Property Survey Division of
Phase Projects Ltd

Sheet 01 · Rev A

Measured surveys for developers, designers and architects

Property and construction surveys. Clear scope. Scotland-wide, from Aberdeen.

You need accurate existing-condition information so design can start. We survey the building or site, deliver drawings and data in the format you work in, and tell you plainly what each deliverable is suitable for.

Request a quote What we survey

Need a survey?

Measured building surveys, topographical surveys, underground utility surveys, point clouds, 3D models and 2D drawings, and drone surveys, across Scotland and further by arrangement. Tell us what you need and we'll quote.

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Phase Projects
Phase ProjectsEngineering verification and visualisation

Planning an offshore, industrial or infrastructure project?

Phase Surveys does property and construction surveys for design teams. Phase Projects handles high-consequence industrial and offshore projects.

Visit Phase Projects

On site

A DJI drone on its landing pad in a field, ready to fly
Drone survey, pre-flight checks
A laser scanner on a tripod in an empty office floor
Laser scanner set up indoors
A GeoSLAM handheld scanner standing on the ground beside the Phase Surveys van
SLAM scanner, one system, out of the van
A total station in a field with deer grazing behind it
Topographical survey, with company
A GNSS survey pole with a controller, in a Highland glen
GNSS rover on a topo
Topo timelapse, tiny-planet view
What we survey

Existing-condition information, ready to design on.

Laser scan point cloud of Turriff church and its graveyard, seen from above
View 02Turriff church and graveyard, laser scan

Measured building surveys

Floor plans, elevations and sections of existing buildings, drawn to the scale and detail your project needs.

Topographical surveys

Levels, boundaries and site features for planning and design, tied to Ordnance Survey coordinates.

Underground utility surveys (PAS 128)

Buried services located with GPR and electromagnetic detection and mapped to PAS 128 before design or groundworks, with the limits of detection stated.

Point clouds

Registered scan data for coordination and design, delivered in the format you work in.

3D models and 2D drawings

3D models and 2D CAD drawings produced from the survey data, with the level of detail agreed up front.

Drone surveys

Aerial imagery and mapping where it's the right tool for the site.

View 03ASLAM scan of the Gordon Highlanders Museum grounds, Aberdeen, for a new pathway, 2023: we were early to SLAM. 30 minutes on site.
View 03BMacduff Cross, 2022. Tripod-mounted Z+F Imager 5010C, scanned to survey control.
A coloured point cloud from a drone survey of Tarland Trails: a forest track with a yard of sheds and vehicles beside it
View 03CTarland Trails, 2025. Point cloud of the track and yard from the drone.
Panorama of the Peterhead Prison Museum yard with barred windows, from the hybrid virtual tour capture
View 04Peterhead Prison Museum, hybrid virtual tour
Add-on to any survey · Visualisation

See it as it is, and as it will be

Walk the building or site as it stands without a visit, or see the proposed design in its real setting before it is built. Both are made from the survey, so they are accurate.

Ask about visualisation

As it isVirtual tours and digital twins

Matterport tours

A familiar walk-through tour, captured with professional-grade Matterport devices and shared with a link.

Gaussian splat tours

A lifelike 3D scene you can move through freely, captured with PortalCam, and by drone where the site suits it.

Bespoke interactive tours

Traditional 360° panoramas, shot on professional DSLRs with Nodal Ninja panoramic heads, with drone aerials, built into a tour designed around your project.

As it will beVerified views, planning visuals and CGI

CGI stills and animations

The proposed design in its real setting, built on the surveyed model so what you see is where it will be.

Planning visuals

Images for an application that show what will actually be there, from the viewpoints that matter.

Verified views

Photographs from surveyed camera positions with the proposed building placed in them accurately. The kind planners ask for on bigger schemes.

Tour 01Rubislaw Church, Aberdeen. Matterport.
Tour 02Blairs College and St Mary's Chapel. Matterport.
Tour 03Garioch Heritage Centre. Matterport.
A proposed shopfront on Union Street, Aberdeen, placed into a photograph of the granite building
Visual 01Proposed shopfront, Union Street, Aberdeen. The new frontage placed into the photograph.

Tours load from Matterport (US) only when you press a button.

Plain answers

Why some surveys cost less, and when that's fine.

Two quotes for "a measured building survey" can differ a lot, and both can be honest. The difference is usually in four things that rarely appear on the quote.

01

Accuracy

A survey to the nearest 50 mm is quicker than one to the nearest 5 mm. Both are valid. Only one suits a historic church.

02

Measured or assumed

Some detail is measured on site, some is traced from photos or existing plans. Unless you are told which is which, you can't tell from the drawing.

03

Checking

Independent checks and closed control take time: we close the loop back to the first station and prove the figures. Skipping that is faster, and the errors show up later, usually on site.

04

Who is on site

An experienced surveyor sees the things a design will trip over: a drain that doesn't line up, a wall that isn't square.

A quicker survey is usually fine for

  • Early feasibility and massing studies
  • Estimating floor areas for a sales brochure
  • Internal layouts where nothing structural changes
  • Sites where the design has plenty of room to move

Pay for accuracy when

  • You are building on or close to a boundary
  • Levels drive drainage, access or flood design
  • New work has to fit existing structure or services
  • Fabrication or prefabricated parts depend on the dimensions

Scale guide: measured building surveys

Drawing scaleCapture method
1:100SLAM may be appropriate
1:50Requires a controlled survey / RTC

SLAM: handheld mobile scanning. RTC: static laser scanning set up on survey control.

What clients actually need

  • The right method (SLAM or RTC)
  • Appropriate survey control
  • Grade of accuracy
  • Scale suitability
  • 3D model level of detail (LOD)
  • Clear advice on limitations
  • Fit-for-purpose outputs
Ground floor plan from a measured building survey, drawn at 1:50, shown as white lines on the blueprint sheet
View 05Ground floor plan, measured building survey at 1:50. Move over the plan to look closer.

Surveying buildings since 1989.

If a quicker survey suits your project, we'll tell you. If you already have a survey and aren't sure it's good enough for the next stage, send it over and we'll give you a straight view.

Try itSurvey control: set up the instrument for confidence

Survey control: set up the instrument for confidence

In a survey control environment, which means longer on site, the instrument has to know where it is before a single point is measured. The standard topo set-up is over a nail: centre the crosshair on it, then steady the bubble. Or set up anywhere, level, and fix the station by resection, turning the telescope onto known targets: three fix it, a fourth is the check. Either way takes care, and care takes time.

Ready. Click the dial to start, then move the mouse, drag on a touch screen, or use the arrow keys.

A toy, not a survey instrument.

Our standard

Fit for purpose, in writing.

Every survey comes with a short statement covering how the data was captured, the accuracy achieved, what it is suitable for, and what it isn't.

  • How the data was captured
  • The accuracy achieved
  • What it is suitable for
  • What it isn't

Cheap data goes wrong when nobody says where its limits are. You won't be guessing.

Every survey is checked before it leaves us, and the statement records who checked it. That check is our insurance.

Survey Statement

Example layout. Every entry is filled in per job.
Ref [job ref]
Rev [A]
Method
[how the data was captured and checked]
Accuracy achieved
Plan [± mm]. Levels [± mm].
Suitable for
Planning drawingsBuilding warrantInternal layouts
Not suitable for
Roof detail (no access)Hidden structure
Checked by: [name]Survey date: [date]
View 06Scan to floor plans. How the data was captured, then drawn.

37years of experience, since 1989

Who's behind it

From measured buildings and development sites on this website, to offshore platforms and process plant as Phase Projects. The same survey team and the same control standards, whatever the size of the job.

An OS trig pillar on open moorland with the mountains of Scotland behind
View 07OS trig pillar, the mountains of Scotland behind it. Our ground, from Aberdeen out.

From 1989, when computers, instruments and plotters looked like this, and site calls were made from the car.

  1. Office
    1. Line drawing of a late-1980s 386 desktop PC with a CRT monitor showing a DOS prompt01386 PC
    2. Line drawing of an HP desktop pen plotter with its carousel of pens02HP pen plotter with pen carousel
  2. Comms
    1. Line drawing of a brick-sized car phone handset with a coiled cord to its transceiver03Car phone
    2. Line drawing of a desk telephone with a curly cord, and a drawing tube with a postage label04No internet: the phone on the desk, drawings in the post
  3. Deliverables
    1. Line drawing of a roll of plotted plans, one sheet partly unrolled05Paper plans
    2. Line drawing of a 3.5 inch floppy disk labelled .DWG062D .dwg files on a floppy disk
  4. Site
    1. Line drawing of a Geodimeter 410 total station on a tripod, sighting a circular prism on a pole07Geodimeter 410 total station and circular prism on a pole: a two-person job
    2. Line drawing of a cable avoidance tool with a needle meter, and its signal generator box08CAT and Genny
    3. Line drawing of a clipboard with a hand-sketched floor plan and a pencil09Paper sketchpad
    4. Line drawing of a manhole cover levered up with a lifting key, a second key on the ground10Manhole keys, and a cover lifted by hand
    5. Line drawing of a 35 mm film SLR camera with a roll of film beside it1135 mm film camera, 36 shots a roll
  5. Transport
    1. Line drawing of a white Volvo 340 hatchback, side view12Volvo 340, white (c/w rusty, no air-con)

To today.

  1. Survey control
    1. Line drawing of a robotic total station on a tripod, tracking a 360 degree prism pole with a controller on it01Robotic total station: one person
    2. Line drawing of a GNSS RTK rover: antenna on a pole with a controller clamped to it, satellites overhead02GNSS RTK rover
  2. Scanners
    1. Line drawing of a high-precision laser scanner on a tripod, scanning03High-precision laser scanner
    2. Line drawing of a handheld SLAM scanner cabled to its data logger04SLAM scanner: around five times faster, less detail
  3. Virtual tours
    1. Line drawing of a 3D capture camera on a tripod053D tour camera
    2. Line drawing of a handheld spatial camera06Handheld spatial camera
    3. Line drawing of a DSLR camera on a panoramic head on a tripod07DSLR on a panoramic head
  4. Drones
    1. Line drawing of a survey-grade quadcopter with an RTK antenna dome and landing gear08Survey-grade RTK drone
    2. Line drawing of a folding drone carrying a lidar pod, scanning the ground09Lidar drone
    3. Line drawing of a small folding drone with a single camera10Mini drone
  5. Underground
    1. Line drawing of a four-wheeled ground penetrating radar cart with a screen on its handle, over a buried pipe11Ground penetrating radar cart
    2. Line drawing of an electromagnetic cable locator over the ground with its signal generator beside12Cable locator and its transmitter
    3. Line drawing of a coiled drain rod on a reel, fed into a gully with a sonde on its tip13Rod reel with a sonde
    4. Line drawing of a manhole cover levered up with a lifting key, a second key on the ground14Manhole keys: still lifted by hand
  6. Office
    1. Line drawing of a workstation with two monitors showing a point cloud and a 3D model15Cutting-edge PC systems
    2. Line drawing of a laptop showing a globe, with a processor chip beside it16Internet and modern processing software
  7. Deliverables
    1. Line drawing of a house gable made only of measured points17Point clouds
    2. Line drawing of a house gable as a triangulated mesh model with camera positions around it18Digital twin
    3. Line drawing of a 2D plan on a drawing sheet labelled .DWG beside the same building as a 3D model labelled .RVT192D and 3D in the formats you work in: .dwg, .rvt and more
  8. Transport
    1. Line drawing of a raised four-wheel-drive panel van with roof bars, side view20Off-road van, with air-con
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