What's included for £149
£149 covers a typical house within about 25 miles of Bournemouth. That includes planning the flight, checking the airspace, the flight itself, every photo at full size, and the written report.
You get a fixed price before anything is booked, so there's no surprise on the day.
What changes it
- Size. A block of flats, a commercial roof or a house with a large outbuilding takes longer to fly and to report on, so it's priced individually.
- Distance. Beyond about 25 miles, a small travel charge is added.
How it compares
A roofer on a ladder
Plenty of roofers will come and look for free, and for a simple job that's fine. But a ladder only reaches the edge of the roof, and the person looking is also the person quoting for the repair. With photos of the whole roof, you can get two or three quotes for the same job and compare them properly.
Scaffolding or a cherry picker
Sometimes these are needed for the repair itself. Hiring one just to have a look usually costs a good deal more than a drone survey, and takes longer to arrange.
A full building survey
A RICS survey covers the whole building and is a different job altogether. If you're buying a house, get one. A drone survey can fill in the roof, which surveyors often only see from the ground.
When it isn't worth it
If you can already see the problem, say a slate on the lawn under an obvious gap, you may not need photos. Call a roofer. And if water is coming through the ceiling right now, call a roofer first. Photos can come later.