Facade Inspector Singapore — Who Inspects Building Facades & How Drones Support Them

What Is a Facade Inspector in Singapore?

A facade inspector is one of the people responsible for examining the external envelope of a building — its walls, cladding, glazing, sealant joints and fixings — to establish whether that facade is still safe and structurally sound. In Singapore this work is not a casual walk-around; it is carried out as part of the mandatory Periodic Facade Inspection (PFI) regime under the Building Control Act, which requires qualifying buildings to have their entire facade professionally inspected at set intervals.

The term "facade inspector" is often used loosely to mean anyone who inspects a facade, but under the PFI framework the work is shared between two distinct roles with very different levels of responsibility. Understanding that distinction matters, because appointing the wrong person — or assuming a single "inspector" can do everything — is where building owners most often go wrong. On this page we set out exactly who does what, what qualifications each role needs, and where a drone survey provider like us fits into the picture.

The Two Roles: Competent Person vs Facade Inspector

A Periodic Facade Inspection is built around a clear division of responsibility. Two roles do the professional work, and it is important not to confuse them.

The Competent Person (CP) is the person who carries the legal and professional responsibility for the inspection. A competent person for facade inspection is a Professional Engineer registered with the Professional Engineers Board (PEB) or a Registered Architect registered with the Board of Architects (BOA), qualified to undertake facade work. The competent person supervises the inspection, reviews all of the evidence, assesses the condition of the facade, classifies each defect by severity, and submits the PFI report to BCA. When the report is signed, it is signed by the competent person — and it is the competent person who answers for that professional judgement. If you need the detail of this role, see our dedicated page on the competent person for facade inspection.

The Facade Inspector (FI) is a suitably qualified person who assists the competent person with the physical inspection. Where the facade is large or complex, the competent person can be supported by a facade inspector who carries out the hands-on, close-range examination — the tactile checks, the detailed close-up observation, the recording of what is found at each location. Facade inspectors are listed on the facade inspector registry maintained by the industry institutions (IES and ACES). The key point is the direction of responsibility: the facade inspector supports the competent person, but the competent person supervises the work and signs off. The facade inspector does not submit the report and does not carry the statutory responsibility for the assessment.

Put simply: the competent person is accountable and signs; the facade inspector assists and inspects; and neither role is the drone operator. A drone survey provider is a third, separate function that supplies data to both — which is where we come in.

What a Facade Inspector Looks For

Whether the close-range work is done by the competent person directly or by a facade inspector assisting them, the inspection is looking for the same families of defect across every facade material — concrete, masonry, render, tile, stone, metal cladding and glass. The most common findings include:

• Cracking — in concrete, render and masonry, from structural movement, thermal cycling, corrosion expansion or material fatigue.
• Spalling and delamination — concrete breaking away, often driven by rebar corrosion, creating a falling-debris hazard.
• Debonded tiles and render — finishes losing adhesion from the substrate, a leading cause of objects falling from height.
• Cladding and fixing defects — loose, corroded or failing panel fixings and support brackets that hold cladding to the structure.
• Sealant failure — perished, split or debonded joint sealant that breaks the weather line and lets water in.
• Glazing defects — cracked, delaminated or poorly retained glass, and failed structural or weather seals on glazed facades.
• Corrosion — of reinforcement, embedded fixings, brackets and metal cladding, weakening the connection to the structure.
• Water ingress — the symptom that ties many of these together, tracking through failed joints and finishes into the building.

Each finding is recorded, located on the facade, and passed to the competent person, who decides how serious it is and what must be done about it.

Qualifications and Registration

The two roles sit at different levels, and it is worth being precise about what each requires.

This is deliberately a general description of the framework rather than a specific credential list. The registers and course requirements are administered by BCA and the professional institutions, and the exact criteria can change, so a building owner should always confirm current requirements through those bodies when appointing people. What does not change is the principle: the person who signs the report must be a registered competent person.

How Drones Support the Facade Inspector and Competent Person

This is where our work as a specialist drone provider fits. A drone survey does not replace the inspector or the competent person — it makes their inspection more complete and better targeted, and it takes people out of harm's way.

A drone flown under BCA's TR 78 technical reference for drone-based facade inspection captures high-resolution, geo-tagged imagery of 100% of every elevation. Instead of an inspector reaching only the vertical drop-lines a rope-access descent allows, the whole facade is imaged at consistent scale and overlap. The competent person and facade inspector then review that complete dataset first, identify the areas that show potential defects, and direct their close-range and tactile checks precisely to where they are needed — rather than working blind across an entire elevation. A radiometric thermal pass adds what the eye cannot see, revealing water ingress and debonded finishes behind the surface.

The result is an inspection that is faster and safer than an all-manual survey, with better coverage: the drone does the exhaustive visual sweep, and the qualified people apply their judgement where it matters. Because the survey follows TR 78, the imagery and defect mapping are produced in a form the competent person can rely on for the PFI report and defend in the BCA submission.

How to Engage the Right People

The appointment chain for a facade inspection is straightforward once the roles are clear. The building owner or MCST is legally responsible for having the inspection done and appoints the competent person. The competent person, in turn, may bring in a facade inspector to assist with the close-range work on larger or more complex buildings. We provide the drone survey data that both of them use.

If you already have a competent person appointed, we simply deliver our defect-mapped data package in the format they need. If you have not yet appointed one, we can refer you to registered professionals — competent persons and facade inspectors — who are experienced in drone-supported facade inspection, so you can assemble the right team around your building.

Why Choose SG Drone Inspections as Your Data Partner

We are a specialist drone facade inspection provider in Singapore. We do not sign off reports — that is rightly the competent person's job — but we give the qualified people the most complete and reliable facade data to work from.

Frequently Asked Questions