Drone survey in Bude

Bude takes unbroken Atlantic wind and salt, and gales here regularly strip ridge tiles and lift shallow-pitch coverings on the cliff-top estates. This is not a town where wind gradually loosens a fixing over a decade. Things come off.

That changes what a survey is for. Alongside the ordinary condition questions there is a specific one about whether the details are mechanically fixed or bedded in mortar, because on this coast a mortar-bedded ridge is a countdown rather than a specification.

There is a large stock of holiday lets, bungalows and chalets on the cliff-top approaches, plus Victorian and Edwardian resort villas and modern estates inland at Stratton and Flexbury.

Holiday property is empty for much of the winter, which is exactly when the weather does its work. A defect that appears in November can run until March with nobody in the building to notice, and the water has all that time to get into the structure.

Flat felt roofs on bungalows and holiday units are common here and they are the least forgiving covering in the most demanding position. Wind uplift on a shallow or flat roof is a bigger force than most owners realise, and the edge trim is where it starts.

From above, the state of an edge trim, the condition of the felt at the upstands and whether water is sitting on the deck are all immediately apparent. From the ground, none of it is.

There is plenty of open ground, so space is never the problem. Wind is, and it is the reason a Bude job is agreed for a window rather than a day, with the flight confirmed when the forecast settles.

The canal, the sea lock and the beaches give clear approaches, and Compass Point is a useful reference for what the wind is doing on the cliff top.

The canal running inland from the sea lock is the obvious feature of the town and a useful one for flying, because it provides open ground and clear approaches away from buildings on the inland side.

On the cliff-top estates space is not the issue either. What decides an EX23 flight is whether the wind is doing something sensible, and the plain position is that a fixed morning three weeks ahead is a promise nobody should make on this coast.

Stratton and Flexbury inland are noticeably more sheltered than Summerleaze and the cliff approaches, which is why two properties a mile apart here can have completely different maintenance histories despite being the same age and the same construction.