Measured Building Surveys · Edinburgh
Measured building surveys
in Edinburgh.
Accurate existing drawings of Edinburgh buildings — floor plans, elevations and sections — drawn in CAD from a LiDAR scan and delivered in DWG and PDF. From Georgian townhouses in the New Town to tenements in Leith, surveyed by a Chartered Architectural Technologist who is in the city most weeks.
At a Glance
- Capture
- Leica RTC360 laser scanner
- 3D point accuracy 1.9 mm at 10 m (manufacturer spec), plus Matterport Pro3 and drone
- Drawings
- 1:50 or 1:100
- Plans, elevations, sections, roof and site plans, GIA/NIA areas
- Formats
- DWG + PDF
- To your layer standard and title block; point cloud as E57 / RCP
- Site visit
- Within the week in Edinburgh
- Most flats and houses captured in half a day
- Delivery
- 1–2 weeks
- From the site visit, depending on building size and drawing set
- Quote
- Fixed price, same day
- Agreed before we attend site — no day-rate surprises
- Drawn by
- Chartered Architectural Technologist
- MCIAT — someone who prepares planning and warrant drawings
- Cover
- Fully insured
- Cover details available on request
Edinburgh Buildings
A city that punishes guesswork.
Edinburgh's buildings are old, protected and rarely square. Georgian terraces with basement areas and mews behind, Old Town closes stacked eight storeys against the hill, Victorian tenements with bay windows and cupolas, and a planning regime — inside a UNESCO World Heritage Site and dozens of conservation areas — that expects existing drawings to be right. A laser scan records the whole building in one visit and the drawings are taken straight from that record.
The result is a base drawing that reflects the building as it stands: the true floor-to-ceiling heights, the fall across a floor, the wall that isn't parallel to the one opposite. That is what lets your design, your listed building consent and your building warrant proceed without surprises.
One scan, the whole building
Interior, exterior, roof, common stair and basement area captured in a single visit — no return trips to check a dimension.
Drawn by a designer
MCIAT-led. We know what a usable base drawing looks like because we design from them.
Your CAD standard
Layering, title block and template to match your practice, in DWG and PDF.
Fixed price, quoted fast
Address and scope in, price and programme back — usually the same working day.
What Edinburgh Projects Use Them For
From a basement flat to a tower block.
New Town & Old Town listed buildings
Measured drawings of Georgian townhouses, basement flats and Old Town closes inside the World Heritage Site — the detail listed building consent and conservation area applications call for, captured without touching the fabric.
Tenement flats & colonies
Existing plans and sections of Marchmont, Bruntsfield, Leith and Stockbridge tenements and colony houses ahead of reconfigurations, extensions and subdivisions submitted to the City of Edinburgh Council.
Villas & suburban houses
Accurate existing drawings of houses in Morningside, Corstorphine, Trinity, Barnton and the Grange — roof structure, level changes and later additions included — so extensions and loft conversions are designed to what is actually there.
Commercial & change of use
Floor plans, elevations and sections of offices, retail units and hospitality premises across the city centre, Leith and the West End ahead of fit-out, change of use or residential conversion, with GIA/NIA areas where needed.
Public & institutional estates
Drawing sets for council, university and healthcare buildings whose archive drawings no longer match the building. We surveyed Kirkgate Tower for Edinburgh City Council for exactly this reason.
Housing association & retrofit stock
Consistent, repeatable drawing sets across multiple blocks for retrofit, energy and fire-safety programmes — one specification and one standard across the whole estate.
How It Works
Scan. Draw. Deliver.
A complete 2D CAD set: floor plans of every level, external elevations, cross and long sections, and — where the project needs them — reflected ceiling plans, roof plans, site plans and GIA/NIA areas. See the full deliverables list.
Scan
A single site visit with terrestrial and mobile LiDAR. Most Edinburgh flats and houses are captured in half a day; larger commercial, institutional and listed buildings in one to two days, with out-of-hours capture available for occupied premises.
Draw
We draw the building up in CAD from the registered point cloud — floor plans, elevations and sections at 1:50 or 1:100, to your layering standard and title block, with door, window and level annotation.
Deliver
A coordinated drawing set in DWG and PDF, usually within one to two weeks of the scan, plus the point cloud on request — viewable and measurable in your browser through the Kanna client portal.
Measured Surveys in Edinburgh
Cost, accuracy and turnaround.
How much does a measured survey cost in Edinburgh?
Every survey is a fixed price agreed before we attend, set by the size of the building, access and the drawings you need. Most Edinburgh flats and houses are quoted the same working day from the address and a short brief.
Measured survey costs in Scotland, explained →How accurate is a measured survey?
The drawings are taken from a registered laser scan — Leica RTC360, rated at 1.9 mm 3D point accuracy at 10 m — so they carry the building's real geometry: out-of-square rooms, true ceiling heights, level changes. Tolerance is agreed with you at quote stage to suit the scale and purpose.
How the laser scan is captured →How quickly can you survey in Edinburgh?
Site visits are usually available within the week, and drawings follow one to two weeks after the scan. Drawings are prepared to the standard the City of Edinburgh Council expects for planning and building warrant applications.
Existing drawings for planning and warrants →Projects
Recent capture work in Edinburgh and across Scotland.
Kirkgate Tower, Edinburgh
Matterport capture, point cloud delivery and thermographic survey for Edinburgh City Council — feeding volume calculations for energy modelling and giving the architect accurate data to design from.
Read the case study →Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
Matterport and point cloud capture of one of Scotland’s busiest venues, feeding Collective Architecture’s Revit model for renovation works.
Read the case study →Creag Mhor Cottage, Highlands
Existing-condition capture of a Highland cottage ahead of an EnerPHit deep retrofit.
Read the case study →Coverage
Edinburgh, the Lothians
and across the Forth.
We are in Edinburgh most weeks, with travel built into the fixed price for the city and the Lothians. We also cover Fife, the Borders and Stirling — and are based in Glasgow, so see our Glasgow measured building surveys for the west.
Quick Quote
Get a fixed price — usually the same working day.
Send the address and the drawings you need. No call needed; we come back with a price and a survey date.
Prefer to talk? 0141 260 0115
FAQ
Measured surveys in Edinburgh, answered.
How quickly can you survey a building in Edinburgh? +
What does a measured building survey in Edinburgh cost? +
Are the drawings suitable for a City of Edinburgh Council planning application or building warrant? +
Can you survey listed buildings in the New Town and Old Town? +
Do you charge for travel from Glasgow? +
Do I get the point cloud as well as the drawings? +
Who carries out the survey and draws it up? +
Can I see an example of the drawings? +
Related Services
Explore more of what we do.
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3D laser scanning from terrestrial, mobile, and UAV LiDAR
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LiDAR point clouds converted to Revit models at LOD 200–400
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3D virtual tours, floor plans, and point clouds from one visit
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CAA-authorised aerial photogrammetry and thermography
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Set, location, and asset scanning for production pipelines
Learn more →Need existing drawings of an Edinburgh building?
Send us the address and what the drawings are for — plans, elevations, sections — and we'll come back with a fixed price and a survey date.