Land surveying
An accurate and thorough land survey is crucial in any building development to allow work to proceed smoothly and cost-effectively.
Surveys should always be carried out as early as possible in the planning process. At the outset, we will highlight any site hazards or items that should be added to the survey remit.
The land survey will provide the boundary and detail within a site, as well as potential restrictions and problems that may be encountered, enabling architects, engineers and developers to plan site development from inception to completion.
When producing land surveys, accuracy is crucial but speed can be too. Whether it be green or brownfield sites, industrial sites, urban sites, roads, quarries, refuse tips, or landfills, you can be confident that we have the experience, knowledge and equipment to provide first-class results.
Any level of detail can be recorded as part of a land survey, using the latest Total Station instruments and real-time GPS. One-man robotic systems enable a single surveyor to work efficiently alone on-site where required.
Volumetric calculations
Volumetrics is useful for any project where shaping and shifting are required and is especially valuable for quarries, golf courses, reservoir design and landfill.
Once a survey of the site has been produced, we can generate any number of proposed models using our Digital Terrain Modelling software, which calculates accurate volumes for areas such as stockpiles, excavation or cut/fill operations.
Further surveys can be undertaken at regular intervals, or on specific material layers, to produce accurate quantities as work progresses.
Information can be provided in a variety of formats such as long and cross sections, colour-coded cut/fill models, or 3D models.
Setting out
Setting out is the reverse process of a site survey, involving the extraction of data from a drawing to accurately mark out features on the ground. This may be building corners, earthworks, sewers, road works, steel structures or line work.
We are highly experienced in the setting out of a wide range of projects and can extract setting out points directly from AutoCAD files. Precision is critical and if a sufficiently high-quality survey already exists we can upload the required information onto our sophisticated computers in the office to work from when on site. Our skilled surveyors and engineers will check that the architect’s data is adequate and clarify the required accuracies for the job. If such a survey is not available we can carry out a survey to work from.
Extracting setting out points and uploading them onto our technologically-advanced instruments can accomplish several days’ work in just one day, with significant cost savings. We often use this method when setting out piling for example, when timing is crucial. Each set-out point is surveyed after installation to check accuracy.
Measured building surveys
Every building we survey, whether a small home, a large office complex, a retail, or a public building, is initially ‘footprinted’ using total stations at fixed control points.
According to our client’s requirements, the footprint can then be developed into basic floor plans and elevations, or more detailed plans and sections including a precision listing of items like furniture, lighting, sockets, and pipework.
Most of the plan is produced on-site so it only needs minor editing back at the office, enabling us to reduce timescales and increase efficiency.
We use reflectorless total stations for building elevations to provide accurate, detailed drawings and computer models in 2D and 3D. Hard copies are also available.
Elevations
Building elevations are recorded in a similar way to floor plans using reflectorless total stations and we also employ laser scanning according to the project requirements.
Our state-of-the-art laser scanners enable us to provide detailed surveys of even the most complex elevations. With laser technology, we can gather accurate information rapidly.
Accurate, detailed drawings and computer models can be provided in 2D and 3D. Hard copies are also available.