Drone Roof Survey
Roof Survey Before You Buy
A flown survey between offer and exchange, so a roof you have only seen from the pavement stops being an unknown before you commit to buying it.
A homebuyer report will look at the roof from the ground with binoculars and, more often than not, say it could not be fully inspected and recommend further investigation. That sentence has cost buyers a lot of money over the years, because it arrives at the point where nobody wants to slow the purchase down.
A flown survey answers it in a couple of days. You get the roof photographed properly before you commit, at a cost that is a rounding error against the price of the house.
The report is written so it can be handed straight to your surveyor, your solicitor or the agent. It says what is there, not what somebody hopes is there.
What is included
- Full roof coverage before exchange, usually within a few days of asking
- Close detail on the items a homebuyer report cannot reach
- Chimney stacks, flashings and valleys, which is where the expensive faults hide
- Outbuildings, garages and extensions covered in the same visit
- A written report you can send straight to your surveyor or solicitor
- Full resolution images to support a renegotiation if one is needed
What it changes in a negotiation
Knowing there is a problem is not the same as being able to show it. A photograph of a failed chimney flaunching, dated and taken before exchange, is a different conversation from a general worry about the age of the roof.
It works the other way round just as often. A roof that a ground level report could not assess frequently turns out to be sound, and the survey removes a reason to hesitate rather than creating one. Either answer is worth having before you are committed.
Period property and listed buildings
The South West has a lot of old housing stock, and old roofs fail in specific places: the mortar bedding on the ridge, the lead in the valleys, the flaunching around the pots, the point where an old slope meets a Victorian rear extension.
A flown survey reaches all of those without touching the building, which matters for listed property where any physical access is a conversation with the conservation officer. Nothing goes against the wall and nothing goes on the roof.
On the day
How a before you buy runs
- Step 1
Get permission
The seller or the agent needs to agree to the visit. A short note explaining what is involved is provided if it helps the conversation.
- Step 2
Book it in
These jobs run to a deadline, so they get slotted in around the weather with the exchange date in mind.
- Step 3
The flight
Full coverage of the house and any outbuildings, with extra attention on anything the homebuyer report flagged and could not reach.
- Step 4
The report
Within 48 hours, written so a surveyor or a solicitor can read it without translation.
Behind the work
Kit, cover and qualifications
CAA registered
Operator ID and Flyer ID held, plus the A2 Certificate of Competency. Every flight is planned to the rules that apply to the site, and the paperwork is available before the visit if your agent or insurer wants it.
100 megapixel camera
A DJI Mavic 4 Pro with a Hasselblad camera and 6K video. The resolution is what lets a survey stand off the building at a safe distance and still show a hairline crack in a single slate.
Radiometric thermal
A DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced carrying a 640 by 512 thermal camera. Used where a leak needs tracing rather than just photographing, because water shows as temperature long before it shows as a stain.
Insured with Coverdrone
Full commercial cover for the operation. Certificates go to managing agents, block committees and insurers as a matter of course, without anyone having to chase for them.
Before you buy
Roof Survey Before You Buy questions
- How quickly can this happen?
- Usually within a few days of the seller agreeing, weather permitting. Tell us the exchange date when you enquire and it gets prioritised against it.
- Will the seller agree to it?
- Most do, because the alternative is a buyer who stays uncertain. It helps that there is no scaffolding, no ladders and nothing touching the building, and that the whole visit is under an hour.
- Does this replace a homebuyer report?
- No. It covers the part of the building a homebuyer report usually cannot reach, and sits alongside it. Where the two disagree, the photographs are there to settle it.
Where
Roof Survey Before You Buy across the South West
Also on this site
Get it looked at
Book a roof survey with Drone Roof Survey
Tell us the address and what you need looking at. Sam Hembury will come back with a fixed price and the next available slot.