New build snagging survey in Ivybridge

Ivybridge has only a small historic core around the old bridge and mill. The rest of the town, which is most of it, is a late twentieth century commuter town of large estates built from the 1970s through the 1990s, with continuing new development since. That makes Ivybridge unusual in this coverage area: there is very little old stock to compare against, and the whole town is effectively a study in how estate-built roofs from different decades have held up.

Ivybridge sits on the Erme at the southern edge of Dartmoor, where the moor drops steeply down to the South Hams, and the town's position means high rainfall and strong gusting winds funnelled down the Erme valley specifically, rather than general South West exposure. The dataset is direct about the implication: mechanically fixed ridge and verge details matter here more than in sheltered towns, because a system that relies on adhesive alone in a valley wind funnel is being asked to do more than it was likely tested for.

That is exactly the kind of detail a close aerial pass can confirm: whether a ridge has been mechanically fixed as specified, or whether it has been bedded and left, which from the ground looks identical and from the air, cropped in close, usually does not.

Because so much of Ivybridge is continuing new development rather than a single historic phase, there tends to be more than one active defects period running across the town at any given time. Whichever phase a plot sits in, the same rule applies: the moor-edge wind is not going to get any gentler while the warranty clock runs down, so the evidence is best gathered early.

Ivybridge's postcode area is PL21. The viaduct and the Two Moors Way footpath mark the historic core around the old bridge and mill, a small enough landmark that most of the town, being modern estate housing, is straightforward to place relative to it when booking or giving directions for a site visit.

Plymouth, Totnes, Kingsbridge and Tavistock, all covered elsewhere on this site, surround Ivybridge on different sides, and because the whole town sits at the specific point where Dartmoor drops to the South Hams, its wind exposure is distinct from all four rather than a blend of its neighbours.

Concrete interlocking tile and fibre cement slate are the most likely coverings on Ivybridge's estate housing from any decade, and because the town sits specifically in the Erme valley's wind funnel, checking that the fixing method matches the covering, not just that the covering itself looks correct, is worth doing properly here.