A planning consultant approached us ahead of a planning application for a Grade II listed residential property in Liverpool. The project involved a proposed rear extension and internal reconfigurations, and the local planning authority required a full set of existing drawings before the scheme could be formally submitted.

The property had no usable existing drawings. Previous survey attempts by others had produced inaccurate floor plans that the architect had already rejected. We were brought in to start fresh.

The Brief

The consultant needed:

  • Floor plans of all levels including the basement
  • External elevations on all four sides
  • Two cross-sections through the building
  • Roof plan showing the complex multi-level roofline
  • All outputs in AutoCAD (.dwg) format, to the architect's layer standard

The property was a large four-storey terrace with a basement, significant period detailing, and an irregular roofline — the kind of building where guesswork simply doesn't work.

Our Approach

We mobilised within three days of instruction. The site visit took a full day using a Trimble X7 laser scanner, which captures millions of measurement points per second and produces a complete 3D point cloud of the building.

Working from that data back in the office, we produced:

  • Ground, first, second, third floor and basement plans — all rooms, walls, openings, and structural elements shown to ±5mm accuracy
  • Four elevations — front, rear, and both side returns, including the full roofline and all window and door positions
  • Two cross-sections — one through the main stair and one through the rear wing
  • Roof plan — showing ridge, eaves, gutters, chimney stacks and rooflights

Total delivery time from site visit to final drawings: four working days.

The Result

The architect used our drawings as the direct base for the proposed scheme. The planning application was submitted without requiring any revisions to the existing drawings, and the local planning authority raised no concerns about their accuracy.

The consultant noted that the quality of the survey had made the design process significantly smoother — particularly for the roof-level works, where the complexity of the existing structure had previously been a source of uncertainty.

Working on Listed Buildings

Grade II listed properties present specific challenges for survey work. Period detailing, irregular geometries, and the expectation of high accuracy from planning authorities all demand a rigorous approach.

We work regularly on listed buildings across Liverpool and the North West, and understand the level of detail that both architects and planning authorities expect. If you have a listed building project coming up, get in touch or request a quote and we'll come back to you within 24 hours.