Drone Roof Surveys in London
Every slope, chimney, gutter and parapet photographed from the air, a written report with a severity register within 48 hours, and no scaffold. From £295 + VAT.
The difference from a drone-only operator: the person who flew the drone is the person who abseils to the defect. If the survey finds something, we can confirm it hands-on and repair it, with the survey fee credited against the work.
- Report in 48 hGuaranteed turnaround after the flight
- CAA Open categoryA1 class-marked aircraft
- IRATA techniciansSame team flies and abseils
- Insured£5M public liability
See the Whole Roof Before You Spend Anything on Access
Most London roofs are never looked at until water comes through a ceiling. A scaffold to inspect one costs from £640 and takes a licence and a week of notice. A ladder shows you the front slope and nothing else. A drone photographs the entire roof, including the valleys, back slopes and chimney stacks that nobody has seen since the house was built, in 30 to 60 minutes.
You receive the pictures and a plain-English report that tells you what is fine, what needs watching and what needs doing this season. For a landlord, a block manager or a buyer, that is usually enough to decide what to do next.
A drone cannot lift a tile, probe a flaunching or test a lead joint. Drone-only operators stop at the photographs and tell you to find a roofer. We do not stop there. Our surveys are flown by IRATA rope access technicians who can abseil to any item rated 4 or 5 in the report, confirm it hands-on and price the repair on the same visit or within the week.
If you go ahead with the repair, the survey fee is credited against the work. The survey pays for itself the moment it finds something worth fixing.
A Report Your Surveyor, Insurer or Freeholder Can Act On
See the whole structure, page by page, on the drone roof survey report example.
60 to 120 Photographs, Organised by Roof Section
Front and rear slopes, ridge, hips and valleys, each chimney from two sides, every gutter and outlet, parapets and party walls. Flat roofs get outlets, upstands, laps and ponding. Each photo carries its time, position and altitude.
Severity Register, 1 to 5
Every defect listed with its photo, roof section, severity and a timescale: advisory, 12 to 24 months, 6 to 12 months, 0 to 6 months, or immediate health and safety risk. Sorted so the urgent items come first.
4K Video Fly-Round
A continuous pass around the roof so you can see how the defects relate to each other, and share the link with a surveyor, a loss adjuster or the other leaseholders.
One-Page Summary and Recommendations
Overall condition, how many items at each severity, the three to five things to do and when, and when the roof should next be looked at. Written for the person who has to make the decision, not for another contractor.
Flight Record
Date, time window, wind and weather, pilot, aircraft and airspace check. It is the part most drone reports leave out and the part a loss adjuster or a managing agent's auditor asks for.
What We Could Not See
An explicit list of anything hidden by trees, aerials or the flight limits, and a clear statement of what a visual aerial survey does and does not cover. No surprises later.
Fixed Prices, Report Included
All prices exclude VAT. The report, the photographs and the video are always included. There is no cheaper "imagery only" tier, because pictures without an opinion are not a survey. The full table, what changes the price and how it compares with scaffold are on the drone roof survey cost page.
£325
Small terrace or single flat roof £295 · Large detached with extensions £395
- ✓ 30 to 60 minutes on site, 60 to 120 photographs
- ✓ 4K fly-round video
- ✓ Report with severity register in 48 h
- ✓ Fee credited against repairs of £1,500 or more
From £595
Houses £595 to £750 · Blocks £950 to £1,400
- ✓ Everything in the drone survey
- ✓ An IRATA technician abseils to every item rated 4 or 5
- ✓ Tiles lifted, flaunchings probed, lead and mortar checked by hand
- ✓ A repair specification you can put out to tender, or let us price
From £495
Up to ~500 m² of roof £495 · Up to 2,000 m² £695 · Larger roofs and portfolios priced per building
- ✓ Roof plus elevations, parapets and plant areas
- ✓ One-page summary for the board or the freeholder
- ✓ Dated, repeatable capture for Section 20 planning
- ✓ Annual programme from £395 per block for five or more
Storm and insurance evidence pack, £345. Time-stamped, GPS-tagged imagery and a written condition statement within 48 hours, suitable to support a claim. Same-day make-safe by rope access if the roof is open. See storm damage repair.
Pre-purchase survey, £325. Report in 48 hours so it fits before exchange, with the images shared with your surveyor. Covers what a RICS Level 2 survey leaves out: the roof itself.
Restricted airspace, +£45. Some addresses need an airspace permission that takes two to four weeks. We quote the fee, handle the request, and offer a rope access inspection this week as the alternative.
Drone First. Then Abseil to Confirm. Then Repair.
Book and Airspace Check
Send the address. We check the airspace the same day, confirm whether the flight is clear or needs a permission, and book a slot. Dry weather and wind under our operating limit, or we move it at no cost.
The Flight
30 to 60 minutes for a house, one to four hours for a block. A pilot and an observer, a cordoned take-off spot on your property or the pavement, no scaffold and no road closure. You are welcome to watch the screen.
The Report in 48 Hours
Photographs by roof section, severity register, summary, video link and flight record, as a PDF and a private web page you can share. Nothing is held back for an upsell.
Verify and Fix, If You Want To
Each item rated 4 or 5 in the report has two buttons: verify by rope access, or quote the repair. The same technicians come back, and the survey fee comes off the invoice.
Can a Drone Legally Fly Over Your Roof?
Yes, in most of London. Our survey aircraft carries a UK1 class mark, which places it in the CAA's Open category A1. That allows flights in residential and commercial streets, closer than 50 metres to people and over individuals, without a special authorisation. We fly from a cordoned take-off area, below 120 metres, always in sight, and never over crowds.
What changes by address is the airspace. Heathrow, London City, RAF Northolt and Biggin Hill each have a flight restriction zone, central London has restricted areas around Westminster and the City, the London Heliport at Battersea has its own zone, and the Royal Parks do not allow drones at all. Inside those zones a flight needs a permission that can take from 48 hours to four weeks to come through.
We check every address before we quote and tell you which case you are in. Clear airspace: we fly this week. Restricted airspace: we apply for the permission for a £45 fee and, if you cannot wait, we inspect by rope access instead. You get an answer either way, which is the part a drone-only company cannot offer.
Privacy is handled the same way as the airspace: deliberately. We photograph the roof you asked about, not the neighbours' gardens. Faces, number plates and neighbouring windows are blurred in anything we share, raw footage is kept securely for a fixed period and then deleted, and we leave a notice with you for anyone who asks.
Four Situations Where a Drone Survey Pays for Itself
A leak nobody can find
Water is coming in, the roofer has been twice, the ceiling is still wet. A full set of aerial photographs usually shows the failed flashing, the cracked valley or the blocked outlet within the hour. Then we abseil to it.
A block that needs a Section 20 plan
Managing agents replace a £2,000 scaffold inspection with a £495 drone survey, get a dated register of every defect, and put the works to consultation with evidence instead of a roofer's opinion.
A purchase with an uninspected roof
A Level 2 survey looks at the roof from the ground. If it says "unable to inspect", a 48-hour drone survey before exchange tells you whether you are buying a roof or a re-roof. We share the images with your surveyor.
Storm damage and an insurance claim
Time-stamped, GPS-tagged evidence of what the wind did, a written condition statement, and a make-safe by rope access the same day so the claim is not prejudiced by a second night of rain.
Also used for listed buildings and churches where a scaffold would need consent, for landlord roof inspections on a maintenance cycle, and for external defect investigations on facades and parapets.
What a Drone Survey Is Not
A drone survey is a visual inspection from the air on a given day in given weather. It is not a RICS Home Survey, a building survey, a structural assessment or a measured survey. Nothing is walked on, opened, lifted or tested. The deck, battens, insulation, fixings, membranes and the structure underneath are not inspected, and we will not pretend they were.
That is exactly why we offer the next step. Where a report item needs a hand on it before anyone spends money, the rope access verification turns the photograph into a diagnosis. Our guide drone, scaffold or rope access: which roof survey do you need? compares the three methods honestly, the hands-on roof surveys page covers the rope method, and you can use the rope access vs scaffold calculator for the repair side.
Drone Roof Surveys in London. Frequently Asked
Send the Address. We Check the Airspace Today.
Tell us the property type and what prompted the survey. You get a fixed price, a slot this week where the airspace allows it, and a report 48 hours after we fly.
This work as a standalone service