Façade engineers and inspectors
Façade inspection reports drafted from your drops, photos and notes
Your inspectors come back with hundreds of drone and rope access photos, drop records and voice notes. The platform sorts them by elevation and drop, drafts the observations in your house language and builds the report in your template. Your engineer classifies, checks and signs.
Built by someone from façades
AI Metric is run by Chris M., a construction project manager with more than twenty years of Tier 1 delivery, much of it on façades and the building envelope. The platform is built around how façade reports are actually produced, by someone who has had to rely on them. About Chris
Part 1 | The reports
Which façade reports can it draft?
Any report your firm produces from a façade survey, in your format. The common ones differ by country, and the rules behind them decide what the report must contain, so each is built to its own checklist.
The report changes by country. The work behind it is the same: survey, photos, notes, sign-off.
| Where | Report | What the rule asks for |
|---|---|---|
| UK | PAS 9980 fire risk appraisal of external walls (FRAEW) | A code of practice for appraising the fire risk of external walls and cladding on existing multi-storey, multi-occupied residential buildings [3]. |
| UK | EWS1 form support | EWS1 is used for valuation and is administered by RICS. It is not the same thing as a PAS 9980 appraisal [3]. |
| New York | Local Law 11 (FISP) report | Buildings over six storeys, a five-year cycle, inspected by a Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector, each condition classed Safe, SWARMP or Unsafe [1]. |
| Chicago | Façade ordinance report | Buildings 80 feet or taller, a signed and sealed report by an Illinois-licensed architect or structural engineer, classed unsafe, safe with a repair and maintenance program, or safe [2]. |
| Anywhere | Condition surveys, cladding and curtain wall inspections, water test and snagging reports | Your client’s or your own format. The platform follows the template you give it. |
Façade reports and the rest of the range
Part 2 | How it works
How do drone photos and drop notes become a façade report?
Photos are matched to the building, the elevation and the drop. Each observation is drafted from your inspector’s notes in your house language, with the photo attached and a reference that runs through the report. The photo schedule, the elevation key and the repair list build themselves as the draft does.
01
Capture
Site notes, photos, dictation and handwritten sheets, sent the way your team already sends them.
02
Sort
Matched to the job, the elevation or the asset, numbered and put in order.
03
Draft
Written in your template and house language, from your own past reports and rates.
04
Check and sign
Your engineer edits, approves and issues. Nothing goes out without them.
05
Learn
Each issued report goes back into the library, so the next draft starts closer.
The classification and the signature never leave your engineer.
| The platform does | Your façade engineer does |
|---|---|
| Sorts photos by elevation and drop, and numbers them | Decides what is a defect |
| Drafts each observation from the inspector’s notes | Sets the classification, such as Safe, SWARMP or Unsafe |
| Builds the photo schedule and elevation key | Judges urgency and the repair needed |
| Fills your template and the client’s required sections | Writes the opinion and recommendations |
| Records who drafted, changed and approved | Signs, seals and files the report |
Why a platform rather than ChatGPT on a laptop?
A general tool helps whoever is using it at the time. The platform gives every inspector the same steps and checks, keeps your templates and past reports in one account your firm controls, records who changed and approved what, and feeds each issued report back in so the next draft starts closer. On a five-yearly cycle, last cycle’s report for the same building is the best starting point there is.
How many hours go on assembling your façade reports?
- Assembly hours a month
- 60
- Hours a year
- 720
- Working days a year
- 96
- Cost a year
- £43,200
That is the time on the table. How much of it a platform takes back depends on your reports, so we measure one of yours before building anything and give you the real figure.
Book a call to measure yoursPart 3 | Next step
What does a first project look like for a façade firm?
One report type, usually the one you issue most. We start from a recent report and the photos and notes behind it, build the draft around your template, then refine it on live jobs for a month. About six weeks, from £2,950. Running costs sit in accounts in your firm’s name and are paid at cost. Full price table on the engineering firms page.
Based in the UK
Available to firms in
- United States
- Canada
- Australia
- South Africa
- United Arab Emirates
- Europe
Talk through one of your façade reports
Thirty minutes on a call. We walk through one of your recent reports and count what was judgement and what was assembly, and tell you straight whether a platform would pay for itself.
Prefer me to call you? Leave your number
What do façade firms ask first?
Can AI write our Local Law 11 (FISP) reports?
It can draft the report body, the condition descriptions and the photo schedule from your inspector’s notes, photos and drop records. The Safe, SWARMP or Unsafe classification and the filing stay with your Qualified Exterior Wall Inspector.
Can it sort hundreds of drone and rope access photos?
Yes. Photos are matched to the building, the elevation and the drop, numbered, and linked to the observation they support, so the photo schedule builds itself as the report is drafted.
Can it help with PAS 9980 appraisals and EWS1 forms?
It can draft the factual parts and the appraisal narrative from your survey notes, intrusive inspection records and photos, in your format. The risk rating, the EWS1 option and the signature stay with your competent signatory.
Does it work for façade contractors as well as inspectors?
Yes. The same approach drafts inspection and test records, water test reports, snagging reports and handover packs from site notes and photos, in the format your client asks for.
Does the AI decide what is a defect?
No. It organises, drafts and cross-references. Deciding what is a defect, how serious it is and what should be done is the inspector’s judgement, and the report is theirs to sign.
Sources
Where the rules above come from
- [1] NYC Department of Buildings, Safety and compliance filing requirements (FISP section)
- [2] Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, Understanding the Chicago Façade Ordinance
- [3] Designing Buildings Wiki, PAS 9980:2022 (information provided by BSI)
Checked 19 October 2026. Rules change; your engineer’s reading of the current rule governs every report.
See a report drafted from site notes, in your own template.