Plenty of roof problems can be seen without putting a foot on the roof. A telescopic pole with a camera head on the end can be raised alongside the eaves, held over a parapet or pushed along a gutter, while the picture is shown live on a screen at ground level. For the right job it is quick, it avoids scaffold, and it leaves a set of images that the owner can look at too. It is not a substitute for climbing every time, though, and a camera cannot lift a slate or press a lead seam. This guide explains how pole camera and gutter camera inspections work, which parts of a roof they suit, what they fail to show, and how we decide between the pole and a ladder, a tower or scaffold. It also covers what the pictures are used for afterwards: a written note of what was seen, labelled photographs of your own roof, and a clear statement of anything that needs a closer look by hand.
What a pole camera is and how it is used
A pole camera is a lightweight mast that extends in sections, with a camera head fixed at the top and a screen or phone linked to it at the bottom. The head usually has its own light and a zoom, and the best ones can tilt so the lens can look up, along and down. The operator stands on the ground, or on a ladder or low roof where that is safe, and moves the camera into position while watching the screen.
On a house, the pole is raised beside the wall until the camera clears the gutter, then tilted to look along the run. Another position puts the lens above the roofline to look down a slope. On a flat roof, the camera is held over the edge to look across the surface. Because the operator is watching a screen, a second person or the owner can look at the same picture at the same time and ask for a closer view of anything that looks odd.
The range depends on the pole. Poles reach the eaves of a two-storey house comfortably, but a three-storey terrace with a deep area at the front may be beyond them, and stretching the pole to the limit makes the picture shake. We say before we start whether the roof is within reach, and what we will do if it is not.
Photographs and short video clips are saved as the inspection goes along. They are numbered and matched to a note of the elevation and position, so they can be used later in a written summary, or in a conversation with an insurer or a buyer.
What it shows well
A pole camera is at its best at the edge of the roof, where a ladder would otherwise be needed and where problems often start. A short list of what it shows clearly follows.
- Gutters: leaf and moss build-up, standing water, sagging runs, open joints and broken brackets.
- Outlets and downpipe tops: blockages and cracked hoppers.
- Fascias and soffits: staining, flaking and soft boards on the underside of the eaves.
- Eaves courses: slipped slates or tiles at the edge of the roof, and gaps where a roof meets a wall.
- Ridge and hips: loose or displaced ridge tiles, cracked bedding and gaps at joints.
- Chimney tops: cracked pointing, a missing pot or cowl, and the state of the flaunching, which is the mortar collar around the pots.
- Flat roof edges: drip trims, upstands, and ponding near the edge.
The advantage is that none of this takes long to set up. A gutter run along the front of a house can be examined from end to end in a few minutes, and a chimney that looks suspicious from the pavement can be viewed up close without a climb. For an owner wondering whether a roof needs attention at all, a pole inspection gives a quick answer without the cost of access.
Gutter cameras: looking inside the run
Gutters hide more than they show. From the ground a clean-looking run can be half full of silt, and a gutter that looks sound can have a joint that leaks only in a heavy downpour. A camera lets us look inside it rather than guess.
Standing water is the first sign we look for. A gutter that holds water after rain is not draining to its outlet, which usually means a sagging bracket or a run laid without enough fall. One manufacturer of shed gutters recommends about 1:350 where a gutter is fitted to a fall, so the slope is slight, and it is easy to lose through a slipped bracket. A camera shows the water lying in a low spot and tells us where to look for the cause.
Staining on the wall below an open joint, green growth in one place, or a downpipe that drips in the middle all point to something wrong that the camera can confirm. For cast iron, the usual faults are rusting at the joints, cracked sections and failed bolts. For plastic or aluminium, they are splayed joints, brackets that have lost their grip and sections that have been knocked out of line.
The camera also shows what is above the gutter. Rainwater overshooting the run, or slates that stop short of it, will leave their marks inside and behind the gutter. Where the roof's bottom course sits too low or too high, that shows up as well.
A camera cannot clear a blockage or reseal a joint, but it identifies which of those jobs is needed, and where, before anyone climbs.
What a pole camera cannot show
It is as important to know what the pole misses as what it sees. A camera views surfaces, and a lot of roof failure is hidden below them.
It cannot see the underside of a slate or tile, where the nail, the batten and the underlay are. Corroded nails, rotted battens and a perished membrane are among the most common reasons for a roof to fail, and none of them can be judged from above, let alone from a distance. The camera cannot tap a slate to hear whether it is cracked, or lift a tile to see what lies below. It cannot test the lap of a lead flashing, press on a flat roof to find a soft spot or tell whether moss is holding water against the covering.
Some parts of the roof are out of view regardless of the equipment. The back slope of a terraced house is hidden from the front. A valley between two slopes may be in shadow, and a long hip may be too steep to read at a glance. Glare from a wet roof or low sun can wash out detail, and the picture degrades at the limit of the zoom.
Reach is another limit. A camera that stretches over a three-storey elevation will shake, and the picture will not be good enough to rely on. On a high roof the pole serves to find the problem, and a closer look follows by other means.
Because of these limits, the report from a pole inspection says what was viewed, what was not, and which findings are provisional. A pole survey is a first look, and a cautious one.
When we use the pole and when we climb
The choice between the pole and a climb depends on the roof and on the question. As a rule, the pole comes first, and the climb follows if the camera shows something that needs hands.
The pole is the better choice when the question is a simple one: why is this gutter overflowing, is the chimney top sound, has anything slipped at the eaves after the wind. It also suits a roof that is awkward to get at, such as one over a basement area, a narrow passage or a neighbour's garden. It suits fragile coverings where walking on the roof is itself a risk, a point developed in our historic roof survey guide. It also suits a quick check before a fuller job, since it can rule things in or out.
A climb, by ladder, roof ladder, tower or scaffold, is the better choice when the question needs touch. Is the lead sound? Are the slates nailed? What is behind that stain? Where a roof is old and the pole shows a number of slipped slates, the right next step is to look closely. Our roof inspection checklist shows the items that a full inspection covers, and a pole survey covers only the ones visible from the ground.
Sometimes the best answer is both: the pole to scan the edge of the whole building, and a short climb to look at the two places where it found something. That keeps the access cost down while giving a proper answer. If scaffold turns out to be needed, we explain what it would add and what it would reveal that the pole cannot.
Reading the images and the report
Footage on its own does not make a report. The value of a pole inspection lies in what is made of it, and for that the pictures need labels, a plan and a plain written account.
Each image is numbered and tagged to a position, such as the front elevation, left of the porch, at the gutter joint. The report lists what each shows. It splits the findings into those that are clear from the footage, those that are probable but need confirming and those that cannot be judged at all. A cracked ridge tile and a displaced slate can be called with confidence. A suspected failed lead flashing or a sagging batten is marked for a hands-on check.
The pictures are of your own roof, not stock images, which means you see the same evidence we do. This is useful if you are comparing quotes, because it lets another roofer look at the same evidence, and it is useful for a record of condition before a storm or before a house is sold.
After a storm, a pole inspection is a fast way to check for obvious damage before deciding what to do next. If something has been damaged, a photograph taken before and after can help an insurance claim, though insurers decide on their own terms and handling the claim itself is not something we take on for you.
For the pictures to be useful, timing and light matter. Winter brings short days and wet surfaces, and the practical effects of those are described in our guide to a roof survey in winter.
Cost and what to expect
A pole inspection costs less than a full climbing survey, because there is no scaffold and the time on site is short. MyBuilder's roof inspection guide (2026) gives typical UK ranges of £150 to £500 for roof inspections overall, with a standard inspection at £150 to £250. Those are national figures for inspections generally, not a price for a pole survey in particular. Your fixed quote follows the survey. Before starting, we tell you whether the roof sits within reach of the equipment.
On the day we need a way round to both the front and the rear, including any side passage. If a gutter or an elevation is behind a locked gate or in a neighbour's garden, we can arrange access in advance. Someone does not have to be home throughout, though it helps to talk through the screen as we go.
You can expect a short visit, an immediate verbal summary of anything obvious and a written note with the photographs to follow. If the pole shows nothing of concern, you will have a record that says so. If it shows something, you will have the picture and a recommendation. Where we then recommend repairs, they are priced and set out in writing, with each item tied to the photograph that shows it, so you can see why it is on the list. More on the wider inspection services is on our roof inspections page.