What cannot a drone roof inspection detect?
A drone cannot reliably assess concealed timber decay, hidden membrane defects, the condition of fixings beneath tiles or every source of water ingress. It is primarily a visual inspection tool and may need to be combined with loft access, hands-on investigation or specialist testing.
The honest limits
A drone records what can be seen from the air. It cannot confirm the condition of battens, underlay, fixings or timbers, cannot assess anything beneath the covering, and cannot verify concealed structural condition.
Nor can it test how a roof performs in driving rain, which is how some leaks reveal themselves.
How to use it properly
Use aerial imagery to see the whole roof and identify visible defects, then use loft access and, where needed, physical inspection to confirm anything that matters.
Any assessment claiming to diagnose hidden structural problems from photographs alone should be treated with caution.