A washing system that flies
Not a drone with a hose attached. A complete system — treated water, pump, nozzle, pilot on the ground — built to wash a building envelope top-down without anyone climbing it.
- Certified pilots · ground-based operations
- $2M liability insurance
- 5.0 ★ on Google
- Montérégie · Estrie · Greater Montreal
- Biodegradable products & reverse-osmosis water
Four elements, one machine
What makes drone washing work isn't the flying — it's what the drone carries and how the water is treated before it goes up.
The water is treated before it goes up
The water goes through reverse osmosis, which strips out dissolved minerals. That's what lets a façade dry streak-free, with no hand wiping, even in direct sun. Tap water would leave a mineral haze on every pane.
Pressure is set per surface
A curtain wall, a porous brick and an asphalt shingle do not tolerate the same force. Nozzle and flow are set before each section: deposits come off without attacking the material or the caulking.
The product stays biodegradable
When a biological deposit — algae, lichen, mould — needs more than water, we add a biodegradable agent, only on the affected area. Nothing corrosive, nothing that burns the planting below.
The pilot never leaves the ground
The drone is flown from a ground perimeter with a dedicated spotter. No harness, no anchors, no suspended platform — so no fall risk to manage in the first place.
Drone, rope access, lift, scaffolding: what actually changes
Price is only one line. The other lines are usually the ones that decide.
| Criterion | ROB drone | Rope access | Boom lift | Scaffolding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worker at height | None | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Anchors required | None | Mandatory | No | No |
| Ground footprint | A few metres | Drop zone | A full lane | Sidewalk + street |
| Mobilisation | Under an hour | Half a day | Delivery + permits | Several days |
| Balconies, recesses, setbacks | Reachable | If anchored | Often out of reach | Expensive to work around |
| Impact on occupants | Minimal | Moderate | High | Very high |
| Visual survey of the envelope | Included (4K aerial) | No | No | No |
Swipe the table sideways to see the other methods.
What the drone can wash
Curtain walls and glass façades
Glass, aluminium, silicone joints. Reverse-osmosis water, streak-free drying.
Brick, concrete, stone
Atmospheric deposits, runoff staining, efflorescence. Reduced pressure on porous materials.
Architectural cladding
Composite panels, fibre cement, pre-finished metal — with no risk of lifting the panels.
Residential roofs
Moss and lichen treatment by gentle spray, with nobody standing on the shingles.
Solar panels
Removing the dust and deposits that cut output, without walking on the modules.
Wind turbines
Blades and towers at extreme height — access that only flight makes realistic.
What gets checked before every flight
- Certified remotely piloted aircraft operator, with a dedicated ground spotter.
- Airspace and site-specific restrictions verified before the day of the intervention.
- A marked ground safety perimeter, with an abort plan for wind or the unexpected.
- $2M liability insurance — certificate provided on request.
- Notice to occupants and the property manager beforehand, with simple instructions: windows closed, balcony furniture brought in.
- Nobody at height: fall risk — the leading cause of serious injury in this sector — is taken out of the equation entirely.
What we get asked most often
In practice height isn't the constraint: we have treated downtown office towers over their full elevation. What limits a job is wind, the airspace restrictions over that area, and how much ground there is for the safety perimeter.
No — provided the pressure is set for the surface. That is exactly why the survey comes before the wash: we identify materials, the condition of the caulking and any fragile areas before choosing nozzle and flow.
Reverse-osmosis water carries no minerals and no chemical residue, and the agents we use are biodegradable. Runoff joins the site's existing drainage. Where planting is close by, it is saturated with clean water before and after the pass.
It depends on surface area and how heavily soiled it is. On our projects, an envelope that a rope-access quote spread over seven to eighteen days was treated in one to five days of drone operation.
That's often where the drone wins biggest. A boom arm has to work around a projecting balcony; the drone repositions in seconds. On a residential complex with glass balconies, that's the difference between reachable and impossible.
No. The system is self-contained: it carries its own treated water and power. No hookups, no temporary installation, nothing to arrange on the building side.