Drone survey in Dawlish

Dawlish has extensive post-war bungalow development on the cliff tops, and a bungalow is a specific survey subject. The pitches are shallow, there is a lot of roof relative to the size of the building, and extensions and porches have added flat felt roofs at various dates.

A shallow pitch sheds water slowly and is more vulnerable to wind uplift than a steep one, and these particular bungalows sit on ground that takes unbroken wind off the sea. Ridge, verge and flashing failures after a storm season are a normal occurrence here rather than an unusual event, which is why the after-the-storm enquiry is so common.

The older town sits in a narrow valley cut into red sandstone cliffs, split by the Dawlish Water, with the main railway line running along the sea wall at the foot of it. Regency and Victorian terraces around The Lawn and seafront hotels and apartment blocks make up the historic core.

South-easterly gales throw sea water over the wall. That is a well known local fact and it has a survey consequence: salt reaches buildings that are not on the front at all, carried on the wind up the valley, so corrosion is not limited to the properties with a sea view.

The railway and the sea wall are the obvious features, and flights are planned to stay clear of both. Away from the front, the cliff-top estates are among the easiest places in this coverage area to work: open gardens, plenty of clear ground and low buildings.

Wind is the constraint rather than the geography. On this stretch of coast a calm morning is worth taking when it appears, and a job booked for a specific date is more likely to move than one booked for a week.

After a storm, everybody on this coast wants photographs at once and nobody has any from before. The most useful thing a survey does in Dawlish is establish a baseline in a quiet month, so that when something does go, the difference is demonstrable rather than argued.

For holiday accommodation, of which there is a good deal, the same record supports both insurance and the ordinary business question of what needs doing before the season starts.

Dawlish Warren sits at the mouth of the Exe and the modern estates behind it are on low, open ground with the sand spit and the nature reserve beyond. That is a different environment from the cliff tops a mile south.

For an EX7 owner on that side the exposure is estuary rather than open sea, which is milder but still salt-laden, and the ground is flat enough that access is easy for anything conventional as well.

The reserve itself is a habitat and flights are kept clear of it, which is simple enough since the buildings are all behind the dune line and there is ample space to work from.