Drone survey in Bideford

Slate hanging on exposed elevations is common in Bideford and it is not decoration. Atlantic weather arrives from the west up the estuary with salt on the wind, and hanging slate on a wall is the traditional answer to rain that is being driven horizontally at it.

The consequence for a survey is the same as everywhere this material appears. The covering protects the wall and hides it, so problems underneath are found late. Photographs taken level with an elevation show the tell-tale geometry: a dropped course, an open joint, a run sitting proud where the fixings have gone.

The old town rises very steeply from the quay on the east bank, with Georgian merchant houses on Bridgeland Street and tightly packed cottages up the hill. Scaffold access on those streets is difficult in the plain physical sense: the ground is steep, the streets are narrow and there is nowhere to stand a lorry.

That makes the first question, whether there is a problem at all, disproportionately expensive to answer by conventional means. A flight answers it for a fraction of the cost of the access that a repair will eventually need.

The town sits on both banks of the Torridge with Northam and Appledore towards the estuary mouth, and the shipyard is part of the local landscape. Exposure increases noticeably towards the mouth, so a property at Northam is in a different condition from one behind the quay.

Northam Burrows and the estuary give open ground for approaches, and the Long Bridge is a useful orientation feature in the imagery.

Usually a check on a quote, or a look before buying. This is a town where a roof repair can carry a large access component, so an owner presented with a big number reasonably wants to see the problem before agreeing to it.

The other common case is the let property, of which there is a fair amount, where an owner living elsewhere needs a picture of a building they rarely see.

Downstream of the bridge the character changes. Appledore, the shipyard and Northam Burrows sit at the mouth of the estuary where exposure is at its highest, and the building stock there includes working maritime structures as well as houses.

For an EX39 owner nearer the mouth the practical difference is how quickly things wear. A fixing on an Appledore elevation and the same fixing behind the quay in the old town are not on the same timetable, and a repair history that seems short for the age of the building usually has that explanation behind it.

The Burrows also give a great deal of open ground, so approaches on that side of the town are among the easiest anywhere on the north coast.