City Centre Commercial Survey, Queen Street

WMS Squire, a chartered surveying practice, commissioned a high resolution aerial condition survey of the roof and building envelope of a commercial building on Queen Street.

Their brief set out six targets: the roof coverings and any slippage or defects, the parapets with their copings, flashings and pointing, the box gutters, the lantern light, the roof mounted air conditioning plant, and the chimney stacks.

Queen Street, in the centre of Exeter.

City centre work brings two problems a suburban roof does not. The airspace is restricted, and the street below fills with people. Both were dealt with before the aircraft left the ground.

The building sits inside a restriction zone covering a nearby prison, so the flight ran under an authorisation that required a call to the establishment control room at least an hour before take off and another after landing. Both calls were made and logged, and the survey flew inside the cleared window.

The flight was booked for six in the morning, ahead of the street getting busy. The survey frames are timestamped between 06:26 and 06:57. Nesting gulls took an interest in the aircraft while it worked, which is normal for rooftops in the centre of Exeter and was flown around rather than fought.

All six targets were imaged: the slate and flat roof coverings, the parapets and copings, the box gutters, the glazed lantern light, the roof mounted air conditioning plant and ductwork, and the chimney stacks.

The imagery went back to the practice the same morning. They confirmed it covered what they needed.

This mission is on the log as much for the approvals as the findings. Getting legal permission to fly a restricted city centre location, scheduling the flight so there is nobody underneath it, and closing out the control room protocol on both sides is most of the work on a job like this.

If your building sits somewhere a drone cannot simply be launched, ask us before you assume it cannot be surveyed from the air. Sorting the approvals is part of the job, not an extra.