RANGE
Who it applies to
Buildings on the Department of Urban Development register that are 11 storeys or more above ground and at least 30 years old from the occupancy permit. The 913 figure is the commercial-district priority batch.
— GUIDE 01 · Complete guide
The complete facade inspection guide.
Regulation, cost, process, technology — the whole picture on one page.
913 commercial-district towers on Taipei's register — 11 storeys or more, 30 years or older — must complete their first facade safety filing by 31 December 2026, with New Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung drafting comparable rules. This guide brings together Articles 77 and 91 of the Building Act, the Taipei regulations, the cost formula, manual versus drone survey, infrared thermography and the health score — the reference a management committee, property manager or architect needs to decide.
#Complete guide#Regulation + cost + technology#Committee decisions
913
Buildings on the Taipei register
NT$35
per m² (three-year contract)
90%
Hollowing detection accuracy
3 yrs
Cover per contract
30-Second Summary
The 30-second version.
- Regulation: Under Taipei City's facade safety diagnosis, inspection and declaration regulations, buildings of 11 storeys or more that are 30 years or older must file. The Department of Urban Development has published a batch of913 commercial-district towers required to complete a first filing by 31 December 2026.
- Cost formula: Priced per square metre. Three-year contract:NT$35/m² × facade surface area (covering three surveys); single survey without a contract NT$25/m². Additional surveys within the term are NT$20/m².
- Technology: The DJI Matrice 4T integrates a 48MP triple camera, infrared thermography (±2°C), RTK positioning and onboard AI. Per the Architecture and Building Research Institute's 2017 study, thermography with drone survey reached 90% accuracy on tile delamination at 32–34°C.
- Compliance: The regulation does not mandate a tool. Once the report is signed by an inspector or diagnostician recognised by the Department of Urban Development, it can be filed.
— 01 · Legal basis
The law requires a qualified professional and a signature — not a particular tool.
The legal basis sits at three levels. At the top, Article 77(3) of the Building Act requires owners and occupiers to periodically engage professionals recognised by the central building authority to inspect, certify and file. Below that, the Building Public Safety Inspection, Certification and Declaration Regulations govern the certification and filing procedure. Locally, the Taipei City facade safety diagnosis, inspection and declaration regulations require buildings of 11 storeys or more and 30 years or older to be diagnosed by a licensed architect or a practising civil or structural engineer.
The point that matters: none of these mandates exhaustive manual hammer tapping. What the regulation requires is diagnosis and certification by a qualified professional; the choice of method is theirs. The Architecture and Building Research Institute's 2017 study on non-destructive testing of facade tiles using infrared thermography combined with unmanned aircraft found accuracy for tile delamination of around 90% at ambient temperatures of 32–34°C, noting that environmental conditions and instrument angle affect the result.
| Level | Instrument | What it provides |
|---|---|---|
| Primary legislation | Building Act, Article 77(3) | Buildings used by the public must be periodically inspected, certified and filed by professionals recognised by the central building authority, engaged by the owner or occupier. No tool is specified. |
| Primary legislation (penalties) | Building Act, Article 91(1)(4) | Failure to carry out inspection, certification or filing under Article 77(3) and (4) carries a fine of NT$60,000–300,000. Where non-compliance continues past the remedy period, penalties may be repeated and use, water and electricity supply may be suspended or the building closed. |
| Subordinate regulation | Building Public Safety Inspection, Certification and Declaration Regulations | Made by the Ministry of the Interior under Article 77(5), governing the certification procedure, personnel qualifications, report format and filing deadlines. |
| Municipal regulation | Taipei City facade safety diagnosis, inspection and declaration regulations | Applies to buildings on the Department of Urban Development register that are 11 storeys or more above ground and at least 30 years old from the occupancy permit. First filing at 30 years, second at 50, every 10 years thereafter. Diagnostic personnel must be licensed architects or practising civil or structural engineers. |
| Technical literature | Architecture and Building Research Institute, 2017 | Non-destructive testing of facade tiles using infrared thermography combined with unmanned aircraft: 90% accuracy on tile delamination at ambient temperatures of 32–34°C. |
— 02 · The countdown
913 Taipei commercial towers must complete a first filing before the end of 2026.
The Taipei Department of Urban Development has listed 913 commercial-district towers of 11 storeys or more, 30 years or older, which must complete a first facade safety diagnosis filing by 31 December 2026. Failure to file carries, under Article 91(1)(4) of the Building Act, a fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000. The same article further provides that where non-compliance continues past the remedy period, penalties may be repeated and use suspended, with water and electricity supply cut, the building closed or demolition ordered where necessary.
Against that sit roughly 800 qualified diagnostic personnel nationwide, with over a thousand registered buildings in Taipei alone. As the deadline approaches, availability tightens and pricing follows — committees that arrange early avoid the year-end queue.
DEADLINE
Filing cycle
First filing at 30 years, by 31 December of the following year; second at 50 years; every 10 years thereafter. The deadline for the 913-building batch is 31 December 2026.
PENALTY
Penalties
Failure to file carries a fine of NT$60,000–300,000 under Article 91. Continued non-compliance past the remedy period permits repeated penalties, suspension of use, suspension of water and electricity, or closure.
— 03 · Method comparison
Manual tapping vs drone survey: a 45× price spread.
Manual tapping is precise but expensive, slow, carries fall risk, and leaves its findings largely in one operative's head. Drone survey completes in half a day with no fall exposure, and every defect carries GPS coordinates and quantified data. The decisive difference: manual survey cannot deliver continuous tracking, timeline comparison or trend prediction.
| Dimension | Manual tapping | Drone survey |
|---|---|---|
| Market rate (per m²) | NT$35–1,574 (45× spread) | NT$35/m² on a three-year contract (3 surveys) |
| Duration | 1–2 weeks including scaffolding | Half a day of flying |
| Work-at-height risk | Fall and occupational injury exposure | None |
| Coverage | Limited to what an operative can reach | 70–80% of the full elevation (thermal) |
| Data retention | Paper records and personal experience | Cloud timeline with GPS coordinates |
| Trend tracking | None | Full three-year timeline with automatic alerts |
| Post-typhoon re-survey | Quoted separately | NT$20/m² on a three-year contract |
| Filing compliance | Compliant | Compliant — signed off by the same qualified professionals |
— 04 · Cost formula
Priced per square metre. Three-year contract:
We price per square metre and publish the formula. Three-year contract: NT$35/m² × facade surface area = the total for the term, covering three surveys;single survey without a contract: NT$25/m². Facade surface area means the visible external wall area in m², which can be read from the building permit drawings or confirmed by us during an on-site assessment. Additional surveys within the term are NT$20/m².
| Example | Facade area | Three-year contract | Single survey | Annualised |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-sized apartment | 800 m² | NT$28,000 | NT$20,000 | NT$9,333 / yr |
| Mid-sized community | 3,000 m² | NT$105,000 | NT$75,000 | NT$35,000 / yr |
| Large community | 7,000 m² | NT$245,000 | NT$175,000 | NT$81,667 / yr |
| Supertall | 15,000 m² | NT$525,000 | NT$375,000 | NT$175,000 / yr |
For comparison: a mid-sized community with 3,000 m² of facade pays roughly NT$150,000–200,000 for one manual whole-building survey, once. The three-year contract is NT$35/m² × 3,000 = NT$105,000 — three surveys across three years, a cloud timeline and health score tracking, averaging NT$35,000 a year. Full breakdown in the 2026 facade survey cost guide.
— 05 · Health score
The building health score: five weighted dimensions, 0–100.
Each building receives an annual 0–100 score, weighted across five dimensions. Tracked year on year, what you see is a trend rather than a snapshot. Three consecutive years of timeline data is more predictive than one exhaustive survey.
| Dimension | Weight | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Hollowing (pre-detachment) | 40% | The real precursor to a tile falling on someone, and the blind spot manual tapping cannot cover. |
| Cracking | 25% | A structural signal and an entry point for water. |
| Spalling and loss | 15% | Damage that has already happened. |
| Water ingress and mould | 10% | Shortens the building's service life. |
| Surface ageing | 10% | Appearance and warranty considerations. |
— 06 · Thermography
Thermography reads the air layer you cannot see.
The real precursor to a tile detaching is hollowing — an air layer between the tile and the substrate behind it. As the wall sheds heat after sunset, air conducts poorly, so a hollow area cools roughly 0.05–0.5°C more slowly than sound substrate beside it. The DJI Matrice 4T carries VOx 640×512 thermal upscaled to 1280×1024, ±2°C, scanning the full elevation from 10–20 m and finding hollow areas no operative could reach. Per the Architecture and Building Research Institute's 2017 study on non-destructive testing of facade tiles using infrared thermography combined with unmanned aircraft, the method reached 90% accuracy on tile delamination at ambient temperatures of 32–34°C. The study also notes that weather, instrument angle and temperature differential affect interpretation, so calibration is required.
Beyond hollowing, thermography also detects:
- Water ingress paths — evaporation cools the surface locally, showing as a continuous cool band down the wall
- Insulation failure — detached or degraded insulation produces anomalous heat conduction
- Window joint leakage — a thermal bridge at the joint creates a visible differential
The physics in full is in how thermography catches a 0.05°C difference.
— 07 · Process
Six steps: from site survey to timeline archiving.
- 01
Site survey and flight planning
An engineer attends to assess conditions, plan the flight path, file the CAA application and confirm ground safety control.
- 02
Whole-building drone survey
Systematic M4T scanning: panoramic 3D model → visible-light detail → infrared thermal → close capture of suspect areas. Half a day.
- 03
AI analysis and health score
The AI processes the full image set, flagging cracking, hollowing, spalling, water ingress and ageing, and computes the 0–100 score.
- 04
On-site verification
An inspector recognised by the Department of Urban Development attends, reviews the AI annotations, confirms priority areas and signs off.
- 05
Report delivery
A PDF health report in the format required by the Taipei City regulations, usable for statutory filing.
- 06
Timeline archiving
Data is uploaded to the Drone168 platform to build the timeline. The next survey compares automatically, flagging new and worsening defects.
— 08 · Report format
The report follows the Taipei City filing format.
The report can be handed to a qualified inspector or diagnostician for sign-off as it stands. It contains:
- 01Building profile and health score (0–100)
- 02Risk grade (A–F)
- 03Full-elevation orthomosaic plus thermal imagery
- 04Defect schedule (paired visible and thermal images, GPS coordinates, severity grade)
- 05Defect statistics by type, storey and severity
- 06Timeline comparison (produced automatically from year two)
- 07Maintenance recommendations and repair priority order
- 08Inspector signature page
- 09QR code linking to verification on the Drone168 platform
— 09 · International practice
Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong have recognised it. Taiwan is reviewing.
Drone facade survey is already a recognised method across major Asian cities. Drone168 is built to the Japanese MLIT model, ready for formal recognition by Taiwan's National Land Management Agency.
JP
2022
Japan
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport formally recognised drone infrared survey as equivalent to conventional tapping.
Equivalent to hammer tapping
SG
2020
Singapore
Published TR 78:2020, the world's first technical standard for drone facade inspection.
TR 78:2020
HK
2024
Hong Kong
Drones adopted under the Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme, with HK$6bn subsidising 5,000 buildings.
HK$6bn subsidy
— 10 · FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
Q01Is facade inspection mandatory, and which buildings does it apply to?+
Under Article 77(3) of the Building Act, buildings used by the public must be periodically inspected, certified and declared by professionals recognised by the central building authority, engaged by the owner or occupier. In Taipei City, the facade safety diagnosis, inspection and declaration regulations apply to buildings on the Department of Urban Development register that are 11 storeys or more above ground and at least 30 years old counting from the occupancy permit. The first filing falls at 30 years, the second at 50, and every 10 years thereafter. The Department has published a batch of 913 commercial-district towers required to complete their first filing by 31 December 2026. New Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung are drafting comparable rules, and the National Land Management Agency is reviewing a nationwide scheme.
Q02How is the cost calculated?+
Drone168 prices per square metre. Three-year contract: NT$35/m² × facade surface area = the total for the term, covering three surveys. Single survey without a contract: NT$25/m². For a mid-sized community with 3,000 m² of facade, 35 × 3,000 = NT$105,000, covering three surveys across three years — roughly NT$35,000 a year. Manual tapping spans a 45× market range (NT$35–1,574/m²), with a one-off whole-building survey running NT$150,000–400,000 and producing no timeline data once complete.
Q03Can a drone survey be used for statutory filing?+
Yes. Article 77(3) of the Building Act requires inspection and certification by professionals recognised by the central building authority; it does not specify a tool. Taipei's regulations likewise specify that diagnostic personnel must be licensed architects or practising civil or structural engineers — the choice of method falls within their professional discretion. Drone168 works with inspection and diagnostic personnel recognised by the Department of Urban Development, and our report format follows the Taipei City regulations. A 2017 study by the Architecture and Building Research Institute found that infrared thermography combined with drone survey achieved 90% accuracy in identifying tile delamination at ambient temperatures of 32–34°C.
Q04Is 70–80% coverage enough? Isn't manual inspection 100%?+
80% once a year, accumulated over three years, tells you far more than 100% once. Defects are dynamic — sound this year does not mean sound next year. Taiwan sees three to five typhoons annually and a 30°C swing between summer and winter, so deterioration is a continuous process rather than a state. And on hollowing specifically, thermographic coverage is actually higher than manual tapping, because an operative can only strike what they can reach.
Q05What does infrared thermography detect, and where does it beat manual tapping?+
Primarily tile hollowing — an air layer between tile and substrate, which is the real precursor to a tile detaching. A tapping operative can only reach part of the elevation; the DJI Matrice 4T thermal payload (VOx 640×512 upscaled to 1280×1024, ±2°C accuracy) scans the full facade, so coverage is higher. The Architecture and Building Research Institute's 2017 study put accuracy for tile delamination at 90% under ambient temperatures of 32–34°C. Environmental conditions — weather, instrument angle, temperature differential — affect accuracy, which is why the flight window and the operating procedure materially change the result. Thermography also detects water ingress paths, insulation failure and leakage at window joints.
Q06What is the health score, and how is it calculated?+
Each building receives a weighted 0–100 score across five dimensions: hollowing (40%), cracking (25%), spalling and loss (15%), water ingress and mould (10%), surface ageing (10%). These map to five grades — A (good), B (watch), C (repair due), D (at risk), F (critical). The score is tracked annually, so what you see is a trend rather than a snapshot.
Q07Can we add a survey after a typhoon?+
Yes. Three-year contract clients receive preferential terms — NT$20/m² — on any additional survey within the term, whether after a typhoon, an earthquake or construction work. A baseline is established before the typhoon season and the same flight path is re-flown afterwards, so new damage is flagged automatically and the affected area quantified. Single-survey clients without a contract are charged at the standard NT$25/m².
Q08Can the report be used directly for the committee's filing?+
Yes. The report format complies with Taipei City's facade safety diagnosis, inspection and declaration regulations. It contains the building health score, risk grade (A–F), full-elevation orthomosaic and thermal imagery, a defect schedule with GPS coordinates and severity grading, defect statistics, maintenance recommendations, an inspector signature page, and a QR code linking to platform verification. It can be handed to a qualified inspector or diagnostician for sign-off as it stands.
— 011 · Further reading
Related reading and services
Want to go deeper on one topic? These pieces and service pages fill in the rest.
- 01Facade survey cost in 2026: why manual and drone prices differ 45×Cost · quote breakdown
- 02Taipei's 2026 deadline: 913 commercial towers counting downRegulation · Taipei register
- 03Drone survey vs manual tapping: eight dimensions compared honestlyTechnique · comparison
- 04How thermography catches a 0.05°C differenceTechnique · thermal
- 05The statutory filing process, end to end: six stepsProcess · filing
- 06Tiles coming off the facade: containment, survey, repair priorityCase study · emergency response
- 07Annual facade health check (NT$35/m² three-year contract, NT$25/m² single survey)Service page · pricing
The Bigger Question
Most people come here to find out what cleaning costs. But the more important question is: what condition is your facade actually in?