Measured building survey in Melbourne: what you get and when you need one

A measured building survey in Melbourne is a drawing of the building as it stands, not a drawing of the land. You need one when the plans you have are missing, were never updated after a renovation, or are a landlord sketch that will not hold a design. Arya Designs carries out that survey as a site visit and hands over as-built drawings. The service page is site measurement in Melbourne.

This is drafting. It is not a title re-establishment, and it is not a feature and level survey. If the brief is boundaries, levels or contours, a licensed land surveyor is the right person. The difference is set out in measured building survey versus a feature and level survey in Victoria.

Every measured building survey we issue leaves as DWG and PDF. A call-out fee applies to the site visit. We do not publish the amount. Laser scanning is available when the building needs it. We do not publish a scan price.

When you need a measured building survey

Order the survey before design starts, not after the first drawings have been guessed from an old PDF. The usual triggers in Melbourne are:

• A renovation or extension with no reliable plan. The designer needs walls, openings and room sizes before they can draw what is proposed. An old council plan, or a real estate floor plan, is not that base.
• A shop, café, office or hospitality tenancy. Fit-out work starts from the tenancy as it is, including the wall the last tenant added. A marketing plan from the leasing agent is the wrong file.
• A liquor licence when the venue has no usable plans. The red line is a different drawing, prepared once a trustworthy floor plan exists. On redline plans a standard liquor licence redline is $499 flat, with a 48-hour turnaround, issued as DWG and PDF, when existing plans are already usable. The measure is quoted on its own. It is not inside that fee.
• A building that has been altered and never redrawn. Mezzanines, enclosed verandahs, moved kitchens and closed-in carports need to be on the plan if the next approval or lease depends on them.
• A designer or builder who will not start without CAD. They need an editable file, not a photo of a tape on a wall.

If you already have a current, scaled plan that matches the building, you do not need a new survey. Send that file and we will say so.

What the survey includes

A standard measured building survey from Arya Designs is an existing-conditions set of the building in the brief. For most houses, shops and single tenancies that means:

• A floor plan of each level in scope, with rooms named
• Wall positions, door and window openings, and the main dimensions
• Overall sizes a designer can trace
• Notes for the features the brief asked for, such as a kitchen, bar, stair or amenities
• The file pair: DWG + PDF

The PDF is the copy people read, mark up and send. The DWG is the CAD file the architect, builder or the next drafter edits. We do not treat the DWG as an upgrade. It is part of the job. Why both files are on every drawing is in PDF versus DWG.

The survey does not, by itself, include a planning report, a building permit set, or a licensed-area red line. Those are later drawings that use this plan as the base. Elevations and sections are included when the brief asks for them, for example a street-facing renovation or a change in level. They are not assumed on a simple floor-plate measure. The quote names the sheets.

A larger example is the measured building survey of Don Bosco Hostel in Brunswick: two levels, area schedules, DWG and PDF. A smaller one is the food shop layout for Torito Foods in Carlton.

What happens on the site visit

The visit is the measurement, not a design meeting. Someone from Arya Designs attends the property, walks the levels in the brief, and records the building. You arrange access: keys, a tenant on site, or a building manager who can open the rooms that are in scope. Furniture can stay. We measure around it. A locked room that is part of the brief needs to be opened, or that room is noted as not accessed.

For a straightforward house, shop or hospitality tenancy, drawing time after the visit is typically 1–3 business days. Larger buildings, and any job that includes a laser scan, take longer. The quote confirms the timing before we book.

A call-out fee applies to the site visit. The amount is not published on this site. It is named in the free quote, with the scope, before you book. Travel beyond a normal Melbourne and Victoria visit is agreed the same way. We measure across metropolitan Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Geelong and regional Victoria.

How an on-site measure becomes as-built drawings is covered in As-Built Drawings and On-Site Measure in Melbourne.

Laser scan versus tape

Most measured building surveys we do in Melbourne are a traditional measure: a laser distance meter and a tape, captured into CAD. That is the right method for a house, a shop, a small office and most hospitality tenancies. It is quick to book, and the drawing is a plan a designer can use, not a point cloud.

Laser scanning is the better capture when the building is large, multi-level, heritage-detailed, or dense with services, bulkheads and level changes that a tape will simplify. We offer a laser scan on those jobs and turn the capture into the same as-built CAD. We recommend one method after we see the address, the photos and what the drawing is for. We do not scan every job by default, and we do not publish a price for the scan. The quote says which method is included.

If a wall has moved, the survey records the wall that is there. We do not trace the selling agent's plan and call it measured. A side-by-side of the two methods is in laser scanning versus a traditional site measure in Melbourne.

What this survey is not

A measured building survey answers what is built. It does not answer where the title boundary is, or what the site levels are. Fences and walls can be drawn as physical things. That drawing does not define the legal boundary.

Arya Designs does not carry out cadastral surveys, title re-establishments, or feature and level surveys. If an architect or a council has asked for contours, reduced levels or a boundary definition, we will say so before the wrong visit is booked. You can still use our as-built drawings for the building, and a licensed land surveyor for the land.

How to arrange one

Send the address, what the drawing is for, and any plans you already have, through site measurements. Mention which levels are in scope, and anything that affects access, such as a tenanted shop or a venue that can only be measured before opening. The quote is free. It names the levels, whether the method is a tape measure or a laser scan, the DWG and PDF handover, and the call-out fee for the visit. No amount for that fee is published here.

If the next step is a liquor licence and the plans we produce are usable, the red line is a separate order at $499 flat, in 48 hours, as DWG and PDF. Architectural work that starts from the survey, such as an extension or a fit-out set, is quoted on its own.