It was decision time.
A school district was looking at a large, aging roof and a limited maintenance budget. The usual route? Tear it all off and start over. Schools have limited budgets to allocate to asset improvements and they need to solve as many problems as possible with the funds available.
Before they made the call, the team brought in Structura View to see if they had another option.
What We Found (and Why It Mattered)
We were looking at over 146,000 square feet of roofing—with multiple patches and repairs observed. Our job was to locate moisture, using thermal imaging, on-roof testing, and real data to back it up.
Here’s what we did:
- Thermal drone scans to spot suspected moisture areas
- Moisture meter surveys to help hypothesise where moisture is retained in the roof
- Core samples to confirm moisture where suspected
The results were clear: only about 8% of the roof showed signs of moisture. That meant the building didn’t need a full replacement. It was a strong candidate for a recover—a faster, less expensive solution that would extend the life of the roof without tearing it all off.
The Result: Over $1 Million Saved
By avoiding a full replacement, the district saved an estimated $1 million. Even better? That money didn’t sit unused—it was reallocated to help fund another important roof project in the district that might’ve otherwise been delayed.
“That scan was an amazing investment… it saved us like $1 million.”
— District Facilities Team Member
The Takeaway
When considering costly decisions, having data to clearly support the best course of action can be invaluable. You don’t always need to start from scratch. Sometimes, you just need better information.
This is why third-party roof scans matter. They give schools and facility teams the clarity to make smart, confident choices—and in this case, it helped stretch the district’s budget further than they thought possible.
