Drone roof surveys

What a drone survey shows you

From the air, a survey drone captures detail that's almost impossible to see from the ground or even from a ladder pitched against the gutter. We fly the whole roof and zoom in on the parts that fail first: slipped, cracked and missing slates; tired lead flashings and soakers; loose or eroded ridge and hip bedding; rusting valley gutters; cracked chimney heads and flaunching; and blocked or sagging gutters and downpipes. You see the same images we do, so the diagnosis is something you can actually look at rather than take on trust.

Because the drone reaches the middle of a large, steep or high roof effortlessly, it's ideal for the situations where access is otherwise the hard part: tall Edinburgh tenements, mansard roofs, churches, commercial sheds and any building where putting up a scaffold just to take a look would cost more than the inspection is worth.

What's included

• A full aerial inspection of the roof, flown by an experienced operator within UK CAA rules
• High-resolution stills and 4K video of the whole roof and every detail area
• Close-up imagery of slates, tiles, ridges, hips, valleys, flashings, chimneys and gutters
• A plain-English explanation of what we found and what it means for the roof
• A full photo report you can keep, share with co-owners, or use for an insurance claim
• A clear, itemised written quote if any work is needed, with no obligation to proceed

Why scaffold-free inspection matters

For most pitched roof work, scaffolding is a legal access requirement and rightly so. But you don't need it just to look. A drone survey removes the cost, the time and the disruption of erecting access for a diagnosis, and it keeps everyone off fragile or unsafe roof coverings. That makes it quicker and cheaper to get an honest answer about a roof, whether you're a homeowner worried about a damp patch, a buyer checking a property before you commit, or a factor coordinating a shared tenement repair.

When work does go ahead, we set up proper scaffolding and carry it out to the same standard we apply to every job. The drone simply gets you to a confident decision first. If you'd like a closer read on what a survey looks for, our guide to signs your roof needs attention is a good place to start.

Local knowledge across Edinburgh and beyond

We're a family firm based at 20 Gordon Street in Leith, established in 1996 and now run by the second generation, with the founder trading since 1983. We fly drone surveys across the whole of Edinburgh and every EH area, the Lothians, Fife and across Scotland, with offices in Aberdeen and London too. That local experience matters: knowing how a New Town slate roof, a tenement mansard or a 1960s flat-roofed extension typically fails means we know exactly what to look for when we send the drone up. Book a free survey and we'll get a clear picture of your roof, literally.