If you have ever bought a new build house in the UK, you will know it has become an expensive, stressful and complicated process, that can be fraught with unwelcome and painful surprises along the way – especially when you’re asking yourself id the roof od your new build is actually ok? 

Unless you are extremely fortunate, for most of us, the emotional rollercoaster of buying a house can leave you questioning if you ever want to do it again!

It’s no surprise that many people are drawn to a brand-new house, that comes with warranty, built to the latest building standards, using the best technology and the most green and efficient materials.

Housebuilders now market themselves as the builder to remove all the stress of buying and selling, offering a one stop shop of dealing with the estate agents, mortgage support, deposit schemes and much more. 

Your new “perfect” home will be on their exclusive estate, and for those people who are very lucky, they get a version of perfection in some way. 

However, for many, this is not so true. 

In a previous life as an estate inspector for a housing association I spent several years visiting new build sites, both during and after construction. To this day I am yet to find a property that does not have some issues after completion. 

New build roof snagging

Housebuilders call it “snagging”, and indeed when we purchased our first new build home in 2019, we unfortunately joined the “snagging” club and got our badge. 

The reality is, it is a defect, born by human error and not by oversight and generally, it means you are at the hands of the builder to identify the problem, and put it right after it has gone wrong.  

In our first house, we experienced various issues like arcing electrics, a leaking shower, floor/building movement and worst of all, flooding to our driveway and car port in heavy rain. 

The last issue was the worst and caused a huge amount of stress for us, and fundamentally, down to an error in design and build. 

We were lucky that I had experience in this sector, and I was able to read and understand plans, and communicate with the housebuilder and contractors to resolve the problem with them swiftly (we were also lucky that we had a proactive and amenable housebuilder, whose houses and aftercare are considered a premium product).

But for the average person this is not necessarily true. We have all heard the horror stories, the facebook groups for snagging issues by housebuilder, and you won’t have to look far too find the youtube channel of experts, highlighting building defects on a house post build!

But it was not until recently, after completing a post build roof inspection for a client, I realised that our issues in 2019 were visible and tangible. Most of the time roof structures and building defects at height are often overlooked, and problems do not present themselves until it’s too late, or after prolonged periods of sustained exposure.  

This is where the value of using a drone for inspection work is incredible in terms of time and money saved in the long run.

Aerial drone photography

Our client initially contacted us because he suspected animals were getting into the roof void, but he also had concerns with some other aspects of the build and so, asked us to check the roof structure and highlight any defects we may find. 

Having discussed the client’s needs and expectations, we also had to contact the local air traffic control as the house was near an airfield and in a flight restriction zone. 

This meant that our planning around time and weather, had to be accurate to ensure we got the maximum flight time for the survey and adhered to regulations and safety.

And so, the day arrived, and the flight and survey went without problem. 

What we found, was quite astonishing. 

Our survey found many separate defects, ranging from minor items like a cracked tile, through to some major issues like a twisted chimney stack and defective dormer ridge tiles. 

Some defects were spotted during the survey, and others in post-production examining the images in greater detail, something that Four Winds Drones takes pride in with our comprehensive service.  

The survey followed a regimented flight path following the chimney from the ground to top, exploring all faces. 

We examined the ridgeline from both sides and combined all this with photos and video. We followed gutter lines looking at fascias and soffits. 

The main roof was photographed at various angles for defects, highlighting dormer windows, gutters and cheeks with detailed images. 

We presented our findings to the client in a concise and detailed report with supporting images and gave him the raw photos and video on a storage device for his records. 

Find out more about our drone services for private clients and homeowners.