What an As-Built Survey Costs (and What It Costs to Do It Yourself)

US firms that share their as-built survey rates usually start at around $2,500 for a house. For commercial projects, they charge by the square foot, from $0.35 for a simple office up to $3.00 for historic or industrial buildings. This guide uses the firms’ published rates so you can compare any quote you receive.

If you want to do it yourself, you can scan the building with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad. After scanning, you can use a drafting service to turn the scan into drawings or, with a Polycam Business plan, you can create floor plans in the app for $400 per user per year, with no extra fee per project. The next sections explain firm rates, what affects a quote, DIY costs, and which jobs still need a survey firm.

Key Takeaways

• US as-built firms that publish rates set project minimums of about $2,500, so on small spaces the minimum decides the price.
• Scan it yourself, and Twindo drafts a 2D floor plan for $0.14 to $0.18 per sq ft. Polycam Business includes floor plans, the Floor Plan Editor, and DXF export for $400 per user per year.
• A 1,500 sq ft house takes about 30 minutes to scan in Polycam, and the Business plan pays for itself against per-square-foot drafting once you scan about 2,200 sq ft in a year.
• Stamped drawings, above-ceiling MEP, and exterior work at height still require a survey firm.

What As-Built Survey Firms Charge

Most firms quote each project individually. The few that publish rates give you a baseline.

Two items can matter more than the headline rates. The first is the minimum. Both firms set a floor of about $2,500, so on a small space the per-square-foot rate barely matters. The second is what the price covers, so ask every vendor whether the quote includes capture, drafting, or both.

Larger homes and Revit models cost more. LiDAR Precise Plans lists 4,000- to 8,000-sq-ft homes at $4,000 to $7,500, with a residential Revit model as a $1,500 to $3,000 add-on.

Outside the US, firms tend to price by property rather than by square foot. London survey firms, for example, list a three-bedroom house at £800 to £950 for floor plans, with elevations and sections extra.

What Pushes a Quote Up

These factors decide where in the range a quote lands:

• Model detail. THE FUTURE 3D’s estimates for BIM conversion range from $0.15 to $0.25 per sq ft at LOD 200 and from $0.45 to $0.75 at LOD 400.
• Above-ceiling work. THE FUTURE 3D says documenting above ceilings adds 20 to 40 percent.
• Rush delivery. LiDAR Precise Plans adds 25 to 50 percent for turnaround under three business days.
• Floors and MEP complexity. Both firms list these as cost drivers.

What It Costs to Do It Yourself

Every do-it-yourself route starts with the same step: you walk the building with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad. The routes differ in who turns the scan into drawings.

With Polycam, the scan creates the floor plan, and you just need to fix any walls or openings that are not in the right place. In our tests with a laser distometer, standard interior scans were accurate to about +/- ½ inch, with larger scans showing expected variation. This is accurate enough for schematic design, renovation pricing, and space planning.

For a 1,500 sq ft house, a survey firm charges at least $2,500. Polycam Business is $400 per year, no matter how many houses you scan. The yearly plan becomes cheaper than paying per square foot once you scan about 2,200 sq ft a year, about one and a half houses this size.

Jorge Nieves-Rodriguez, AIA, runs JNR Architecture & Interiors in Columbus, Ohio, solo. He scanned a 100-year-old house in Cincinnati in about an hour, compared with an estimated 16 hours of manual measurement, and has cut his on-site measurement time by 88 percent. For the Revit model, he used Transform Engine: “Transform Engine saved me approximately two weeks of manual Revit modeling.”

Try Polycam Business free for 7 days and scan your next as-built before you sign the survey quote.

How to Capture an As-Built Yourself

What You’ll Need

• A Polycam Business plan for floor plans, the Floor Plan Editor, and DXF export
• A charged phone, plus a battery pack for multi-story buildings
• A tape measure or laser measure to check one known dimension
• Get the space ready. We suggest turning on all the lights and opening every room’s doors before you begin.
• Plan your route. Start at the main entrance and follow the left wall through each room and hallway without backtracking. Not planning ahead and retracing your path multiple times can cause artifacts that reduce accuracy.
• Scan in Space mode. Move slowly, point the camera up and down, keep the white corner lines aligned, and fill in the blue highlighted areas. If a corner isn’t visible, tap the flashlight icon.
• Process and correct the scan. Open the floor plan in the Floor Plan Editor and fix anything that is not accurate. If you miss an area, the app will estimate it, which can reduce accuracy, so it’s better to re-scan any gaps. Measure one wall by hand and compare it to the plan.
• Export your work. Save the 2D plan as a DXF for CAD or as a PDF, and then download the Spatial Report.

The full walkthrough, including processing options for large buildings, is in How to Capture As-Built Drawings.

When to Pay for the Survey Anyway

A phone scan and a survey-grade scanner are different tools. The BLK360 is rated at 4 mm at 10 m, and a survey firm delivers drawings its professionals stand behind. Hire the firm when:

• The drawings need a professional stamp, or a permit office or lender requires a certified survey. Check your local requirements.
• You need above-ceiling MEP or structural documentation.
• You need exterior elevations or a roof plan you can’t safely reach with a phone.
• The building is large or complex. Variation widens on spaces over 5,000 sq ft.
• The job involves property boundaries or topography, which belongs to a licensed land surveyor.

For many renovation projects, a middle approach works well. You can scan the building yourself for design and pricing, and then hire a survey firm only for the parts that need it, like the roof or ceiling plenum.