Drone services in Bideford

The old town rises very steeply from the quay on the east bank, and the terraced streets there are the sort where a scaffold is a project rather than a decision.

Buildings sit above one another, so roofs discharge towards their neighbours and a leak in one property often starts in another. Establishing which is which from ground level is close to impossible.

Slate hanging on exposed elevations is common and it is doing structural work, not decoration. Driving rain from the west would otherwise go straight into the walls.

When hanging fails it goes at the top edge or a junction, and photographs from a few metres out show the pattern clearly enough to price a repair to a section rather than a whole elevation.

Chimney stacks on the terraced streets stand well above their neighbours on a slope, catching gusts the buildings below never feel, and stack bedding is a recurring finding as a result.

Weather arrives from the west up the Torridge estuary with little to break it, and salt comes with it. That combination corrodes fixings and works at any detail on a west-facing elevation.

The Georgian merchant houses on Bridgeland Street and the Victorian terraces above carry complex roofs where those details matter, including valleys and abutments that are hidden from the street.

Prolonged wetting is as much of a factor as any single storm, so growth on shaded slate is heavy and mortar stays damp for long periods.

Clay pantile appears alongside slate, and pantiles lift at the verge on an exposed elevation before anything else gives.

Towards the estuary mouth, Northam and Appledore bring their own stock: cottages packed on narrow lanes, modern housing on the higher ground, and the shipyard with large-span industrial roofing.

Northam Burrows and the estuary edge bring land and ground records rather than building work, often around access, erosion and drainage.

The shipyard and marine businesses are the local example of commercial roofs that nobody can inspect conveniently and everybody needs to know about.

Modern housing on the higher ground east of the town is straightforward by comparison, conventional tile generating the ordinary list, and it makes up a good share of the domestic enquiries.

The Long Bridge and the quay are the town's defining images and they photograph well from height, which brings a steady flow of visual work from businesses and property here.

The tide changes the look of the estuary completely, so a photography visit is planned around the water rather than only around the light.

Modern housing spreading east and towards Northam generates the ordinary domestic findings, and it is quick, straightforward work.

Because access on the old streets is so difficult, the aerial route is often the only proportionate answer rather than merely the convenient one.

Because so much of the older stock has no vehicle access at all, an aerial survey is frequently the only way to get a complete picture of a roof without a substantial and disruptive temporary structure.