Drone chimney survey in Paignton

Paignton's Edwardian and inter-war seaside terraces and semis stand in great number along the flat ground behind the seafront, plainer than Torquay's grand villas but consistent and numerous, and a large stock of holiday flats and guest houses carries its own mix of converted and extended stacks. Extensive post-war estates and modern housing on the western edge towards Marldon carry more conventional, later chimneys.

Unlike Torquay's hillside position, Paignton sits on level, open ground behind a long sandy beach, sheltered from the prevailing wind by the shape of the bay but fully open to easterly weather with nothing to slow it down once it arrives. Salt spray reaches several streets back from the front as a result, further than in a town with more rising ground between the sea and the terraces, and that reach is worth factoring into which stacks actually need close checking rather than assuming only the front-line properties are at risk.

With so many similar-era terraced and semi-detached stacks standing in flat, exposed streets, a fault pattern here tends to be about exposure and age rather than an unusual one-off, and a close aerial survey is a quick way to confirm whether a particular stack is actually following that pattern or is in better condition than its neighbours, without assuming either from the ground.

Paignton's pier and its long stretch of sand define the seafront itself, while Oldway Mansion and Paignton Zoo sit a little further back from the exposure the front-line terraces take directly. Goodrington Sands, at the southern end of town, carries its own run of exposed seafront housing with much the same flat, unbroken exposure as the main front.

Torquay, Brixham, Totnes and Newton Abbot are all close to Paignton and all covered on their own pages, worth knowing if a booking here fits naturally alongside a job in one of them.

Flat roofs on the guest house extensions, common across the town's large holiday accommodation stock, handle a stack junction with an upstand rather than a traditional flashing line, and that detail is worth checking specifically where an older property has had a rear extension added at some point without the same attention given to the original roof.

The Edwardian and inter-war terraces typically carry plainer, shorter pots than Torquay's grander villas a few miles round the bay, consistent with the more modest, family-holiday character the town was built for rather than the resort grandeur found further along the coast.

The seafront and the pier draw crowds for much of the year, and a survey booked here is generally planned around a quieter stretch of the day, whether the stack in question sits on the front itself or one of the inter-war streets behind it.