What is a measured building survey?
A measured building survey is a scaled record of a building as it stands today: floor plans, elevations and sections drawn from measurements taken on site. It records dimensions, not defects. Planning drawings must be drawn to an identified scale, so most extension projects start with one. Ours starts at £200.
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What a measured survey records
Someone visits the property with a laser measure and records every room, wall thickness, opening and level, then turns the figures into drawings. The usual set is a plan of each floor, an elevation of each face of the building and a section through the building.
It says nothing about the condition of the building. Damp, cracks and a failing roof are the business of a condition survey, which is a different job done by a different professional. A measured survey answers one question: how big is everything, and where does it sit?
Why planning drawings are built on it
Government planning practice guidance sets the standard the council's validation team checks. Under paragraph 023 of Making an application, plans and drawings must be drawn to an identified scale, and plans must show the direction of north. A proposal drawn on guessed dimensions has nothing sound to stand on.
The guidance is on gov.uk. Our planning drawings service starts from a survey for exactly this reason: the proposed scheme is only as accurate as the existing one it grows from.
Our starting fixed fee for a laser-measured building survey with existing plans is £200, from the published price list.
The site plan is a different drawing
A survey of the building is not the same thing as the location plan an application also needs. Paragraph 024 of the guidance says a location plan should typically be at a scale of 1:1250 or 1:2500, and that the application site is edged clearly with a red line.
We produce that plan separately; see our page on location and block plans for what it shows. Many people expect the survey to include it, so it is worth asking for both when you commission the work.
What you receive and what it costs
Our starting fixed fee for a laser-measured building survey with existing plans is £200, from the published price list. Details of what is drawn and delivered are on the measured building survey service page, and if you only need the floor layouts there is a separate floor plans service.
The council's own charge comes later and is paid to it directly. From 1 April 2026 a householder application for the enlargement, improvement or alteration of a single dwellinghouse carries a statutory fee of £548 (MHCLG fee indexation, category 6(1)).
When you can skip it
If a recent set of accurate drawings already exists, for instance from a previous planning approval or a recent architectural technologist's work, the drawings may be checked on site and reused. That saves time but not responsibility: whoever signs the proposed drawings relies on the existing ones being right. When there is any doubt, measure.
Sources
Every figure on this page, where it comes from and a link to the original.
| Figure | Source | Link |
|---|---|---|
| £200 | DrawingsDirect starting fixed fee for a laser-measured building survey with existing plans, from the published price list | drawingsdirect.co.uk |
| identified scale | Planning practice guidance, Making an application, paragraph 023: plans and drawings must be drawn to an identified scale and plans must show the direction of north (source wording: "must be drawn to an identified scale") | www.gov.uk |
| 1:1250 | Planning practice guidance, Making an application, paragraph 024: a location plan should typically be at a scale of 1:1250 or 1:2500 (source wording: "The scale should typically be 1:1250 or 1:2500") | www.gov.uk |
| red line | Planning practice guidance, Making an application, paragraph 024: the application site is edged clearly with a red line on the location plan (source wording: "edged clearly with a red line") | www.gov.uk |
| £548 | Fees for planning applications in England from 1 April 2026 (MHCLG, SI 2012/2920 as annually indexed), category 6(1): householder application for the enlargement, improvement or alteration of a single dwellinghouse (source wording: £548) | assets.publishing.service.gov.uk |