Land Surveying
Topographicalsurveys, decoded.
Detailed RICS-spec topographic surveys of London and South East England sites — from a quarter-acre infill plot in Wandsworth to a fifty-hectare logistics park outside Maidstone. Captured with combined GNSS, total station and drone photogrammetry. Delivered as fully attributed 3D DWG, Revit RVT or IFC.
A site model designers can build from.
A topographical survey is the foundation document for every planning application, design model and earthworks tender. Get it wrong — wrong datum, wrong attribution, missing level-three drainage chambers — and the cost cascades through the entire project. We treat the topographical survey as a deliverable, not a commodity. Every drawing leaves our office with a coordinated control summary, a feature-code legend, a clear utility-data quality grade, and a named surveyor signed against it.
On urban London sites we plan capture around traffic management, parking suspensions and weekend access windows. On larger Sussex, Kent or Surrey sites we lean on drone photogrammetry (with full PfCO / GVC pilot cover) to keep programmes short and ground-disturbance minimal. The survey itself is always tied to OS Net via dual-frequency GNSS, so your site coordinates land cleanly in the design model from day one.
Where the brief calls for it, we add measured building elements, BS 5837 tree surveys, ecological-zone overlays, or a PAS 128 utility model. The result is a single, layered, interrogable site dataset that the architect, civil engineer, M&E consultant and contractor can all design from with confidence.
Our topographical workflow.
- PHASE 01
Brief & specification
We capture the survey purpose against the RICS Specification for Topographical Surveys (4th ed.), agreeing scale, contour interval (typically 250 mm or 500 mm), feature codes, datum (OSGB36 / OSTN15 by default) and any project-specific deliverables such as BIM LOD or drainage ownership chains.
- PHASE 02
Control & capture
Site control is observed with Leica GS18 T tilt-compensated GNSS and tied into the OS Net to give absolute accuracy of 8 mm. Detail is then collected by a Trimble S9 robotic total station for hard features, with RTK rover pickup on soft topography. On larger or vegetated sites we deploy DJI M350 drone photogrammetry to give full ortho coverage in a single flight.
- PHASE 03
Sub-surface (optional)
Where requested, our PAS 128 utility detection team overlays statutory undertaker records with EML and GPR scanning to produce a quality-graded utility model — invaluable for de-risking groundworks before tender.
- PHASE 04
Drafting & delivery
Field data is processed in Leica Infinity, drafted in AutoCAD Map 3D against your CAD layer convention, and exported as 2D DWG, 3D DWG, IFC or Revit RVT. Surface models are issued as TIN or LandXML for direct import into Civil 3D earthworks.
The right tool for the site.
We mix GNSS, total-station, laser scanning and drone capture depending on site size, vegetation, traffic and the level of detail demanded by the brief. The instrument list below is what we field most weeks.
Leica GS18 T GNSS
Tilt-compensated RTK rover, 8 mm + 1 ppm horizontal, 15 mm vertical
Trimble S9 Robotic Total Station
0.5" angular accuracy, MagDrive servos for boundary and hard detail
Leica BLK360 Imaging Scanner
6 mm @ 10 m point cloud, used for high-density façade or interior tie-ins
DJI Matrice 350 RTK
PPK photogrammetry, 2 cm absolute accuracy with ground control
Sites we survey.
We cover everything from terraced infill plots to greenfield strategic sites. If you don't see your scheme here, tell us anyway.
- Mixed-use urban redevelopment
- Pre-tender feasibility surveys
- Highways and S278 / S38 schemes
- Residential and student accommodation plots
- Industrial estate and logistics parks
- Listed-building curtilage and heritage sites
Topographical survey FAQs.
- Which RICS specification do you survey to?
- By default we work to the RICS Specification for Topographical Surveys (4th edition, 2019) Band B — appropriate for design and construction. We can also issue Band A or bespoke specifications for engineering or planning use, including measured building elements and façade scans.
- Do you deliver Revit / BIM models or just CAD?
- Both. We routinely deliver native AutoCAD DWG (2D and 3D), IFC, Revit RVT and LandXML / TIN surface models. Our drafters work to BS 1192 / ISO 19650 layer conventions, and we can match contractor-specific BIM execution plans on request.
- Will you survey trees and below-ground utilities?
- Yes. Tree surveys are recorded with crown spread, trunk girth, height and species against BS 5837. Sub-surface utility detection is offered as an integrated PAS 128 overlay — Type B (EML and GPR) is most common; we can step up to Type A verification by trial holes if required.
- How long does a London topographical survey take?
- A typical 1 ha urban site is captured in one to two days on site, drafted in three to five working days, and issued as a fully attributed CAD / Revit model. Larger or more vegetated sites benefit from drone photogrammetry, which keeps field time predictable.
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Send us a red-line boundary and a brief — we'll come back same day with a fee, programme, and a draft RICS specification ready to sign off.