Drone roof survey in Exmouth

Exmouth takes weather that inland Devon simply does not. There is nothing between the seafront and the Channel, so a south-westerly arrives at full strength carrying salt, and it does so several times every winter. The properties along the front and up the hillsides at Foxholes Hill and above the marina get the worst of it, but salt reaches a good way into the town on a strong blow.

Salt attacks the metal first. Nail heads, clout fixings, ridge clips, brackets and the fixings on a lead flashing corrode measurably faster here, and the visible failure comes years later when a slate slips or a ridge tile lifts because the thing holding it has quietly rusted through.

Wind uplift is the second problem. The pressure on a ridge, a hip and particularly a verge is highest exactly where mortar bedding is oldest, and Exmouth loses ridge tiles most winters on properties where the bedding has never been checked.

The town has three quite separate roof problems. On the seafront apartment blocks it is flat roofing and parapets: single ply and felt membranes taking full ultraviolet exposure plus salt crystallisation, with parapet gutters behind the front wall that nobody can see into from any window in the building.

On the Victorian and Regency villas climbing the hill behind the front, it is slate on steep pitches with ornate detailing, bay roofs, and rendered chimney stacks where the render cracks and lets water into the brickwork behind it.

The third is the holiday let and second home stock, which has a specific issue that has nothing to do with construction. The owner is not there. A slipped slate in November is not noticed until a tenant reports a stain in March, by which time water has been running into the structure for four months.

A large share of Exmouth surveys are flown for owners who live somewhere else. Nobody needs to be present: a lawful launch point and permission to be there is enough, and the report arrives by email within 48 hours wherever the owner happens to be.

For a let property that turns roof maintenance from a reactive job into a scheduled one. A survey at the end of a winter shows what the winter did, and the imagery from one year compared against the next shows whether the moss in the valley is spreading or holding steady.

For the seafront blocks it does something else again. A photograph of a silted parapet gutter is the fastest way to end a disagreement between leaseholders about whether the service charge is being spent on the right thing.