How Loïc managed his renovation to the centimetre on a house that had never been surveyed

Loïc is a private homeowner, neither a developer nor a building professional, with a life project. He has just bought an old 109 m² house on two floors, full of character, where everything needs redoing: tired roof timbers and floors, a layout to rethink.

There was just one catch, and it outweighed all the others. The building had never been surveyed. His architect needs accurate plans to design, his tradespeople reliable dimensions to cost. And Loïc wants to avoid the scenario every project owner dreads: nasty surprises discovered once work has started.

The architect was involved from the outset: level of detail required, target software (Revit, ArchiCAD, AutoCAD), schedule and deliverables were all agreed with them. The house was then scanned in a single visit, without moving anything, and modelled to outline design level. And if a dimension is missing later, it can be taken remotely from the survey, which is what makes the approach so convenient.

These figures come from the survey of Loïc’s house; the comparison with the manual method is an order of magnitude observed on a residential property. The ten modelled spaces put the architect and the tradespeople on the same plans, from the same survey.

Let’s go back to the two initial obstacles. The missing plan of the existing building has become a measured, shared model. The architect designs on solid ground, and the tradespeople cost from the same dimensions. Hours with a tape measure and repeated trips have given way to a single visit of under two hours. A forgotten dimension can be taken remotely. From first contact to the tradespeople being consulted, just a few weeks went by. It’s the best way to start a project: knowing exactly what you have.