Channel Islands homeowners · How to inspect a roof

Drone roof survey vs scaffolding

If you need to know what’s really going on up there, you have a choice: put up scaffolding and send someone up, or fly a drone. For an inspection, the drone wins on cost, safety and speed — with nobody ever leaving the ground.

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CAA-licensed · No scaffolding to hire · Flown in around an hour · Insurer-ready report in 2–3 days

The honest comparison

Four ways to inspect a roof — side by side

Every option below can tell you something about your roof. The question is what each one costs you in money, time and risk — and whether you end up with evidence you can actually use. Here’s how a drone survey stacks up against the traditional routes.

Method	Typical cost	Time on site	Working at height?	Disruption	Insurer-ready report
Drone survey Best value	From £249	Around 1 hour	No	None	Yes
Scaffold + roofer inspection	£2,000 to tens of thousands	Days (erect & strike)	Yes	High	Rarely
Cherry-picker or rope access	£400–£1,200	Half-day+	Yes	Medium	Sometimes
“Free” roofer lookNot impartial — they profit from any repairs they find	£0, then a quote	Varies	Yes	Low	No

Costs are typical Channel Islands ranges and vary with property size and access. For our own fixed prices, see the full pricing breakdown.

Why drone wins on cost

No scaffold hire, no day-rates, no traffic management

Scaffolding is expensive long before anyone inspects anything. You’re paying to erect it, hire it by the week and strike it again — and on a roadside or terraced property in St Helier or St Peter Port you may also need licences and traffic management on top.

No scaffold hire — nothing to erect, rent by the week or take down again
No day-rates stacking up — the flight takes about an hour, not a working week
No traffic management or pavement licences for roadside and terraced homes
One fixed price — a visual survey from £249, or a full written report from £375

For a straightforward condition check, a drone survey typically costs a fraction of getting scaffolding up just to look — and you know the price before we fly.

Why drone wins on safety

Nobody goes up — the risk stays on the ground

Falls from height remain one of the biggest causes of serious injury in construction. Under Work at Height regulations, the first duty is to avoid working at height where you reasonably can — and a drone does exactly that. The aircraft goes up; the people stay safely on the ground.

That means no ladders against fragile gutters, no walking fragile or steep pitches, and no one balancing on a cherry-picker basket in Channel Islands wind. We’re CAA-licensed and a registered operator with the Channel Islands Director of Civil Aviation (DCA), fully insured, and we handle all the airspace permissions — so the inspection is both safer and properly covered.

Why drone wins on speed

An hour on site, a report within days

Scaffolding turns a simple inspection into a multi-day job: book the crew, erect it, inspect, then strike it all down again. A drone survey is usually done in around an hour on site, with no setup left behind.

From there we produce your written Roof Health Report in 2–3 days, weather permitting — often within the week. So you get clear answers fast, whether you’re chasing a leak, planning works or moving on a sale.

Drone roof survey of a Channel Islands property, with no scaffolding required

Why drone wins on independence

An inspection, not a sales pitch

A “free” roof look from a roofing firm is rarely free in spirit — the company up the ladder is the same company hoping to quote you for repairs, so there’s a built-in incentive to find work. That doesn’t make them dishonest, but it does mean the inspection and the sales pitch come from the same place.

Because we don’t carry out the repairs, our findings are independent. Your report is produced with a professional roofing contractor and RICS Technology Partner, so it’s expert and impartial — dated, insurer-ready evidence you can put to a contractor, an insurer or a seller with confidence.

Where scaffolding still belongs

Scaffolding is for the repair — not the diagnosis

None of this means scaffolding is obsolete. Once a defect is confirmed and hands-on work needs doing — re-bedding ridges, replacing tiles, renewing flashing or stripping a roof — safe access is exactly what scaffolding is for, and your roofer will spec it as part of the job.

The smarter order is simply this: survey first, scaffold only if you need to. Use a drone to find out what’s actually wrong, then put up scaffolding for the repair you’ve confirmed you need — rather than paying to erect it just to take a look.

Drone vs scaffolding — FAQs

The questions homeowners ask

Is a drone survey really cheaper than scaffolding?

For an inspection, yes — usually by a wide margin. Scaffolding on a Channel Islands home typically runs from £2,000 into the tens of thousands once you factor in erecting, weekly hire, striking it down and any traffic management. A visual drone survey starts at £249 and the full written Roof Health Report is £375, flown in around an hour with one fixed price agreed before we start.

Is a drone as accurate as someone physically on the roof?

For seeing the roof, often more so. Our drones capture detailed 4K imagery of every tile, valley, flashing and chimney from angles a person on a steep or fragile roof can’t safely reach, and we can zoom in without disturbing anything. A person physically up there can prod and lift, which matters for the repair stage — but for diagnosing condition, close-up aerial imagery gives you a complete, reviewable picture.

Do I still need scaffolding for the actual repairs?

Usually yes, and that’s exactly where it belongs. Once a defect is confirmed and hands-on work is needed — replacing tiles, re-bedding ridges, renewing flashing or stripping a roof — your roofer will spec safe access, which often means scaffolding. The point is to survey first and only pay for scaffolding when you know there’s a repair to do.

Is a drone roof survey safe and legal?

Yes. Keeping people off the roof removes the fall-from-height risk entirely, which is what Work at Height regulations ask you to do wherever reasonably possible. We’re CAA-licensed, a registered operator with the Channel Islands Director of Civil Aviation (DCA), and fully insured, and we handle all the airspace permissions for you.

How much faster is it than getting scaffolding up?

Considerably. Scaffolding turns an inspection into a multi-day job — booking, erecting and later striking it. A drone survey is usually completed in around an hour on site, with your written report following in 2–3 days, weather permitting, and often within the week.

Will insurers accept drone evidence?

Yes — our full package includes a dated, insurer-ready written report with high-resolution imagery, produced with a professional roofing contractor and RICS Technology Partner. That impartial, time-stamped evidence is exactly what insurers and loss adjusters look for when assessing a roof claim or condition.

What about tall, steep or awkward roofs?

Those are where a drone is at its best. Tall, steep or complex roofs are the hardest and most expensive to scaffold and the most dangerous to walk, but a drone reaches them quickly and safely from the air. We survey roofs across Jersey, Guernsey and the wider Channel Islands, including Alderney, Sark and Herm by arrangement.

Skip the scaffold

Find out what’s wrong before you spend on access

Tell us about your roof and we’ll give you a fixed quote for a drone survey — an hour on site, an insurer-ready report in days, and nobody going up a ladder.

Get a fixed quote

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Capture (C.I) Limited · CAA-licensed drone roof surveys across Jersey, Guernsey & the Channel Islands · 07797 762644