What building defects does the NXTGEN facade inspection platform detect?

The platform detects concrete spalling, surface cracks, render delamination, window seal failure, efflorescence, staining, expansion joint failures, anchor and fixing anomalies, and coating degradation across all external faces of a building envelope using high-resolution imagery captured from the building's BMU and AI defect classification with human review.

How does BMU-mounted facade inspection compare to rope access?

BMU-mounted inspection captures the facade during the building's normal maintenance unit operation, removing the dedicated crew, equipment hire and extended site presence of a rope-access campaign. It removes working-at-height risk for a separate inspection crew and produces a georeferenced photographic record of every defect instead of manually compiled inspection reports.

What building types does NXTGEN facade inspection cover?

The platform covers commercial high-rise buildings, residential apartment towers, industrial facilities, heritage structures, and infrastructure assets. Any structure where height, access logistics, or safety risk makes human rope-access inspection hazardous or cost-prohibitive is a candidate for BMU-mounted facade inspection.

Does facade inspection meet Australian building safety compliance requirements?

Yes. NXTGEN facade inspection produces timestamped, geo-referenced defect records with photographic evidence that satisfy Australian building safety regulations and annual cladding and facade compliance requirements, providing an audit-ready inspection record for building owners and managers.

Construction / Property NXTGEN Inspect

Application

Full facade condition. No ropes. No platforms.

BMU-mounted building envelope inspection: AI defect detection and condition mapping across high-rise and commercial facades, captured during the building's normal maintenance unit operation. No drones, no dedicated rope-access campaign.

Deploy this application

Rope-access technician abseiling down a building facade to inspect it by hand

Inspector in hi-vis manually checking facade glazing at ground level with a clipboard

Manual inspection · rope access

The Problem

Traditional facade inspection is costly, slow and puts people at risk.

Rope access and elevated work platforms require specialist crews and extensive planning, making comprehensive facade surveys expensive, infrequent and hazardous.

Personnel at height

Rope access and EWP operations expose workers to serious fall risk, requiring extensive safety planning, permits and specialist crews.
High mobilisation cost

Each inspection campaign requires significant equipment hire, crew staging and access planning, making comprehensive surveys rare and expensive.
Infrequent inspection

Facades are often inspected just once every five years. Condition changes constantly, so for most of that cycle you have minimal, outdated visibility of the building.
Crude location data

Manual records are coarse and limited to the inspector's notes, typically a level and drop reference such as 'Level 5, drop X'. Defects are hard to pinpoint, track over time or integrate with maintenance systems.

The Solution

Every BMU pass becomes an inspection.

Capture → Upload → Analyse → Review → Report

Retrofit & localise

The inspection system is retrofitted to the building's BMU. It localises against the facade and runs within normal BMU operation, with no dedicated inspection setup required.
Passive capture during operation

As the BMU runs day-to-day window cleaning and facade maintenance, the system captures high-resolution imagery of the facade and monitors the operators in the cradle. No need to engage BMU drivers for a dedicated facade survey, so you save the cost of a separate inspection campaign.
Upload and review

Captured data is uploaded to the cloud, where AI and human reviewers analyse it and classify defects across the facade: spalling, cracking, efflorescence, water damage, sealant failure, cladding delamination and more.
Condition report and ongoing monitoring

A georeferenced condition report is generated with severity ratings per panel, an evidence pack and a maintenance schedule. Known defects are tracked over time and new defects flagged as they appear.

BMU Capture

AI Analysis

AI + human review · defect classification

Defect Map

Georeferenced · per panel · severity rated

Condition Report

Priority schedule · evidence pack · ready to act

Hardware + software

One pass on the BMU. Every finding in the platform.

BMU-mounted capture system with a multi-camera sensor frame and compute cabinet for facade inspection — **The capture system** Retrofitted to the building's BMU, capturing the facade passively during normal window-cleaning and maintenance runs.

NXTGEN Inspect dashboard showing facade elevation defect heatmaps, condition distribution and a georeferenced defect map — **The platform** Every defect classified, georeferenced per panel, mapped and reported in NXTGEN Inspect.

AI Detection

Defects identified across the envelope.

The facade inspection system learns your facade. No two facades are the same, so the models are trained and tuned to your facade's materials, construction and conditions.

Concrete Spalling

Surface delamination and spalled sections identified by visual pattern recognition across concrete panels.

Cracking

Hairline to structural cracks classified by width, length and propagation pattern.

Surface staining & deposits

Salt crystallisation, mineral deposits and moisture-migration staining mapped across masonry and concrete surfaces.

Water Damage

Staining, discolouration and moisture infiltration zones identified by visual inspection. Thermal imaging available as an option for active or subsurface moisture.

Sealant Failure

Joint sealant deterioration, voids and adhesion failures identified between panels and at penetrations.

Cladding Delamination

Separation of facade cladding panels identified by visual inspection, with optional thermal differential for subsurface detection.

What It Delivers

Operational outcomes.

Lower inspection cost than rope access

Inspection rides the building's BMU during its normal operation, removing the crew, equipment hire and extended site presence of a rope-access campaign.

No dedicated inspection crew at height

Inspection happens during normal BMU operation, so no separate crew is sent up to survey the facade. The operators already in the cradle are monitored by the system for added safety.

Full coverage with no separate mobilisation

Inspection accumulates as the BMU runs its routine cleaning and maintenance, covering the whole envelope without a dedicated campaign, no panels missed.

Georeferenced defect map with severity and priority ratings

Every defect is spatially located on the building envelope to centimetre accuracy, rated by severity, and linked to a prioritised maintenance schedule and photographic evidence.

Deployment

Three steps to live facade inspection.

Scope & Fit

The inspection system is retrofitted to the building's BMU. Access, scope and the inspection plan are agreed with the building manager.

System Commissioning

The system is calibrated against a representative facade section and validated before live operation. A thermal baseline is established only where thermal is included.

Reporting Integration

Condition reports are delivered as PDFs and digitally on the NXTGEN Inspect platform, and integrated with your existing building maintenance management system. As inspections accumulate through normal BMU operation, the AI models are tuned continuously, so detection improves over time.

Inspection system retrofitted to the building's BMU and localised against the facade
System captures high-resolution facade imagery passively during normal BMU operation, with no dedicated inspection campaign
Captured data uploaded to the cloud, where AI and human reviewers classify defects including spalling, cracking, staining, water damage, sealant failure and cladding delamination
Georeferenced condition report generated with severity ratings per panel, an evidence pack and a priority maintenance schedule

What defects does Facade Inspection detect?: The platform detects concrete spalling, cracking, surface staining and deposits, water damage, sealant failure and cladding delamination across building facades using visual inspection, with thermal imaging available as an option.
How does BMU-mounted facade inspection work?: An inspection system is retrofitted to the building's BMU (cradle). As the BMU runs its normal window cleaning and facade maintenance, the system captures high-resolution facade imagery. AI and human reviewers classify defects by type and severity, and a georeferenced condition report is delivered with a priority maintenance schedule.
Does facade inspection require rope access or EWP?: No. Facade Inspection rides the building's BMU during its normal operation, so no separate rope-access or elevated-work-platform crew is sent up to survey the facade.

Full facade condition. No ropes. No platforms.

Traditional facade inspection is costly, slow and puts people at risk.

Personnel at height

High mobilisation cost

Infrequent inspection

Crude location data

Every BMU pass becomes an inspection.

Retrofit & localise

Passive capture during operation

Upload and review

Condition report and ongoing monitoring