Laser-accurate existing drawings of your Richmond upon Thames property — floor plans, elevations and sections measured on site and drawn to millimetre tolerance, so every design, planning application and lease that follows starts from a base that is actually right, delivered in days.
Richmond upon Thames Council granted 86% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — 1 point below the 87% England-wide householder average. The borough's exceptional conservation coverage means design detail and materials are scrutinised closely, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Georgian (1714–1837), Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910) and interwar (1918–1939) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Under Class B, a rear dormer stays permitted development up to 40m³ of added roof volume on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi-detached or detached house, while Class A allows a single-storey rear extension of 3m beyond the original rear wall on a terrace and 4m on a detached house before a full application is needed. Richmond upon Thames carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Richmond Green, Twickenham Riverside and Kew Green remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Richmond upon Thames is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Richmond (Georgian and Victorian houses around Richmond Green), Twickenham (riverside conservation streets and Edwardian terraces), Kew (Victorian houses around Kew Green), Teddington (Edwardian terraces and villas), East Sheen (Edwardian family houses near Sheen Common) and Ham (period cottages and houses by Ham Common) — these are the Richmond upon Thames pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Richmond Green, Twickenham Riverside, Kew Green, Ham Common and East Sheen (Sheen Common). Richmond upon Thames Council weighs each proposal against Richmond Local Plan and the House Extensions and External Alterations SPD, where roof alterations and dormers visible from the street or river are strongly resisted. On roofs the borough is pitched roofs on the villas and butterfly roofs on the terraces, over Victorian and Edwardian villas and terraces, Georgian houses near the river and interwar semis in the outer wards.
Every proposed drawing is really two drawings — the house as it is, and the house as it will be — and the second is only as good as the first. A measured survey captures the property as-built: room sizes, wall thicknesses, window and door positions, floor-to-floor heights, ceiling lines and the outside envelope, all cross-checked so the plans, elevations and sections agree. Richmond upon Thames's Victorian and Edwardian villas and terraces, Georgian houses near the river and interwar semis in the outer wards are rarely square or standard — walls lean, floors step, bays and returns hide behind later work — so measuring by hand off an old estate-agent plan simply carries the errors forward.
We survey with a laser measure and, on larger or more complex Richmond upon Thames buildings, a scanner that captures a point cloud — millions of measured points the drawings are traced from — so nothing is estimated. The output is a clean set of scaled as-existing drawings, delivered in CAD, that an architect, engineer or lease-plan draughtsman can work straight into. The borough's exceptional conservation coverage means design detail and materials are scrutinised closely, and an accurate existing set is what lets the proposed scheme answer that without a mid-project surprise.
Period and listed stock — the kind found across Richmond Green, Twickenham Riverside, Kew Green, Ham Common and East Sheen (Sheen Common) and Richmond upon Thames's other conservation areas — is exactly where survey accuracy matters most, because heritage detail, irregular geometry and past alterations all have to be recorded faithfully. Richmond is one of London's most conservation-heavy boroughs, with widespread Article 4 directions — on many streets even minor external alterations that would be permitted development elsewhere need a full application. We capture the fabric as it really is so the record stands up to scrutiny.
A measured survey is worth its cost whenever an accurate existing record matters. For Richmond upon Thames properties that usually means one of these:
We measure the whole property on site — plans, elevations, sections, floor-to-floor heights and the external envelope — and deliver a clean, scaled as-existing CAD set that your architect, engineer or lease draughtsman can build straight onto, so no one is re-measuring halfway through the Richmond upon Thames project.
Below is Richmond upon Thames Council's real householder decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Richmond grants a fair share of householder applications, but its dense conservation-area and Article 4 coverage makes design quality and roof visibility decisive. A measured survey never appears in these figures, but it sits behind the applications that do — an accurate existing set is the difference between a scheme that is decided on merit and one queried because the drawings do not add up.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, rolling year). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
Tell us about your project and get a fixed, no-obligation quote back within one working day. If you don't need planning permission at all, we'll tell you that too — for free.
The deliverable is a coordinated set: existing floor plans for every level, elevations of each face, and at least one section cut through the building to show floor-to-floor and ceiling heights — the dimension a plan alone can never carry. Everything is drawn to a stated scale and tolerance and issued as CAD, so it drops straight into the next stage. Across Richmond, Twickenham and Kew, the buildings that most reward this are the large and altered ones, where a wrong assumption about a wall or a level costs a redesign later.
Roof alterations and dormers visible from the street or river are strongly resisted. We cross-check every dimension on site so the plans, elevations and sections agree with each other and with the real Richmond upon Thames building — the discipline that stops a proposed extension being drawn against a wall that is not where the old plan said it was.
We survey houses, flats and mixed-use buildings across the borough. A few of the Richmond upon Thames neighbourhoods where measured surveys come up most often:
Measured surveys of Richmond's Georgian and Victorian houses around Richmond Green — laser-measured, cross-checked and delivered as scaled as-existing CAD.
Measured surveys of Twickenham's riverside conservation streets and Edwardian terraces — laser-measured, cross-checked and delivered as scaled as-existing CAD.
Measured surveys of Kew's Victorian houses around Kew Green — laser-measured, cross-checked and delivered as scaled as-existing CAD.
Measured surveys of Teddington's Edwardian terraces and villas — laser-measured, cross-checked and delivered as scaled as-existing CAD.
Measured surveys of East Sheen's Edwardian family houses near Sheen Common — laser-measured, cross-checked and delivered as scaled as-existing CAD.
Measured surveys of Ham's period cottages and houses by Ham Common — laser-measured, cross-checked and delivered as scaled as-existing CAD.
A full survey records the property in three dimensions, not one. This is what each output gives and what it is used for.
| Output | What it records | Used for | Typical method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Existing floor plans | Room sizes, wall thicknesses, openings | Design, planning, lease plans | Laser measure |
| Elevations | Each external face, window positions, heights | Planning applications, heritage | Laser & photo |
| Sections | Floor-to-floor and ceiling heights | Loft, structural, headroom checks | Laser & scan |
| Point cloud | Millions of measured points | Complex or large buildings | 3D laser scanner |
On period and listed stock around Richmond Green and Twickenham Riverside, a point-cloud survey records irregular Richmond upon Thames fabric that hand measurement would miss.
A fixed process built around getting the existing record right first time — most as-existing sets are delivered within five days of the site visit.
Tell us the Richmond upon Thames property type and what the survey is for. We confirm what you need — plans only, or plans, elevations and sections — and whether a scan is worth it for the building's size or complexity.
A surveyor measures the whole property with a laser measure and, where useful, a 3D scanner — every room, the external envelope, floor-to-floor heights and the awkward corners an old plan glosses over.
We draw up the coordinated existing plans, elevations and sections to a stated scale and tolerance and issue them as CAD, ready for the next stage of your Richmond upon Thames project.
You get the full set in CAD and PDF, and we answer any query from the architect, engineer or Richmond upon Thames Council that follows — the survey is the base everything else is checked against.
No — a measured survey is simply an accurate record of the property as it stands, so it needs no permission from Richmond upon Thames Council and involves no building work. It is the step before any application: the as-existing drawings it produces become the base for the proposed scheme you later submit. Many Richmond upon Thames projects go wrong precisely because they skip it and design onto an inaccurate old floorplan instead.
They answer completely different questions. A valuation or condition survey tells you what a Richmond upon Thames property is worth or what state it is in; a measured building survey tells you precisely what shape and size it is — the dimensions an architect or engineer needs to draw from. If you are extending, converting or applying to Richmond upon Thames Council, it is the measured survey you need, not a valuation.
You can, and for a small square room it is fine — but Richmond upon Thames's victorian and edwardian villas and terraces are rarely square, and small errors compound across a whole building until the plans, elevations and sections no longer agree. A laser or scanned survey cross-checks every dimension so the set is internally consistent. The cost is modest against a redesign, or an application Richmond upon Thames Council queries because the drawings do not match the building.
A full measured survey includes all three. Floor plans alone cannot tell you floor-to-floor or ceiling heights, which is exactly what a loft conversion, a structural calculation or a headroom check in a Richmond upon Thames property depends on. We record elevations of each external face and cut at least one section through the building, so the existing set is complete and every later stage has the dimension it needs. Richmond upon Thames Council is the decision-maker.
Yes — an accurate measured survey is the ideal base for both. A Land Registry-compliant lease plan is drawn from the same existing measurements, and a party wall surveyor works from an accurate record of the Richmond upon Thames property and its boundaries. Commissioning one survey that serves the design, a lease plan and any party wall work avoids paying to measure the building more than once. Richmond upon Thames Council is the decision-maker.
We price each Richmond upon Thames survey on the size of the property and whether you need plans only or plans, elevations and sections, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. Larger or listed buildings that warrant a 3D scan are quoted accordingly. The survey pays for itself by keeping every later drawing and Richmond upon Thames Council submission accurate. Call 020 7864 7245 to start.
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