Drone roof inspections in Torpoint

A Georgian planned town for dockyard workers

Torpoint is an 18th-century planned town. Reginald Pole Carew of Antony commissioned its grid of streets in 1774 to house workers from Devonport Dockyard across the river. The grid is still there, lined with terraces built over the following century and more.

Terraced roofs in a grid like this share chimney stacks, party walls and gutters with their neighbours, and many have rear extensions with valley gutters and flat roofs you can't see from the street. Common problems are slipped or missing slates, chimney stacks with eroded mortar and failed flashing, and blocked or leaking valleys at the back. Because stacks and gutters are shared, a fault on one house can show up as damp next door. A drone photographs your roof and the shared details around it without anyone climbing onto the house next door. See our chimney inspections and gutter and valley inspections.

The Hamoaze, Whitsand Bay and salt air

PL11 covers more than the town. Beyond Torpoint and Antony the postcode runs out across the Rame Peninsula to St John, Sheviock, Crafthole, Portwrinkle and Downderry, where homes sit on cliffs and slopes above Whitsand Bay with nothing between them and the south-westerly gales. In town, homes along the waterfront face the Hamoaze.

Exposure like this shows up on a roof in familiar ways: slates lifted at the verges and ridge, wind-driven rain forced under flashing, and nails, clips and metal fixings corroding faster than they would inland. Lichen and moss build up on the sheltered slopes and hold water against the slate. On cliff-top plots, getting a ladder anywhere near the roof can be impractical. A full roof visual inspection once a year, or after a big storm, gives you dated photos of the whole roof to compare over time. That's useful for planning repairs, and for showing an insurer or roofer what has changed.

Flying opposite Devonport

Torpoint looks straight across the Hamoaze at Devonport Naval Base, and the Royal Navy's HMS Raleigh training establishment is in the town itself. Ministry of Defence sites are protected by drone restrictions, and we take them seriously. We check airspace and any restrictions for your exact address before every flight. If your property falls inside a restricted area, we'll tell you before you book, not on the day.

Torpoint is in Cornwall, so listed building and conservation questions go to Cornwall Council. The inspection itself needs no consent, because nothing touches the roof, but if repairs are needed on a listed building, check with the council before work starts. Getting to you is straightforward: the Torpoint Ferry runs around the clock, and we allow time for the crossing and any queue when we plan the day. If you'd like a record of work after it's finished, see our roof work check.

Typical jobs in Torpoint

• Chimney stack and flashing checks on Torpoint's older terraces
• Valley gutter and rear-extension checks on terraced houses
• Storm and salt-damage checks on coastal homes above Whitsand Bay
• Yearly photo records for second homes and holiday lets

Questions from Torpoint homeowners