Cushman & Wakefield Identify Potential Façade Risk Using Thermal Imaging

A recent case with Cushman & Wakefield

At first glance, nothing about the building stood out. A typical façade. A standard survey. The kind of asset reviewed every day.

But when drone-captured thermal data was analysed through an Inotek report, a different picture emerged.

What appeared uniform to the eye was anything but.

When the report was reviewed by a Senior Building Surveyor at Cushman & Wakefield, the response was immediate:

“The thermographic imaging in your report is fantastic. Heat loss is evident at every floor slab level…”

The value was not just in the imagery, but in the consistency of what it revealed.

Horizontal bands of heat loss appeared across every floor level. Not random. Not isolated. Repeated.

This led to a clear hypothesis.

The façade is likely finished with brick slips at each floor level, installed consistently across the building. When analysed thermally, this suggests a systemic issue, with potential for material degradation or debonding over time, and in the worst case, a safety risk to pedestrians below.

Rather than requesting more data, the surveyor moved directly to action.

Targeted intrusive investigations and representative sampling were proposed to assess installation consistency and condition.

The report did not just inform the situation. It defined the next step.

This is where building inspections are evolving.

Drone surveys capture imagery. Decisions are made on interpreted insight.

By combining thermal data with engineering analysis, the output becomes clearer, more defensible, and directly actionable.

This project was delivered through an Inotek partner, combining on-site drone data capture with engineering-led analysis.

The result was a report that directly influenced technical decision-making.