Drone survey in Axminster

Axminster sits on a hill above the Axe valley near the Dorset border, with the land dropping away on three sides. That position leaves it open to wind from every quarter rather than from one prevailing direction, and the valley below funnels damp air upward.

For a roof that means exposed ridge and verge details take a beating from directions the original detailing may not have anticipated. On a building where the south-west face has been maintained and the north-east face has not, the difference is usually stark from above.

The town carries former mill and carpet factory buildings, which brings large-span metal and asbestos cement roofs into the local stock. Those are a distinct survey subject and one where nobody should be walking about on the covering at all.

Asbestos cement in particular is fragile with age and is not a surface to put weight on. An aerial pass records its condition, the state of the rooflights, where sheets have cracked and where water is tracking, with nothing touching the roof. That is the clearest case in this whole area for flying rather than climbing.

Around the Minster church and market square the stock is Georgian and Victorian, with post-war estates on the higher ground to the north. The centre has the usual historic complications of tight plots and shared boundaries, while the estates are straightforward concrete tile.

Trinity Square and the streets off it are tight for access, so take off tends to be from a yard or a car park rather than from the property itself.

Being on the Devon and Dorset boundary, work here often runs into both counties in the same week, and the Axe valley farms are part of the same catchment. Farm buildings, like mill buildings, suit an aerial survey because the spans are large and the coverings are old.

For domestic clients the usual driver is a repair quote that needs a second look, or a sale that has stalled on a survey comment about the roof.

Below the town the Axe runs through water meadows that stay soft for much of the winter, and properties down there have access problems of a different kind from the ones on the hill. Soft ground stops vehicles and equipment long before it stops anything else.

For an EX13 address on the low ground that is the practical case for flying: the aircraft needs a firm few square metres and no vehicle access to the building at all, so a January survey is possible where a January scaffold is not.

The river also means mist and prolonged damp on the valley floor, so growth and slow decay are more of a feature down there than on the exposed ground around the market square.