Insights & guidance
Avoiding Work at Height on Roof Inspections
Most roof inspection risk is avoidable. The regulations even tell you to avoid it first. Here is how that maps to drone capture.
Updated June 2026 · 3 min read
What the regulations say
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 set a hierarchy: avoid work at height where it is reasonably practicable; where you cannot, prevent falls; and where a risk remains, mitigate the consequences. Avoidance comes first.
The real cost of access
Putting a person on a roof means scaffold or a MEWP, a method statement, and time. It also means risk. For an inspection, much of that exists only to get eyes on the surface.
Where drones fit the hierarchy
A UAV inspection gets high-resolution eyes on the whole roof and envelope without anyone leaving the ground. For the inspection step, that is the avoid option the regulations ask for first.
What you still get
Full coverage, not just the corners someone could safely reach. Findings graded and located, with imagery you can re-examine, and no scaffold bill to see the condition.