Drone survey in Taunton

Taunton is the shortest run of the towns in this part of the coverage area: around 40 minutes up the M5 from Exeter, which makes it easy to fit into a working week rather than treat as an occasional job. Being the county town also means it generates plenty of work of its own, from house sales in the Georgian and Victorian streets near the centre to new estates going up on all four sides of the town.

The survey does not change because Taunton sits in Somerset rather than Devon. Sam flies the same DJI Mavic 4 Pro, with its 100 megapixel Hasselblad camera for stills and 6K video, and the same Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced with its radiometric thermal camera for jobs where heat loss or damp is the question, and the M5 run from Exeter is already covered within the fixed price quoted.

Taunton is not a finished town the way some of the county's older market towns are. Development continues on the edges towards Monkton Heathfield, Comeytrowe and Killams, alongside a much older core of terraces closer to Vivary Park and the county cricket ground, so a booking here can just as easily be on a house barely a year old as one that predates the railway. That range matters before a booking is made, because a brand new roof and a Victorian one raise different questions even where the two properties sit only streets apart.

The vale itself sits low and flat, sheltered by the Quantocks, Blackdowns and Brendon Hills on most sides, so Taunton actually sees less rain across a year than Devon does. What it does hold is fog and frost on still winter mornings, which is more a note for choosing when in the day to fly than a reason to put a booking off.

Somerset County Cricket Ground and the remains of Taunton Castle sit close to the middle of town, and the River Tone runs through it, so the older core is fairly compact even though the town as a whole has spread a long way beyond it. A landlord letting out a Victorian terrace near the ground, a family buying new build out at Monkton Heathfield, and a business owner wanting an aerial photography set of a commercial site by the Tone are all ordinary Taunton work, not different categories of job.

Because Taunton throws up such a range of building types in a small area, it is worth saying at booking whether the property in question is the older centre or one of the newer estates, simply so the right questions get asked before the flight rather than during it. Nothing about the survey itself changes, but knowing what to expect on arrival makes for a quicker visit either way.