Pricing
A fixed price per survey, agreed before anybody travels
What is included
- The visit itself, including travel to the address
- The flight, the planning behind it and any permissions the site needs
- The selection and captioning work afterwards, which is most of the time spent
- The written report, delivered within 48 hours of the flight
- The original image files, which are yours to keep and to pass on
- A rescheduled visit at no cost if the weather stops the flight
Plain about it
Why there is no price list on this page
Because a figure printed without knowing the building would be either wrong or meaningless. A terraced house with a simple two pitch roof and a detached property with four pitches, three stacks, two dormers and a wrapped extension are not the same job, and a starting-from number that only applies to the first is a way of appearing cheap rather than being clear.
The other reason is distance. Travel is inside the price, so where the building is has a real effect on what the job costs. Quoting one number for the whole South West would mean overcharging everybody near Exeter to subsidise everybody in Cornwall.
So the sequence is the other way round. Send the address and a line about the building, get one fixed price back, and decide from there. It costs nothing to ask and there is no obligation attached to the answer.
The variables
What actually moves a price
How much roof there is
Not the footprint of the house, the area of covering. A bungalow with a big shallow roof can be more work than a narrow three storey townhouse.
How complicated it is
Pitches, valleys, dormers, stacks, turrets and extensions all add junctions, and junctions are what have to be photographed properly rather than passed over.
How far it is
Travel is inside the price rather than added to it, so an address on the far edge of the coverage area prices differently from one in Exeter.
What has to be covered
A whole building costs more than a single elevation. If the question is only about one chimney, the job can be scoped to that.
Whether the site needs planning
Some addresses need airspace or permission arranged in advance. That is time before the visit rather than on it, and it is reflected once rather than repeatedly.
Which camera
A thermal survey is a separate piece of kit and a separate set of conditions, so it prices differently from a visual one even on the same building.
Worth knowing
What to compare it against
The comparison worth making is not against another drone quote, it is against the cost of finding out any other way. A scaffold to a two storey roof, a tower, a cherry picker or a roofer's time at height all cost money before anybody has established whether there is a problem at all.
That is the case for looking first. If the survey finds nothing, you have avoided the access cost entirely. If it finds something, the access goes up once, for the repair, with the person doing the repair already knowing what they are dealing with.
When you are comparing two drone quotes, the things worth checking are what the report actually contains, whether the original files are included and whether the operator is registered and insured for commercial work. Those vary more than the price does.
Pricing
Questions about the price
- Is there a call out charge?
- No. One fixed price covers the visit, the flight and the report, and travel is inside it. If the weather stops the flight, the return visit is not charged again.
- Do I pay before or after?
- Payment terms are agreed with the quote. The price itself is fixed at that point and does not change afterwards unless what is on site turns out to be materially different from what was described.
- What if you get there and it is a bigger job than I said?
- It gets re-agreed before any work is done rather than adjusted afterwards on an invoice. In practice this is rare, because the address and a couple of photographs from the ground usually make the scope obvious at the quoting stage.
- Is a thermal survey more expensive?
- It is a different job with different kit and much tighter conditions, so it prices separately. Booking a visual and a thermal survey on the same building at the same time is not usually possible, because they need different weather and different times of day.
- Do you charge more for a listed building?
- Not for the status itself. A listed building often has a more complicated roof, and complexity is what moves the price, so the two frequently go together without the listing being the reason.
See what it costs
Send an address and get a price
One fixed figure for the whole job, travel included, before anybody sets off. It costs nothing to ask.