Who will use your Measured Building & Topographical Survey
Here is a list of consultants or professionals on your projects who would make use of the measured building & topographical survey information. This does not only benefit all professionals involved during the design phase of the project; but it also covers the tender and construction phase.
This guide is part of our client’s guide to measured building survey.
Your architect – Your architect would use the measured building and topographical survey reports to produce your final proposed project drawings.
Planning Officer – Your project drawings will be used by planning officer’s to approve your planning application. It will be required as part of your planning application submission.
Structural Engineer – They would use the measured building survey report to highlight all the key structures that might be affected during the build. They will also use this as a foundation to redesign any structural elements for any development that you may have. This is important when you need to reposition doors, demolish walls, or even extend your property.
Right to light Surveyor – They would use the dimensional and heights information from the report to find out any restrictions in the proposed built project. These restrictions will be passed on to your planning officer as well as to your architect. Usually, the right to light surveyor would ask for a 3-D model to undertake the calculation. Some land surveyors can produce your measured building survey in a 3-D model for the property for an extra cost. The Rights of Light Surveyor will advise you on the maximum extent of your building project without affecting your neighbours.
Tree Surveyor – In some developments, your council may need you to engage a tree surveyor or environmentalist to calculate any impacts on the vegetation or trees that are being removed because of your development. They will use the existing topographical survey report to highlight all the tree types currently there and will also suggest any requirements for replanting any.
Quantity Surveyor – Usually the quantity surveyors will be engaged on larger projects over the value of £100,000. However, you may also engage a quantity surveyor on smaller projects between £20k-£100k. They will use the existing plans and the proposed plans to calculate a bill of quantities that will allow the contractors to tender on.
They will use the existing plans to work out what will be changed on the existing property to the proposed plans. This will help them price the alterations to the new design.
Contractors – The contractors will use the existing plans and the proposed plans produced by your architect in two phases of your project; the tender phase and the construction phase. During the tender phase, your contractor will use the existing plans and the proposed plans to produce a quote for you. Usually, they would have a quantity surveyor to undertake these internally. However, I would not expect small contractors to use a quantity surveyor, the builders, site agents, or their project project manager would be pricing them instead.
During the construction phase the contractor will use the existing plans for construction works which will include the positioning of all the construction elements. What this means is that they will engage a setting out engineer who would review the existing plans against the proposed plans to position the features for construction.
This is a critical activity that is undertaken so that you are building according to the proposed plans. When the contractors undertake the works and ultimately find out that there is a discrepancy between the plans and the proposed works, you might incur additional costs and delays on your project.
For example if the kitchen window is wrongly drawn on the existing survey drawings, you might end up a with an overlapping of your bespoke kitchen unit onto your windows. This means that you will have to spend more money on replacing and delaying your project.
Does the Measured Building Survey include Garden or Land of the Property?