Sample flight
What the camera sees
Forty seconds from a flat roof inspection in South London. Ponding on the membrane, the chimney and its flashings, the rooflight, the outlets and the junctions with the neighbouring roofs, all captured at a range nobody gets from the street or a ladder.
The full flight, the annotated stills and the written diagnosis go to the client together. Ask us for a sample report when you enquire.
When a drone survey is the right tool
Houses, flats, blocks, and buildings with a lease to sign
A leak you cannot find
Water is coming in and the roofer has been up twice. The flight finds the failed flashing, cracked tile, blocked outlet or ponding that is actually letting it in, and the report says what to fix first.
Before you buy
The roof is the most expensive thing a Level 2 or Level 3 survey cannot always see properly from the ground. Add a flight and the surveyor writes the roof section from close-up imagery rather than binoculars.
Lease renewal and repairing liability
Tenants, charities and community buildings signing a new lease want to know what the roof will cost them over the term before they commit. The report gives a condition, a priority and a figure to negotiate with, and it is written by a surveyor who understands repairing covenants.
Insurance and storm damage
Dated, high resolution evidence of the damage, its extent and its likely cause, in a form an insurer or loss adjuster will accept.
Planned maintenance
Blocks, estates, schools and commercial buildings with several roof areas. One flight covers all of them, and the report ranks the work so the budget goes where the water is.
Listed and hard to reach
Where scaffolding is impractical, expensive, or would need consent, the drone gets to the chimney, the tower roof, the parapet gutter and the valley without touching the building.
What we inspect
Every element, at close range
Roof coverings
Tiles, slates, flat roofs, built-up felt, single ply and asphalt, assessed for slippage, cracking, ponding, blistering, moss and deterioration.
Chimneys and stacks
Brickwork, pointing, flaunching, pots, lead flashings and soakers. The parts that usually need scaffolding to see at all.
Parapets, copings and flashings
Parapet walls, copings, abutments and the junctions where roofs meet walls, the commonest source of ingress on London buildings.
Gutters and rainwater goods
Valley gutters, parapet gutters, hoppers, outlets and downpipes, checked for blockage, deterioration and overflow staining.
Plant, rooflights and penetrations
Vents, soil pipes, rooflights, aerials and plant bases, each a hole in the roof and each a candidate for the leak.
Structure and line
Sagging, deflection, spread and distortion read from the ridge and eaves lines, which only an aerial view shows properly.
Why the pilot matters
Flown by a surveyor, signed off by a chartered surveyor
CAA registered, RICS surveyor
Every flight is made by a pilot registered with the Civil Aviation Authority who is also a RICS surveyor, and the report is interpreted and signed off by a RICS chartered surveyor. Most drone operators hand the footage to someone else, or to nobody. Ours is looking for the defect while flying.
Fabric knowledge, not just footage
A surveyor knows a slipped soaker from a shadow, ponding from a wet patch, and a spreading roof from a wonky ridge tile. The report reads the roof as part of the building it sits on, including the walls, the ceilings and the leak history below.
No repair to sell
We do not do the roofing work. The recommendation is what the roof needs, in order, with a realistic cost, so you can brief a contractor or an insurer from a position of knowledge.
RICS regulated report
Prepared to RICS standards by a regulated firm, so it carries weight with a landlord, a lender, a loss adjuster or a board of trustees.
Recent instruction
A Georgian youth charity building, King's Cross
A youth charity renewing the lease on its 1790s building had water coming in at the top: two towers of steep clay tiled roof with lead covered dormers, impossible to inspect without scaffolding. We flew both towers in a single visit and issued the report the next day.
The flight found broken and slipped tiles exposing the underfelt, missing lead flashing at the dormer junctions, flashband and sealant patches where earlier leaks had been covered rather than fixed, and missing gutters. The report ranked the work into immediate, medium-term and monitoring items, with a cost range of £8,000 to £12,000 including scaffolding.
The charity's board accepted every recommendation and approved the work.
Read the King's Cross case study
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Need the whole building looked at, not just the roof? See our Specific Defect Survey for houses and flats, or commercial Schedules of Condition for premises on a lease.
From £350 · CAA registered · RICS surveyors
Tell us about the roof
The address, the size of the property and what you need answered. We check the airspace and quote the same day.