs just recently where I estimated the roofs and then we pulled an EagleView report,” confirmed Gabel. “In reviewing the results with production, EagleView was dead on. It is hard for us estimators who have been doing it for a long time to put that much faith in a report but I am consistently finding savings of at least two squares or more in my estimates. In today’s competitive economy, two squares can win or lose the job.”

For more information, visit www.eagleview.com.