New build snagging survey in Dawlish

Dawlish's new build activity sits inland, at Dawlish Warren, away from the Regency terraces and seafront apartment blocks of the old resort town and the extensive post-war bungalow development that already covers the cliff tops. It is a distinct pocket of modern estate housing rather than an extension of the seafront itself, though it is not far from it as the gulls fly.

Dawlish is one of the most storm-exposed places on the South Devon coast. South-easterly gales throw sea water over the famous railway sea wall, and the cliff-top bungalow estates nearby take unbroken wind, with ridge, verge and flashing failures a recognised pattern locally after a hard storm season. Dawlish Warren, a little further inland, is somewhat more sheltered than the immediate cliff top, but it still sits inside a town whose defining feature is how much weather reaches it.

A ridge or verge detail that would be marginal in a calmer town is not a safe assumption to make here. If it was fitted to a standard specification rather than one rated for this level of exposure, a Dawlish storm season is the environment most likely to expose the difference within the defects period rather than after it.

Because storm damage here is a recognised seasonal pattern rather than a rare event, there is a genuine case for flying a Dawlish new build survey after the first autumn or winter's weather has had a chance to test it, provided that still falls safely inside the defects period. A defect that a storm has already found is easier to document than one that is merely suspected.

Dawlish's postcode area is EX7. The famous sea wall and railway line run along the foot of the town, well below both the Regency terraces around The Lawn and the cliff-top bungalow estates further up, and Dawlish Warren sits further inland still, so a booking benefits from naming which of these three quite different settings a plot is actually in.

Teignmouth, Exeter, Newton Abbot and Exmouth, all covered elsewhere on this site, sit close by, and while Teignmouth in particular shares a broadly similar storm-exposed coastal character, Dawlish's own combination of sea wall, cliff top and inland estate is specific enough to this one town that it is worth checking the right page rather than assuming a neighbouring one applies.

Concrete interlocking tile is the standard covering on Dawlish's post-war and modern estates, a different material entirely to the natural slate on the older Regency terraces around The Lawn, and one that needs a wind and salt rating suited to a town this exposed rather than a general Devon specification.