Drone roof inspections in Plympton

Plympton St Maurice: a medieval stannary town

Plympton became a stannary town in 1328, one of the places where Dartmoor tin was weighed, stamped and taxed. The old centre around Fore Street and the castle mound is now the Plympton St Maurice conservation area, first designated in 1968, with narrow winding streets, period cottages and Georgian houses, several of them listed.

Older roofs here are mostly natural slate, often with tall chimney stacks and lead details that have been patched many times over the years. The usual problems are slipped or flaking slates, eroded mortar on stacks, and old lead flashing that has cracked or pulled away. Because a drone inspection doesn't touch the roof, it needs no consent, and nobody has to walk on fragile slate or lean a ladder against old stonework. If repairs are needed on a listed building, or would change its appearance in the conservation area, check with Plymouth City Council first. Close-up photos of the chimneys and flashing make that conversation, and your roofer's quote, more precise. See our chimney inspections.

Estates from the 1960s onwards

Plympton joined the city of Plymouth in 1967, and the decades either side brought house building on a large scale: estates around Colebrook, Underwood and Ridgeway, then later Woodford and Chaddlewood. Much of PL7 is now semi-detached and detached family housing, a lot of it extended.

These roofs are usually concrete interlocking tiles on trussed rafters, with mortar-bedded ridges and verges, uPVC fascias and soffits, and plenty of later additions: dormers, porches, conservatories and flat-roofed garages. Typical problems are cracked or missing ridge and verge mortar, tiles slipped at the eaves, gutters blocked behind the fascia, and leaks where a dormer or extension meets the main roof. Valleys on L-shaped and extended houses are another common source of water getting in, and a leak there can travel along a rafter before it shows on a ceiling. A full roof visual inspection covers every slope and junction, so your roofer can quote for the actual problem rather than a guess.

Between the city and Dartmoor

Plympton sits on the eastern edge of the city, where the land rises towards Hemerdon and the southern fringe of Dartmoor. Weather coming in from the Atlantic tends to drop more rain as it reaches higher ground, and homes on the higher, more open streets take more wind than those down in the valley around the old town. Moss on north-facing slopes and gutters choked with leaves from mature trees are common, and both hold water against the roof for longer after every downpour.

If you're buying in Plympton, a pre-purchase roof check gives you photos of the whole roof before you exchange contracts. It works well alongside a surveyor's report, which often can only describe what is visible from the ground. For landlords with several properties around PL7, we can photograph roofs on a regular cycle, so you can plan maintenance instead of reacting to leaks. See inspections for landlords and agents.

Typical jobs in Plympton

• Chimney and lead flashing checks on older houses in Plympton St Maurice
• Finding the leak where a dormer or extension meets the main roof
• Ridge, verge and gutter checks on estate houses
• Whole-roof photos for buyers alongside a survey

Questions from Plympton homeowners