Houses, Townhomes & Strata Units · Metro Vancouver
Home Renovation As-Built Drawings
Every renovation starts from the house that is already there, and most houses have no drawing of it that anyone would build from. An as-built is that drawing: the walls, openings, stairs and ceiling heights measured where they actually are, so your designer, your contractor and the city are all looking at the same building.
- Measured with LiDAR
- Drawn from the scan, not traced
- For design, pricing and permit
What a residential as-built is
A residential as-built is a measured drawing of a home as it stands today. It shows the rooms, the walls and their thicknesses, the doors and windows, the stairs, the changes in floor level and the ceiling heights, all taken from the building itself rather than copied from an older plan or a listing brochure.
Designers and contractors call it several things: existing conditions drawings, existing plans, measured drawings, a site measure. They all mean the same thing — the starting point a renovation is drawn on top of. The proposed work is designed as changes to that drawing, so any mistake in it is carried into every drawing that follows.
It is not a land survey. Property lines, setbacks to the lot line, and anything registered on title are the work of a BC land surveyor. An as-built records the building; a land survey records where the building sits on its lot. An addition often needs both.
Why an older house is hard to measure by hand
Houses are rarely as square as they look. Walls lean, floors settle, a wall that was moved in a renovation decades ago is a few centimetres off the line of the one above it, and a basement that was finished later has furring and bulkheads that the original plan never showed. None of that is a defect. It is what happens to a building over its life.
A tape measure handles this badly, not because the person holding it is careless but because every room is measured on its own and then fitted together on paper. Each small error is added to the next, and by the far side of the house the plan no longer closes. The designer finds out when a staircase does not fit the opening drawn for it, or a cabinet run is ordered to a wall that is shorter than the drawing says.
A LiDAR scan measures the whole house as one connected space instead of a set of rooms stitched together afterwards. The plan is then drafted from that measurement, so walls that are out of square are drawn out of square, and the rooms relate to each other the way they actually do.
What the existing drawing has to show depends on the renovation
A kitchen remodel and a second-storey addition need very different things from the same house. These are the questions each kind of project tends to ask of the existing drawing.
| Kind of project | What the design is deciding | What the existing drawing has to settle |
|---|---|---|
| Kitchen or bathroom remodel | What the design is decidingA layout of cabinets, fixtures and appliances that fits the room and reaches the existing plumbing, venting and power. | What the existing drawing has to settleExact wall lengths and corners, window and door positions with sill and head heights, ceiling height and any bulkhead, and where the existing fixtures sit. |
| Basement suite or finished basement | What the design is decidingWhether the space can hold the rooms intended, with the headroom, exits and separations the design calls for. | What the existing drawing has to settleClear heights under the floor above and under every beam and duct run, window sizes and sill heights, the stair, and the walls and posts that cannot move. |
| Addition, rear or upward | What the design is decidingHow new space joins the old: where it ties in, how floor and roof levels meet, and what the existing structure has to carry. | What the existing drawing has to settleThe exterior walls and openings on the side being extended, floor-to-floor heights, the existing roof and ceiling lines, and the stair that will connect the levels. |
| Whole-house renovation | What the design is decidingA new plan for most or all of the house, often with walls removed, rooms combined and services rerouted. | What the existing drawing has to settleEvery floor measured and drawn to the same reference, with wall thicknesses, stairs and level changes recorded so the floors stack. |
| Townhome or strata unit renovation | What the design is decidingChanges inside a unit whose walls, floors and ceilings are shared with neighbours or owned in common. | What the existing drawing has to settleThe unit as it stands, with the party walls and fixed elements clearly located, so the design and the strata approval are discussing the same layout. |
These are patterns of the building type, not a scope of work. What a particular home needs drawn is agreed when the visit is scoped.
The drawings you may already have
Many homeowners start by looking for the original plans, and that is worth doing. Builders sometimes leave a set with the first owner, a previous renovation may have produced drawings, and some municipalities keep drawings that were submitted with past permit applications. How to request those, and what survives for an older house, varies from city to city, so ask your municipality directly.
What those drawings show is what was intended at the time they were made. They do not show the wall that was moved without a permit, the basement that was finished by a previous owner, or the difference between what was drawn and what the framer actually built. For a house that has been lived in and altered for decades, an older plan is a useful reference and a poor base to design from.
A measured as-built settles that by describing what is there now. Where an older plan exists, it is still worth handing to your designer alongside the as-built, because it can explain why the house is the way it is.
How it usually goes
The as-built comes at the start of a renovation, before the design is drawn and before a contractor prices it.
Decide what the drawing has to cover
The whole house, one floor, or just the rooms being changed — plus whether ceiling heights, exterior walls or the basement matter for this project. Your designer or architect is the best person to say what they need.
Send us the details
The address, the kind of home, roughly how big it is, and what the renovation is. We scope residential work project by project and confirm what will be measured and what you will receive before the visit is booked.
The scan visit
One operator moves a tripod-mounted LiDAR scanner through the home one position at a time. Nothing is fixed to the house. Furniture can generally stay where it is; anything genuinely hidden behind it is flagged on the drawing rather than guessed.
Drafting from the measurement
The plans are drawn from the scan data, not traced from an older plan. Where an existing drawing disagrees with what was measured, the measurement governs and the difference is pointed out.
Hand it to your design team
PDF for anyone who needs to read it, and CAD files your designer or architect can draw the renovation directly on top of, in whichever formats were agreed when the job was scoped.
What the visit looks like
Our own field photography. The equipment is the same one we use on every building we measure.
Permits, strata approval and who decides what
Most renovations that change walls, structure, plumbing or the use of a space go through a building permit, and permit applications in Metro Vancouver generally ask to see the existing building alongside the proposed work. Which drawings your project needs, at what scale and with what detail, depends on the municipality and on the scope of the work. Your designer or architect and the city's permit staff are the people who decide that.
In a strata building there is usually a second approval. Strata bylaws commonly require written permission before an owner alters certain parts of a strata lot, and many strata councils ask to see drawings before they agree. Which alterations need approval, and what the strata wants to see, is set by your bylaws and your strata council.
Our part is narrower and comes first. We measure the home and draw it as it stands, so the people making those decisions are working from an accurate picture of the existing building. We do not design the renovation, and we do not advise on what a particular project is required to do.
Who works from the drawing
Homeowners use it to see the house properly for the first time — real room sizes, real ceiling heights — and to brief a designer without guessing.
Interior designers and architects use it as the base they draw the renovation on, without first spending a day measuring the house themselves.
Contractors use it to price the work and to plan demolition against the house as it is, which is where a wrong drawing usually turns into an extra on the invoice.
Strata councils and property managers use it to understand what an owner is proposing to change inside a unit they share walls, floors and services with.
What drives the cost of an as-built
Residential work is scoped project by project, so there is no fixed price for a house. The cost guide explains what moves the number for any building: floor area, how much detail is drawn, and which files are delivered.
Opens the cost guide on this site.
What clients say
I’m an interior designer and recently needed someone to come out ASAP to complete a site measure for a project with a very tight timeline. PlanBase 360 was not only able to accommodate the quick turnaround, but their customer service from start to finish was exceptional.
They were responsive, professional, incredibly thorough and genuinely went above and beyond to make sure I had everything I needed. The entire process was easy, efficient and exactly what you hope for when you’re relying on another professional to keep a project moving.
I was so impressed with both the service and the final deliverables and will absolutely be using PlanBase 360 for my site measures moving forward. Highly recommend!
Alicia Savin
Interior designer · Local Guide
Common questions
Yes. Commercial and industrial buildings are the bulk of our work and what most of this site describes, but we take residential projects too — houses, townhomes, strata units and multifamily buildings being renovated. Send us the details and we will scope it.
No. An as-built records the building: its walls, openings, stairs, levels and heights. A land survey records the lot: property lines, setbacks and where the building sits on its land. Land surveys in BC are done by a BC land surveyor. An addition frequently needs both, and your designer or the municipality will tell you if a land survey is part of your application.
That is not the service this page describes. Listing floor plans and square footage for a sale are drawn to real-estate measurement standards for marketing. We measure buildings so they can be designed, renovated and built on. If you are selling, a real-estate floor plan provider is the right choice.
No. The scanner is carried through the home on a tripod by one operator, and furniture can generally stay where it is. Anything genuinely hidden behind it, such as a wall behind a full bookcase, is flagged on the drawing rather than estimated. It helps if every room, the basement and any crawl space you want included are accessible on the day.
It depends on how much the house has changed since. An original plan shows what was intended when the house was built, not later renovations, finished basements or the small differences between drawing and construction. Walk through the house with the plan in hand: if the rooms do not match it, the plan describes a different house. It is still worth giving to your designer alongside an as-built.
No. Whether a renovation needs a permit, and what the application has to include, depends on the scope of the work and on your municipality. That is a question for your designer, your architect and the city's permit staff. What we provide is an accurate drawing of the existing home that a permit set can be built on.
Yes, if CAD files are part of what was agreed. PDF is there for reading and sharing; CAD is the file a designer or architect draws the proposed work on. The guide to file formats explains which file goes to whom.
Both depend on the size of the home and what has to be drawn, so residential work is quoted per project rather than from a fixed price. Send us the address, the kind of home and what the renovation is, and we will confirm the scope, the price and the timing before anything is booked.
Keep reading
Measure the house before the design starts
Tell us about the home and the renovation, and we will scope the as-built and confirm what you will receive before the visit is booked.