Measured Building & Elevations

A measured building survey is an accurate representation of a building showing structural elements and architectural features. These surveys are presented as floor plans, elevations and cross-sections.

They are specified to an agreed level of detail, acceptable accuracy tolerances, scale, delivery times and costs.

Floor plans can range from low detail to calculate gross & net internal areas to a high specification survey which may include detail such as electrical and plumbing locations.

A standard specification floor plan will include:

  • Walls – typically, measured at floor-level
  • Door and window openings, with cill and head heights, and door swings shown
  • Steps in floors and ceilings, with floor to ceiling heights shown
  • Beams over, bulkheads, trusses, etc. with heights to underside shown
  • Staircases, with steps shown
  • Floor-levels, relative to site datum

Elevations are an orthographic projection of the exterior or interior faces of a building. It is a two-dimensional drawing of the buildings fades generally produced for four directional views, North, South, East and West.

Typical elevation drawings will include:

  • The outline of a building.
  • Openings such as doors and windows.
  • Architectural detail.
  • Roofing.
  • Projections such as eves and pipes.
  • Level datums such as ridge, eaves, finished ground level and floor positions.
  • Key dimensions such as wall lengths and heights.
  • Exterior features such as decks, porches and steps.
  • Any portion of the foundation that may be visible.
  • Exterior wall and roof finishes.

Floor plans, elevations and cross-sections are usually presented in Autocad DWG format using a layering system to depict the different types of detail. They can also be presented in PDF format or plotted at suitable scale on paper or film if required.