Southern California’s unprecedented precipitation this past winter relieved the region’s years-long drought conditions and helped in creating rain-soaked, snow-covered scenery for millions of Instagram accounts. However, with the onset of spring comes both warmer temperatures and the potential for uncontrolled growth of weeds, grass, and other vegetation to wreak havoc.

While it may not seem like such a big deal now (give it time, it will be), this excess greenery can quickly become a fire hazard waiting to happen. With wildfire season practically year-round in California, property owners must stay diligent when it comes to maintaining safe conditions under state, city, and community regulations. Failure to do so can result in costly fines, potential property damage, and possibly even worse outcomes.

Fortunately, you don’t have to combat overgrown landscaping alone — CAM’s Property Pros are here to help you manage the situation before it becomes unmanageable.

Fire Hazard & Weed Abatement

One of the most common causes of wildfires is an abundance of dead vegetation. Overgrown trees, weeds, bushes, and excess grass and leaves can all become fuel for wildfires should they be left unattended. In this case, property owners can face heavy fines for their neglect.

Fortunately, CAM Property Services has you covered. From tree trimming to dead plant removal, our Landscaping Pros start by giving
you a detailed report on the issues at hand, followed by innovative solutions to get the job done.

Fire Hazard Prevention

CAM also provides expertise in the form of proactive measures such as preventing the accumulation of dead grass and drying soil. Curb appeal is our specialty — we trim, mow, rake, and clean your property to keep it looking attractive and safe.

We also provide discing and fuel modification services, improving your soil’s health to nurture a variety of plants while also ensuring that wildfires don’t have the fuel required to spread.

Aerial Drone Surveillance

Unsure of where to check for fire hazards on your property? Maybe it’s time for a new perspective. CAM provides state-of-the-art drone inspection for a fresh vantage of your property.

CAM conducts full perimeter scans of your property, giving you detailed information on your landscaping and potential hazards present. With this new outlook, you can make better-informed decisions, and we can provide more innovative solutions. And that’s a win-win, from any perspective.

Wildfire season is coming, whether you’re ready or not. Click HERE to find out more about how CAM Property Services can help you prepare.

Incorporating technology into property maintenance makes sense, especially when it saves time and money while improving results. Aerial drone inspections accomplish all of that for property managers, owners, and stakeholders.

Now in their second decade of mainstream commercial use, drones have become more efficient and effective than ever. Commercial property managers have come to rely on recorded video surveillance of their assets from all angles for maintenance, asset protection, owner reports, and insurance.

Easier access to previously challenging viewpoints means that property managers can view and identify potential maintenance problems in the early stages. Managers can reduce operating costs through preventative maintenance that might otherwise go undetected. Facilities can be inspected from better vantage points or perspectives not previously available.

With cloud storage options, drone video footage can be viewable by any authorized user anywhere in the world, at any time. This enables raw footage to be viewed for a closer, focused viewing if desired. It can also be edited for presentation. Regularly scheduled drone inspections can provide a video log of the progression on a particular area of interest or trouble spot.

Rooftop drone inspections are an obvious favorite. Seeing HVAC, utilities, and rooftop equipment from an overhead angle or the entire topography of a roof can reveal previously unnoticed problems. Accessing hard to reach positions can reveal new hazards.

Upper levels are easier to inspect with a drone. Storefront facades and sign cans are other examples. Even further up, consider the benefits of inspecting the vertical face of a multifamily or office high-rise tower to review windowsill gaskets, paint, cracks, and other structural items. Problems not seen at the ground level or even from a ladder come into focus with a drone inspection.

Drone inspections are also great for covering wide areas, high and low. Property perimeters, parking lots, alleyways, common areas, and landscapes can all be inspected and recorded to address concerns about maintenance, repairs, safety, security, and liability.

Another common use of a drone inspection is for incident response. Damage from trespassers, vandalism, graffiti, theft, or natural disasters can all be addressed and documented accurately. Regularly recorded inspections can provide a critical before and after record.

Periodic inspections of unoccupied or low occupancy properties can provide an elevated level of security for out-of-town owners through high definition video of property conditions and 24/7 access to archived video recordings.

Commercial properties are valuable assets. It makes sense to maintain a comprehensive and accurate insight into the physical condition on a regular basis with aerial drone inspections. Owners can monitor their assets from afar, managers can gain new perspectives, problems can be prevented, and issues can be diagnosed.

Today drone inspections are performed on all property classes such as shopping centers, industrial, office, government, retail, and multifamily properties. They are used by facilities that require visual inspections as part of regular maintenance or digital recordings of assets.

The best option for ordering a drone inspection is with someone who already knows and understands your property. Your facility maintenance provider is a good place to start, but many do not offer such services.

If you are interested in aerial drone inspections for commercial properties in California, you should call upon CAM Property Services. They have been providing the best facility services in California since 1987. Their “one call does it all” approach makes it easy for property managers to get nearly everything they need from a single source. Their team of skilled professionals offer drone inspections tailored specifically for the needs of commercial facility managers.

To learn more today call 800-576-3050.

At CAM Property Services, when we say that “one call cleans it all,” we really mean it. No matter the size of the task, we can tackle any commercial or residential property management job.

We had the perfect opportunity to put our motto into practice when a new client reached out to us to take on a monumental project. The mission: Clear out a five-acre property used as an illegal dumping site for months. The client was looking to sell the property but needed the trash cleared out before showing it to potential buyers.

Our team hauled off a whopping 50 loads of illegally dumped materials from the site. Amongst the wreckage:

• Two boats
• Thousands of VHS tapes
• Four tons of roofing material
• Over 200 tires
• Four-dozen couches
• 50 mattresses

Situations like this are a great reminder of the top-notch service you receive when you trust CAM Property Services with your property needs.

As technology continues to improve, new ways to apply it are being implemented across all industries to provide better service for customers. The commercial property services sector is no exception. The latest tech to help property managers make decisions is drone inspections. These digital property surveys are helping guide management decisions, improving performance and profitability.

More than just aerial images, the data points provided by professionally piloted drone surveys continue to impress. Paired with sophisticated software, aerial drone footage enables property managers to work efficiently and effectively with single properties or across entire portfolios.

Drones receive most of the attention, but the behind-the-scenes software is the real star. The post-flight processing of the data can identify topography, building elevations, contour lines, breaklines, and even changes in slope. The ability to provide this important data depends on the software quality, which can cost hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands. A professional drone operation will have invested in a higher-end program.

Sophisticated software will also have the ability to process thousands of measurements, adjust for 2-D image distortion, generate geolocation tags, and provide accurate horizontal and vertical measurements. Accumulating and processing these data points accurately can provide valuable information for important property management decisions.

Drone inspections provide a “big picture” overview to aid facility manager planning. Aerial footage can effectively capture areas such as property boundaries, landscape, rooftops, exterior walls, storefronts, parking lots, and hazardous zones. Difficult access points can also be inspected up close, such as facades, signs, and high vertical surfaces. Drones have also been used to detect vandalism, graffiti, dumping, and illegal encampments.

With high quality equipment, measurements can be as accurate as +/- one centimeter and produced in a much shorter time than traditional methods. This can greatly reduce the cost of labor and human error for surveying properties. It also provides easier access to survey locations that may be difficult to reach.

Identifying maintenance needs is another area in which drone inspections can save money. Troubleshooting HVAC equipment, spotting rooftop water pools, and repairing solar panels in a timely manner can help management teams reduce property expenses.

A comprehensive aerial inspection can establish the baseline condition of a property for better risk assessment. Accurate aerial property surveys can also increase real estate valuations by putting all property assets into perspective. Realtors, bankers, buyers, and sellers are relying more and more on drone property inspections to support appraised values.

In the digital era, people have become accustomed to having information at their fingertips. Cloud-based aerial drone footage can be viewed online. Digital video files can be saved, archived, or shared easily. Access is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Liability protection is another important benefit of aerial drone inspections.

The first step is to accurately identify problems and perform repairs in a timely manner to reduce the number of accidents occurring on a property. Overhead views can identify problem areas. Liabilities such as trip and fall hazards, unsafe zones, and parking lot potholes may not be as noticeable at ground level but become obvious at higher elevations.

An aerial inspection can also provide an evidential timestamped video of property conditions, which can prove invaluable to insurance companies and litigators. Regularly scheduled drone inspections provide an ongoing record of property conditions and proof of maintenance.

Drone coverage can also help with ADA compliance and lawsuits. Not identifying and repairing ADA accessibility issues can bring devastating financial losses to a business. Overview footage can be used to identify problem hotspots and target them for remediation prior to any lawsuit filing or code violation.

If interested in ordering an aerial drone inspection for your property, you might start with the company that provides your property services. They tend to know your property the best and can likely refer you to the best source in your area.

Aerial drone inspections make sense on so many levels. Property managers are as good as the quality of information they receive. Providing better tools results in better outcomes. Drones generate comprehensive information that can help management make informed decisions, avoid serious losses, and save money.

Facility thermal drone inspections are more than just colorful video footage or photos. When drone services are provided by property professionals, the camera captures data most relevant to the specific needs of property managers. The more familiar a drone operator is with a property and its trouble spots, the better the resulting analysis.

While the quality of non-thermal drones is dependent on camera lens quality, resolution, and image storage, thermal drones raise the stakes. The quality of thermal cameras can vary considerably in price depending on sensitivity, targeted accuracy, and range of datapoints collected.

Color changes can provide good basic information about the general location of trouble spots, which may be adequate for some situations. Upper end units have radiometric thermal cameras which can provide the temperatures of various pinpoint locations within an image.

However, capturing the data is only part of the process. Another critical aspect of thermal drones is the software used to capture, collect, and process large volumes of critical information in real time and during post-flight analysis. The ability to process all of the datapoints for meaningful analysis separates the professional thermal drone operations from the hobbyists posing as surveyors. Inspections from equipment that costs nearly twenty thousand dollars produces far different results than drone gear that costs a fraction of that.

Roof inspections are one of the most obvious uses for thermal drones. These areas typically serve as hubs for utilities. Heat sensing detection can reveal problems with HVAC equipment, poorly insulated areas, structural issues, roof penetrations, and even water damage when evaluated by an experienced drone pilot.

Utility control panels can be assessed with thermal imaging. Alleys, parking lots, fenced areas, and behind buildings are common utility equipment areas easily accessed by a drone. Nearby utility poles, transformers, and powerlines are also ideal inspection points for detecting wasteful energy loss. Mitigate the high cost of commercial electricity with a thermal drone energy audit.

Solar panels are another area in which inefficiencies and problems can be revealed via heat imaging drones. Variations in panel activity is easily identified by changes in color. You can also thermally image properties to identify the best location to place solar panels.

Preventative maintenance saves facility managers time and money by avoiding larger problems, scheduling repairs to minimize downtime, and enabling strategic planning with Information collected through drone imaging. Even events that may go unnoticed, such as normal wear and tear, loose connections, and nearly imperceptible defects can be revealed in a timely manner with thermal imaging.

It is not just buildings that benefit from these types of inspections. Large properties, parking lots, and landscaped areas can reveal anomalies and problem areas. Pooling water, insect & animal activity, and hots spots can be revealed. Troubleshooting lighted signs and equipment in high places can also be achieved with thermal imaging.

Recording property conditions can be useful for supporting future insurance claims. Before and after documentation can assist in investigating and validating property problems. Drone imaging can be recorded and saved on the cloud for anytime, anywhere access.

Full aerial views can help with strategic planning while closeup images can reveal root causes. Working with your current property services company is ideal if they offer drone services. These professionals are in the best position to understand your property needs and problem areas.

The tools exist today for asset managers to be proactive in their approach. Maintenance costs can be reduced through thorough inspections. Identifying problems early is an important key to help save time and money and prevent minor issues from becoming critical. Consider thermal drone imaging to help get critical, analytical information for managing your property effectively.

Resources:

High Resolution Thermal Imaging for Drones: Changing the Game on Building Inspections
https://dronelife.com/2018/07/25/high-resolution-thermal-imaging-for-drones-changing-the-game-on-building-inspections

Drone Training, News, and Resources
https://uavcoach.com

Thermographic Inspections – U.S. Dept of Energy
https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/thermographic-inspections

Thermal Imaging: How can this technology be useful?
https://a-actionhomeinspection.com/inspection-services/thermal-imaging

Although they are commercial properties, multifamily facilities fall into a unique category with regard to upkeep. Unlike most commercial properties for business use, these properties are occupied continuously. Multifamily maintenance requires a wider range of skills and resident diplomacy, whether a high-rise apartment building, sprawling garden style community, condominiums, or townhouse community.

Multifamily properties typically have more paying tenants to keep satisfied. The demands on common areas and amenities also tend to be higher. The lifestyles of the occupants tend to follow less rigid patterns of behavior, whereas business tenants more closely follow a uniform code of behavior.

Working with a property services company that has a cooperative team across multiple disciplines will save busy property managers time, money, and frustration. Imagine the convenience of contacting just one point-person for nearly all property needs such as landscaping, janitorial, power washing, garbage area cleanup, trash chute repair, virus disinfecting, ADA compliance, and parking garage sweeping.

General maintenance is the first concern for servicing multifamily properties. As property occupants are staying home more and paying attention to sanitizing and cleaning procedures these days, a more professional standard of cleaning is demanded. Janitorial services are less behind-the-scenes than they may have been in the past.

Pristine common areas are the first key to making tenants happy. Indoor cleaning may require extra attention on frequent touch point and high traffic areas. Community rooms and fitness centers require additional sanitization. Expert carpet cleaning and floor care can extend the life of your asset. Day porter services also provide a higher level of concierge service.

Common areas are the most visible and important to keep clean. Lobbies, entryways, elevators, stairwells, parking garages, and walkways that are not maintained can become eyesores and liability hazards. A company that properly repairs and maintains trash chutes and garbage collection areas can reduce odors, disease, and safety hazards from properties.

Professional landscaping provides a great first impression for prospective residents and visitors and can add value. Exterior maintenance also covers a lot of ground and includes services such as hard surface steam cleaning, parking lot sweeping, and underground parking maintenance, to name a few. Although these areas may be lower profile, they are equally important to maintain.

Perimeter inspections, aerial drone video inspections, hauling large illegally dumped items, graffiti removal, alleyway cleanup, and handyman services should also be offered by a full-service company.

Hiring a good team that recognizes preventative maintenance issues is also valuable. The more skills a facility services team brings, the more qualified they are to identify and report potential problems. They can prevent small abnormalities from escalating into large, full-blown problems that create headaches and unwanted expenses.

This is the type of depth you should look for when hiring a company for multifamily maintenance. A strong team can save property managers considerable time and expense in the long run. Your property will provide an enhanced living experience and tenants will be routinely happier.

If you are an owner or manager of multifamily real estate in California, you should call upon CAM Property Services. From now on all your multifamily property needs could be handled with a phone call to just one company. They are a premier provider, trusted by many of the top residential property companies in the state since 1987.

Call 800-576-3050 to get started today.