Philadelphia turns to virtual calls to optimize building inspections
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Through the camera lens of a mobile device, city staff can evaluate building conditions more closely and efficiently, one official says.
Philadelphia is innovating building inspections by offering a virtual option for residential and commercial facilities, which officials say will help staff manage reviews more efficiently and safely.
The city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections launched a virtual app for staff to perform remote building inspections with customers including contractors, permit holders, property owners and licensees, city officials announced last week.
This initiative “is bringing [the department] into the 21st century with virtual inspections,” said Basil Merenda, commissioner of the agency.
Jack Flanagan, supervisor of the remote inspections unit of the Department of Licenses and Inspections, said his team processes about 10,000 inspections annually, and sifting through those assignments is difficult for a two-person staff with limited capacity to travel to each building site to perform inspections that can take hours at a time.
With the remote service, the staff can churn through inspection appointments more efficiently, and “if you remove the travel time between construction sites, it allows my inspectors to focus on a quality inspection,” he said.
Under the program, customers can use their own phone or tablet to schedule a remote appointment with a city inspector to evaluate features like water window and siding installations, water heater and furnace replacements, moisture barrier conditions and roofs.
Real-time video calls can offer inspectors a closer look at building details, even through a camera lens, Flanagan said.
The city, for example, prohibits on-site inspectors to go on a roof themselves, unless the building has a walkout feature, as a safety precaution, he explained. The virtual service enables the customer, who can access such areas, to show inspectors things that they wouldn’t be able to view closely otherwise, like the roof’s panels, fasters and brackets.
At the same time, inspectors are in the office comparing the live feed to the building’s drawings on a different monitor to ensure the structure is being developed safely and accurately, Flanagan said. They can ask questions and flag any violations in real-time, which will be reflected in the city’s portal that staff and customers use to manage inspection appointments and results.
Philadelphia’s remote inspection initiative grew from the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited staff’s ability to interact with customers in person, city officials said. Since the pandemic, other U.S. municipalities have also explored virtual options for building evaluations, including Tampa, Florida, and Arlington County, Virginia.
“Having been a field inspector, I love the fact that [a virtual inspection] allows inspectors to focus more on the things they cannot afford to miss and …. do what they have to do,” Flanagan said.