New build snagging survey in Exmouth

Exmouth's new build activity is concentrated around the marina and docks quarter, where modern waterside apartment and townhouse development has been reshaping that part of the seafront, plus further estate growth on the town's inland edges beyond the inter-war suburbs at Withycombe Raleigh and Littleham.

Waterside apartment blocks bring a different roof to check than a row of estate houses: flat and low-pitch roof sections, parapets, rooflights and terrace balustrades all sit above eye level on a multi-storey block, and every one of them is a place water can sit if the falls were not got right first time.

Exmouth is about as exposed as a South West town gets. Salt-laden south-westerlies come in off the open sea with nothing to break them, and that corrodes fixings and flashings faster here than almost anywhere else covered by this site. Wind uplift on ridges and verges is a recurring problem on Exmouth roofs generally, and a new roof is not exempt just because the tiles are new.

A dry-fix ridge system that has not been mechanically fixed to specification, or a verge clip that relies on adhesive alone in a location that gets this much wind, is a defect that an inland town might not surface for years. Here it can move in the first winter.

Corrosion does not wait for the defects period to end and it does not politely stop once the warranty has closed. The case for flying an Exmouth new build early in the window, rather than near the end of it, is that a fixing which looks marginal at month six can look like ordinary wear and tear by month twenty-two, and a builder is far more likely to accept the first framing than the second.

Exmouth's postcode area is EX8, covering everything from the marina and docks quarter to the hillside suburbs above Orcombe Point and the red cliffs towards Sandy Bay. A plot near the seafront and one on the higher inland streets can face noticeably different wind exposure on the same day, so it helps to say roughly whereabouts in town an address sits when booking.

Neighbouring Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth, both covered by this site, share a similar exposed coastal setting, and a new build owner close to either boundary is welcome to ask which town's page applies before booking rather than guessing.

Natural slate and concrete interlocking tile are the two coverings most likely to turn up on Exmouth's newer estate housing, and both need a ridge and verge fixing standard rated for genuine coastal exposure rather than a general specification, given how directly the town faces the open Channel.