# eagle view not very accurate IMO



## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

So I got my hands on an eagle view drawing. It was prepared for Allstate. I have some arguments with the report based upon my observations in the field.

First, there are areas which are clearly greater than 3/12, but are shown as 1/12. There are areas that are flat, 1/12 or 2/12 pitch but according to the report have shingles. 

The measurements were accurate enough, I have no argument with that. I think anyone using eagle view to price a job or anyong trusting an insurance company's assessment of a job who does use eagle view should go and close their business. This is not accurate. They'd have me putting low slope membrane on steep slope areas and shingles on flat roofs. Ridiculious.

On the positive side, there are large areas where shingles do not existing because of inset gutters. Eagle view is calling these areas shingles and paying out for about 5 squares extra of shingles that do not exist. LOL.


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## dougger222 (Jan 29, 2004)

I have used their reports several times now and overall happy with the report. You of course need to count layers of shingles, type of venting, roof slopes etc. to ensure you give a proper bid. 

Had one that in the memo asked for only the pitched section of roof be measured on the house. The report came back with the flat roofs, detached garge and for kicks they even tossed in the neighbors detached garage!!! Instead of crediting me $20 they gave me a free report which I used on my own roof.

Checked the measurements on my own house and they were spot on. The only roof they missed was the flat roof under the one tarret off the master. They got the pitches right, 4/12, 8/12, and 16/12.


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## dougger222 (Jan 29, 2004)

Seen the measurements over rather than under on most reports as a matter of fact. One report was over by over 100ft of drip. 

Anybody use roofwalk? Looked on their site and they seem to have more information in the report than EV.

BTW,
Although the reports are said to take a few days to get done they typicaly are sent within a few hours.


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## room2roof (Feb 1, 2011)

Eagleview is not foolproof but it is a lifesaver and money saver in the long run. The times that it is totally on point compared to it being off is much greater and worth it. Why risk your life trying to measure a roof on a steep slope 2 story home or building. By the time I pull out the mountain climbing gear and pay my helper plus gas and travel time. I bought two eagle view reports.........

roofing charlotte | roofing kannapolis | roofing lexington | roofing gastonia


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## RoofmasterFlex (Jun 6, 2011)

We use eagleview here and there and its great. Right now we use them on steep projects or large projects that would be extremely time consuming to measure. Obviously you still have to confirm measurements and make sure nothing is missed. Once in a while there is a mistake or two but its still a great service IMO.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Everyone knows how to figure the square footage of a triangle correct? Length x rafter / 2 Well on their report they must use some other kind of math. A trapezoid, average the gutter line and the ridge line x rafter. Nope they must be using some other kind of math because the math I learned in 5th grade and have been using the last 10 years I have been estimating jobs doesn't seem to apply to the eagle view report.

I said in my original post that the measurements were close enough. After goign over everything with a fine tooth comb today I have to recant that statement. A measure a 13' length of gutter with my tape measure they have it as 11'. I measured an other area of wall as 11' and they have it as 8'. Ok so the 11' wall was really 10' 6", I always round up but WTF?


I don't see how it's a money saver, I can measure more accurately and if I went off a report so wrong I would lose my ass. This is no 1 story 1 day ranch, this is a historic mansion just off lake Michigan. If I used their report to price my job I would lost my ass on this job.


The funny thing is I had considered using eagle view on my house and a few other jobs we had installed just to see how accurate it was. I threw that idea out the window. No thanks.


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## DFW Roofing (Mar 4, 2011)

No doubt putting the tape measure can be more accurate, but time is valuable also. 

They make mistakes, but I would call BS on anyone who said they never make a mistake with a tape measure. If it is a difficult house I take a pitch meter to it and order a report. Pitch is where I have found most differences. If you know the pitch you can move the number up or down as needed.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

DFW Roofing said:


> No doubt putting the tape measure can be more accurate, but time is valuable also.
> 
> They make mistakes, but I would call BS on anyone who said they never make a mistake with a tape measure. If it is a difficult house I take a pitch meter to it and order a report. Pitch is where I have found most differences. If you know the pitch you can move the number up or down as needed.


I've never seen a roof yet I couldn't draw and measure accurately from the ground and with a little very simple math figure out the square footage. 

Ok so is eagle view a time saver? Sure. Would it be easier on a steep, tall big roof? Sure. That's why i thought of giving it a try. But here we have a not steep, but tall and a little bit cut up but not bad, and Eagle View totally dropped the ball! I had it drawn and measured in 15 minutes. 

As for the helper and travel time etc... Well sheesh you still have to check the layers, so if you can't work a 32' ladder by yourself, might want to get out of roofing and into siding or windows. 10 years ago I could worka 40' by myself no problem. Things have changed but I can still work a 32' without a problem all by myself. 


IF Eagle View were accurate I would see a place for it. If I am paying $50 and not getting an accurate report, well it's worthless. Thank God I didn't pay or I would stop payment. Now if it were $10, well it's be totally worth it. Or if it were 1005 accurate it'd be totally worth it. But it's not either of those so it's not going to be a product I use.


Also let us all not forget that google maps and bing are both free so we can get a really good shape and understanding of the roof before we even leave our offices.


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## 1985gt (Dec 10, 2010)

Google earth FTW! I use it all the time and I find you can get pretty good measurements from it. We site measure 90-99% of the time anyway but if you forgot something this comes in handy. Of course it doesn't measure slope for you but for what we do we dont need slope 

As far as your time being money sure it is. Do you want someone else's measurements or your own? You can quickly lose what little money you saved.


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## RoofmasterFlex (Jun 6, 2011)

That is unfortunate. Definitely don't want to loose your shirt. Our experience with EagleView has been good. They guarantee the accuracy of their reports. Not sure what happens when its not accurate though, probably just credit you the report.


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## BamBamm5144 (Jul 12, 2008)

Aerialogics said:


> Aerialogics, which services only the US currently, was founded by roofers for roofers and has no membership fees, same price for all sizes, 24 hour turnaround for free, no up charges, and no prepay. It is a deductible business expense and the price is always the same for a residential or commercial report which is easier for accounting. If you are using Eagleview you have nothing to lose trying Aerialogics because you can buy one report without putting down your hard earned money upfront. Would any current Eagleview customers here be willing to try us?


I'll give it a try... Maybe.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Want to sky measure this house I am ranting about? It'll be a chance for you to put your money where your mouth is in direct competition with my tape measure and eagle view. I will post an honest review for you here in this thread, good or bad. 


BTW two spams in one thread, that must be some kind of record LOL


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## larryb (May 23, 2008)

"EagleView and Xactware team up to revolutionize roof dimensioning"

Just like Xactware "revolutionized" pricing...just sayin


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## buildpinnacle (Sep 2, 2008)

I don't hold the 'merge' with Xactimate against Eagle View. They are just trying to run a business. They make mistakes on their measurements from time to time. I would venture to say that very few busiensses operate completely mistake free.....including roofers. It's unfortunate, Grump, that they made a mistake on their maiden opportunity with you. While recouperating from a back injury, I used them on most every apartment complex or large commercial building we had under engagement. Although I still have to spend quite a bit of time on the roof scoping and documenting damage, it did reduce my roof time and thus helped on the back. Now, I use them as a matter of convenience. I do quite a bit of PA work in AZ, TX, and OK along with our standard engagements and it saves me a ton of time. The clients like the reports as well. It can get expensive, but as someone mentioned earlier, your time is worth more than you usually give it credit.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Hey guys, Aerialogic sent me a report on the same property. I have some other paper work to deal with first, but plan to write up a basic comparison of the two services.


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## seeyou (Dec 12, 2008)

Grumpy - 

I'll be interested to hear. I'm looking at a job today that's a prime candidate for satellite measuring. Was gonna try Aerialogic. Let us know how they compare.


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## Grumpy (Oct 8, 2003)

Ok so here is the break down. I have both the Eagle View as well as the Aerialogic report in front of me. Keep in mind a couple of things. First, this ismy first time using either company and first time I have seen a satellite report. I've generally done my own satellite take offs using Autocad and a few other programs to pretty good affect, not really for residential however.

Also keep one thing in mind regarding eagle view. This was passed to me by the home owner and was given to her by All state. The reports roofers see may vary, I don't know. But the Eagle View report is labeled "premium report". 

Here is what is the same...

-Both reports are 8 pages. I am missing page 2 and 3 of Eagle View.
-Both reports give a 2d top down aerial view of the roof. The funny thing is Eagle View calls this a 3d view. I found that odd.
-Both give you ridges, hips, valleys, rakes, eaves, and some flashings. Though eagle view lumps flashings and Aerialogic breaks flashing into categories.
-Both give you lengths and widths, though the Aerialogic is a little more comprehensive. For eaxmple there is a ridge 16' long. Aerialogic has labeled it as such. But for some reason eagle view has it labeled as 8' and 7'. There is no break nor reason as to why.
-Both reports give you roof pitches. Eagle views appear to be much more precise, instead of 6/12 they have labeled 5.96. But keep in mind my gripe they labeled one area that is 6/12 as 1.00 meaning 1/12.
-They both give you a compass, eagle view on the drawing and aerialogic on the pictures (I'll get to pictures in a moment).
- Both give you a break down of squares per section of roof or facet as eagleviw calls it. However I have no idea how eagle viw does their math. For example a hip section they have labeled as 35' at the gutter and 26' at the hip, well I can reverse the math and determine there is a 21' rafter. This makes the area of the hip 350 sq ft, eagle view has labeled 342 sq ft. That's me doing basic 6th grade geometry based on the numbers they provided. Then there is a seciton eagle view has labeled as 12'x6' but has the area as .69... I don't get the math. They are shorting every facet of the roof. On the flip side, Aerialogic had the same hip as 33'x25' on the hip. Again using basic geometry I came up with 327 sq ft, but they came up with 308. (Now either I need to go back to school, or they use different math than I do. See below about math formula.
-Both give a google link to an online map. 

What eagle view does that Aerial doesn't. 

-Eagleview gives longitude latitude. not sure if this is a deal breaker with anyone, but somethign worth mention.


Aerial logic does what eagle view doesn't (keep in mind I was missing 2 pages).
- satellite and aerial photography included from every angle. 
-a field notes page with graph paper like diagram scaled to 1' increments. At first I was thinking WTF, then found it pretty neat as I realized it is for use by the person inspecting the roof being able to indicate various details on the roof.
-More accurate length and width measurements and more intuitive report. 
- Aerialogic included the 3 chimneys, eagle view did not. 

Neither measured the detached garage. Neither had the exact measurements, though I think Aerial Logic was slightly more accurate. 


Math formula for a hip (triangle) To figure the square footage of a triangle multiple the gutter line (length) x the rafter (height) then / 2. Would everyone agree? Not Eagle View nor Aerial Logic. http://www.mathsisfun.com/area.html Just to prove I aint as dumb as people say. 1/2 base x height. 


I guess either one will get ya close enough. I see the benefit to these services but they are not the answer to our industry (yet). If I still have to go out to the job then on 99% of jobs, these reports are not necessary for me. On this job it was nice to have, but I had already drawn and measured the roof before the customer presented me with the eagle view report. 

Time is money, but money is money too.


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## scraigc (Aug 2, 2010)

Informative comparison, thank you for the effort and input


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## Terry08 (Sep 29, 2013)

*Eagle View*

Just got a report from State Farm Insurance, Eagle View gave a total # of squares as 65. Since the customer said the last roofer told her he was short 15 squares 10 years ago. We decided to do an on site take off. We pulled the tape twice and came up with 85 1/3 squares. Glad I caught it before starting the job. Now sending report to
State Farm, I wo uld welcome them to come out and pull the tape. 
This is a great customer and I would hate to have to tell her she owed an extra five 
grand. Twenty squares is a big miss.


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## dougger222 (Jan 29, 2004)

Just pulled one this morning and higher than the adjusters estimate. 

We had a large 12/12 tear off that eagleview was low on last Summer, 9sq short. Adjuster was cool though and paid on my material invoice. As a matter of fact had another large steep roof they were short on as well but that adjuster also paid off my material invoice.

The one we're on now better be right. 66sq off hip roof cedar shingle. It's got a double row every 10 courses so ordered 75sq of shingles. Finally got an insurance company to pay MY PRICE for a cedar shingle roof.


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