Measured Building Survey in Kent

Our Approach

As the project involved a listed cottage and information suitable for a planning application, the survey needed to record considerably more than basic room dimensions.

Our surveyor attended the property and captured the internal and external geometry of the building, together with the surrounding garden, site boundary and trees. The site survey was completed in approximately 4 hours. The project had also been arranged at short notice, with SolidPoint able to attend the following day.

The collected survey information was then processed to produce 2D plans, sections and elevations in line with RICS Measured Surveys of Land, Buildings and Utilities, 3rd edition. The drawings were produced to a level of detail suitable for presentation at 1:50 scale, providing the detail required to clearly represent the existing cottage.

Alongside the 2D drawings, an existing-phase Revit model was produced directly from the surveyed point cloud information. This created an intelligent, BIM-ready digital representation of the property that could be used alongside the traditional survey drawings.

Because much of our measured building survey production takes place within Revit, the client also received the 3D model at no additional charge before the drawing information was exported into AutoCAD DWG format.

Project Deliverables

Providing both 2D and 3D information gives the client flexibility over how the survey data is used and reduces the need to repeatedly recreate existing building information as the project develops.

Our client received:

• • Survey of the full garden area
  • Site boundary and tree information

How Did Our Client Benefit From a Measured Survey?

1. Accurate existing information for the planning application

With the original drawings no longer available, the client needed a new and reliable record of the cottage before progressing with their planning application.

The measured building survey provided accurate plans, elevations and sections based on the property as it currently exists, giving the client and any designers or planning professionals involved a clear starting point from which proposed works could be developed.

This is particularly valuable for refurbishment and alteration projects, where discrepancies between old drawings and the actual building can create problems later in the design process. 

3. One survey captured the cottage and wider site

The scope extended beyond the building itself, with the whole garden, boundaries and trees also recorded.

This meant the client received information showing how the cottage relates to its surrounding site rather than having separate, disconnected building and external information. For a planning application, this wider context can be important when demonstrating the relationship between the existing property, boundaries, vegetation and proposed works.

Capturing this information during the same visit also reduced the likelihood that the client would need to commission additional measured information later simply because an important external feature had been missed.

Project Outcome

The completed measured building survey gave the client an up-to-date and detailed record of their listed cottage and its surrounding site.

Instead of relying on lost historic drawings, the planning process could move forward using information captured directly from the existing property. The combination of plans, sections, elevations, point cloud data and a Revit model also gave the client a useful set of records that could support both the immediate application and future work to the cottage.

Being able to arrange the survey at short notice was an additional advantage, helping the client obtain the information they needed without unnecessarily delaying the next stage of the project.

Why Choose SolidPoint?

When working with a listed or older property, having accurate information about the existing building can be particularly important before progressing with alterations or a planning application.

For this residential project in Kent, our measured building survey replaced missing existing drawings with a detailed and reliable record of the cottage, while also capturing the garden, boundaries and trees surrounding it.

With accurate 2D CAD drawings, point cloud information and a BIM-ready Revit model available, the client now has a strong foundation for their planning application and a useful digital record that can continue to support the property in the future.

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