Recently, we were commissioned to survey a new property that was in the process of being built in Cheshire. Our Client had previously had the property surveyed by a different company as well as an Architect produce the building plans.
The house has recently been reported to the council as it was significantly higher compared to the surrounding houses and which was in contravention of the planning permission =drawings.
After the residents contacted the council, the planning officers informed the company carrying out the new-build property that if they’ve exceeded the planning permissions, they would have to demolish the entire building – not a desirable outcome for the owner.
The original drawings submitted for planning permission showed the new build to be lower than the existing surrounding houses. Our client suspected that the surrounding houses had been incorrectly drawn as the new build was lower than on the plan drawings.
Scantech International Ltd was contracted to carry out a 3D point cloud survey to verify the actual dimensions of the new build and surrounding houses. Using our LEICA RTC360 we scanned the houses from positions of safety and we also utilised our UAV to capture the areas which were inaccessible from the ground.
The RTC 360 laser scanner completes 2 million measurements per second to a 1mm accuracy.
With our registered pointcloud data, we will complete a Street Scene drawing which will then highlight whether our client has stayed within their building plans. These will then be submitted to the Council to verify that the new build complies with the original planning permission requirements.
Using AutoCAD, we can take all the levels and measurements required to get the exact height of the building.
We captured all data required for this exercise in 90 minutes working around the construction workers on-site who could continue with their work.
We also surveyed this building during reasonably busy hours of the day without causing any disturbance to the public, as well as working safely within the COVID-19 regulations.
