Common questions about drone-based exterior cleaning.

Yes. All commercial drone work in the U.S. requires an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certificate. Every operator on the AES team holds one — federal certification is a baseline, not a credential we display selectively.

For flights inside controlled airspace (which covers much of urban Southern California, especially near LAX, SAN, SNA, and military airspace), we file LAANC airspace authorizations through the FAA before mobilization. Certificate numbers are available on request.

$1M general liability + $1M aviation hull and liability — $2M combined coverage.

Aviation coverage is separate from standard contractor GL and is required for serious commercial drone work. Most cleaning contractors don't carry it. Your property entity gets listed as additional insured on every job, and Certificates of Insurance are delivered before any drone leaves the ground.

We operate a fleet of various drone platforms — purpose-matched to building height, surface type, payload requirements, and access constraints. The right tool for a 2-story strip retail looks different from the right tool for a 7-story hospitality tower.

Our fleet includes both NDAA-compliant and non-NDAA-compliant aircraft. NDAA compliance refers to National Defense Authorization Act restrictions on covered foreign-manufactured equipment, and is sometimes required for federal contracts, government facilities, and certain critical-infrastructure scopes.

If your property has an NDAA-compliance requirement, let us know ahead of time so we can scope the job with the right platform from the start.

Our equipment routinely cleans buildings up to 7+ stories. Beyond that we evaluate case by case based on building geometry, airspace, wind conditions, and chemistry needs.

The practical limit on most jobs isn't drone capability — it's access logistics. A 4-story office park may be a harder job than a 7-story hotel if access constraints differ.

Most jobs complete in 20-40% the timeline of lift-based crews because drones eliminate setup, scaffolding teardown, and rope-access labor.

Eliminated costs include: boom lift rentals ($3,000-$8,000+/week plus delivery and operator), SPRAT-certified rope-access labor ($150+/hour for multi-person crews), lane closures and city permits, and OSHA-exposure-related insurance premiums on the property side.

The cleaning itself isn't faster. The access is.

Soft washing uses low pressure (under 500 PSI) and biodegradable chemistry to remove mold, algae, lichen, and biological soiling at the root. It's the right method for delicate surfaces: stucco, EIFS, vinyl siding, painted finishes, tile and shingle roofs.

Pressure washing uses high-pressure water (1,500-4,000 PSI) to lift deep-set staining from hard, durable surfaces: concrete, brick, parking structures, dumpster pads, loading zones.

We use the right method for the surface — and we'll tell you which one applies before quoting. If a contractor uses high pressure on stucco or paint, the substrate gets damaged.

The opposite — drone delivery protects your roof. Most roof damage during cleaning comes from the cleaning crew, not the cleaning. Walking on tile breaks tiles. Walking on asphalt shingle dislodges granules. Walking on single-ply membrane risks punctures.

With drone-delivered soft washing, no one walks the roof. We use manufacturer-aware soft-wash chemistry matched to substrate (tile, shingle, modified bitumen, TPO/EPDM each take different formulations), with no abrasives and no high-pressure jets on roof surfaces.

California chemical compliance is a precondition for every job, not an afterthought.

We use biodegradable, runoff-aware soft-wash formulations selected for the substrate and soiling type. For sites near storm drains, sensitive landscaping, or with NPDES obligations, we add containment, capture mats, or vacuum recovery as part of the scope. Industrial sites with stormwater compliance plans get NPDES-aware handling — no "rinse it down the drain" shortcuts.

Yes. We can provide a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for any cleaning product or soap used on your property — on request before, during, or after the job.

SDS documentation supports facility hazard-communication records, environmental compliance, tenant inquiries, and any insurance or audit requirements your property entity carries. Just ask, and we'll send the relevant SDS for the formulations selected for your scope.

A small percentage of buildings sit in airspace where flight authorization isn't available or practical (rare, but it happens near major airports and certain government facilities).

We assess airspace during the site survey before quoting. If your building falls into a restricted category, we'll tell you up front and recommend alternative approaches — including ground-crew solutions where appropriate. We won't take a job we can't legally complete.

Drone operations are weather-sensitive. Sustained wind, rain, fog, and reduced visibility all affect safe flight, and we won't fly outside manufacturer or FAA limits — period.

We monitor conditions closely in the days leading up to mobilization. During the work itself, we maintain constant contact with you (or your designated site contact) about any condition changes. If weather forces a pause, we communicate immediately, secure the site, and coordinate a reschedule with minimum disruption.

Multi-day jobs include weather contingency in the proposal up front, so you're never surprised by a re-mobilization conversation mid-project.

Minimal. Drone operation runs from a single ground station with one to two operators and usually one drone — depending on job size, we may double both of those numbers. No scaffolding fields, no fenced-off entrances, no lane closures, no parking displacement.

Tenant or resident communications are drafted in advance for your approval. For hospitality, we schedule overnight or low-occupancy windows. For multi-family, we work around resident parking and traffic patterns. From inside a guest room or apartment, drone work is often unnoticed.

Pricing depends on building size, height, surface types, current condition, and whether the engagement is one-off or part of a recurring contract.

Recurring maintenance contracts price below one-off equivalents because mobilization gets amortized across visits — quarterly, bi-annual, and annual cadences all available.

Send your property details (address, approximate size or height, services of interest) and we'll come back with specifics within one business day.

After every job, you receive: aerial imagery of the full exterior captured before and after the work, condition notes flagging pre-existing damage or areas to monitor, and recommendations for follow-up maintenance.

Documentation is delivered as a default deliverable — not on request. It's useful for tenant communications, insurance records, asset condition tracking, and budget justifications. Most lift-based contractors deliver this only when asked, if at all.

For solar panel cleaning, yes — homes of any size. The unit economics work on residential solar because cleaning is fast, the ROI on recovered solar production is clear, and recurring quarterly or bi-annual contracts are easy to schedule.

For other residential work (building washing, roof cleaning), we focus on multi-family and HOA-managed properties as our primary commercial residential segment. Single-family non-solar work is handled case by case.