New build snagging survey in Exeter

Exeter's new build story is mostly happening east of the ring road, where the growth area around Cranbrook and Pinhoe has been adding streets of housing for well over a decade and is still going. That scale changes the maths on snagging: a volume housebuilder working through phase after phase of near-identical plots is not building each roof as a one-off, it is repeating the same detail hundreds of times with the same gang, the same programme pressure and, on a bad week, the same shortcut.

That is not an accusation against any one site. It is simply how a large phased development gets built, and it means a defect on your plot is worth checking against the plot two doors down before assuming it is unique to you.

Older Exeter, by contrast, is mostly Georgian and Victorian stock with pockets of post-war estate housing on the outer ring, so the new build activity that this survey is aimed at sits specifically in that eastern growth corridor and in smaller infill plots scattered through the rest of the city.

Exeter sits low, on a ridge above the tidal Exe, and the valley holds damp air well above the England rainfall average. North-facing roof slopes here dry slowly and organic growth on tile and slate establishes early, which on an old roof is a maintenance issue and on a new one is a sign that water is sitting where it should be running off.

A verge that has not been properly bedded, a ridge clip that has not fully engaged, or a valley gutter with a slight fall error will not necessarily show as a leak in year one. In a valley climate that holds moisture against a roof for longer than most of Devon, it tends to show sooner than it would somewhere drier, which is exactly why checking it before the defects period ends matters here specifically.

Exeter Airport sits east of the city, close to the Cranbrook and Pinhoe growth area, so addresses out that way get their airspace checked properly before a date is agreed rather than assumed clear. It is a five minute check that avoids a wasted trip.

Access is rarely the problem on a new estate the way it is on an old terrace: there is usually a driveway or a verge to launch from. The problem is the roof itself, still covered by scaffolding company insurance and builder liability for only as long as the defects period runs, and gone once it closes.