Measured building surveys in Old Malden, KT4
A measured building survey of a home in Old Malden starts at £200, a fixed fee with no VAT to add, for a laser-measured survey with existing plans. You see the price before you ask for anything, and the survey gives you accurate as-existing drawings to design from.
Fixed fee from £200 · all prices
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What the £200 starting fee covers
Our published starting fee for a laser-measured building survey with existing plans is £200, and there is no VAT to add. It comes straight from the price list on our pricing page, so the figure you read here is the figure we quote.
The pricing page is the place to check what the starting fee describes before you book.
Why a measured survey comes before the design
Anyone planning an extension, a loft conversion or a change to the layout of a house in Old Malden needs to know exactly what is there now. A survey records the house as built, so the new design is drawn on real dimensions and not on guesses taken from an old estate-agent plan.
Government guidance on making an application says plans and drawings must be drawn to an identified scale, and that they must show the direction of north. A measured survey is the natural point to get both right, because every later drawing inherits the survey's geometry.
The national planning data platform lists 28 live conservation areas in Kingston.
What you receive
You receive as-existing floor plans and the elevations and sections your project needs, drawn from laser measurements taken inside and outside the property. The same set becomes the base for the proposed drawings, which means one survey serves a planning application and the building regulations drawings that follow it.
If you only need the existing drawings, for example to give a builder, a structural engineer or a neighbour's surveyor a reliable set to work from, you can stop there.
The Kingston planning figures behind a project in KT4
Old Malden's planning applications go through Kingston, so those are the figures we use. In the latest four quarters of published statistics, Kingston decided 742 householder applications, and 83% of those were granted. That count includes prior approvals.
On timing, 93% of householder decisions, excluding prior approvals, were made within eight weeks. We quote these as published, as a picture of the volume and pace of householder work in the borough, not as a promise about any one application.
Appeals give a second view. The Planning Inspectorate decided 169 householder appeals for the borough over its recent decisions, and 44% of those were allowed. A survey that records the house correctly gives your drawings the same footing as the applications behind these figures.
Constraints worth checking before you commit to a design
The national planning data platform lists 28 live conservation areas in Kingston. That count covers the whole borough and does not say whether your street is inside one, so look up the exact address before designing.
For the KT4 postcode district, the Article 4 direction register shows 2 live entries near its centre point. Our snapshot is incomplete, so treat that as a minimum and not as proof about your road. Check the exact address against the council's own register before choosing a route.
Certificates of lawful development, and where a survey fits
Over the last eight quarters of published figures, Kingston decided 593 certificates of lawful development. If your project might fall within permitted development, a survey gives the drawings that a certificate application relies on.
If you are working near a shared wall, we also prepare party wall notices and drawings, and the same survey supports them. Tell us which of these you are heading towards when you book, and we will scope the survey to match.
Location plans and how they relate to the survey
A survey records the building. A planning application also needs a location plan, which government guidance says should typically be at a scale of 1:1250. We prepare location and block plans as a separate service, so you can order them with the survey or on their own.
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, with no VAT to add, 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 |
| 742 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 83% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 93% | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS2 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 169 | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 44% | Our analysis of Planning Inspectorate Casework Database (released 1 Oct 2026 (Casework Database 2609)) | www.gov.uk |
| 28 | Our analysis of MHCLG Planning Data Platform conservation-area and article-4-direction datasets (bulk snapshot retrieved 14 Aug 2026) | www.planning.data.gov.uk |
| 593 | Our analysis of MHCLG planning application statistics, table PS1 (district open data table) (released 24 Sep 2026, quarters to 2026 Q2) | www.gov.uk |
| 2 | Our analysis of MHCLG Planning Data Platform article-4-direction-area dataset (entity API, retrieved 15 Oct 2026) | www.planning.data.gov.uk |