TSA-accredited land surveyors covering the whole of the UK. Layered, colour-coded CAD drawings tied to the Ordnance Survey grid, delivered in 5–10 working days. Most surveys cost between £750 and £1,500.
• 2,000 + Surveys Since 2013
• TSA Accredited company
• £1m Professional Indemnity
• UK Wide Coverage
Typical response within 2 hours during business hours. Not sure which survey you need? Call 020 8935 5160 we’ll tell you in five minutes.
There isn’t one. A topographical survey, a land survey, a topo survey and a site survey all describe the same piece of work: a land surveyor visits your site, measures the position and level of everything on it, and produces a scaled drawing you can design from.
The name changes depending on who’s asking. Architects and engineers usually specify a topographical survey. Planning consultants and homeowners tend to say land survey. Contractors say site survey or topo survey. Some specifications call it a measured land survey or a geospatial survey. If your drawing schedule or your planning officer has asked for any of those, this is the service you need.
What you get is the same either way: a layered CAD drawing tied to the Ordnance Survey grid, showing boundaries, levels, buildings, hard and soft landscaping, trees, drainage covers, kerbs and the services visible at ground level.
Contours, spot heights and awkward boundaries captured before they cause problems on site. Detail is recorded to cm accuracy against control tied to the OS grid, so your team designs from what's actually there.
Every drawing is tied to the Ordnance Survey grid, layered cleanly in CAD and aligned with adjacent mapping. Your survey still works when the next consultant joins the project.
Existing structures, drainage runs, trees and level changes recorded upfront, so they surface at design stage rather than as a change order on site.
Your survey arrives as a scaled CAD drawing (.dwg) with a matching PDF, tied to the Ordnance Survey grid – OSGB36 for position, OSTN15 for height. It drops into your model at the right coordinates and the right level. No re-basing, no chasing us for a datum.
Every drawing is layered to a consistent standard, colour-coded, and checked before it leaves us. If something doesn’t make sense when you open it, you can speak to the surveyor who measured it.
Every survey includes:
Drainage runs, utility tracing, drone imagery and 3D point clouds are available as add-ons. Revit (.rvt) and DXF on request.
Full members of The Survey Association — the UK trade body for professional surveyors.
Surveys delivered across all four UK nations and internationally.
Founded in 2013, with 2,000+ completed surveys to date.
£1 million professional indemnity insurance.
Five-star ratings on both Google and Trustpilot.
A topographical land survey in the UK typically costs between £400 and £3,000. Price is driven by three things: the size of the area surveyed, the level of detail specified, and how easily we can access the site.
| Site | Typical price |
|---|---|
| Single residential plot or extension | £750 to £1,500 + VAT |
| Larger residential or small commercial | £1,500 to £2,500 + VAT |
| Commercial / infrastructure site | From £2,500 + VAT |
Prices exclude VAT and assume normal working hours and unrestricted access. Send us your address we’ll give you a fixed price, usually within two hours during business hours.
Tell us your requirements and send a location plan with the survey area marked. We come back with a fixed price, a proposed survey date, and an estimated date for your completed drawings.
Our land surveyors carry out the survey to your specification or our own detailed standards, using Leica GNSS RTK receivers and total stations to capture every key site feature. We photograph the site as we go, for your design reference.
We process the data and produce your CAD drawings, layered and colour-coded to our standard, or to your office template if you send one. Every drawing is quality-checked before dispatch.
You talk to the surveyor, not an account manager. The person who measured your site is the person who answers your questions about the drawing.
We take the awkward sites. Tidal beaches in Jersey, a live port in Liberia, occupied school grounds in Liverpool, solar farms mid-construction. If access is the problem, tell us – it usually isn’t one.
We turn up when we said we would. Then the drawings land on the date we quoted.
A base drawing you can design over, at the right coordinates and the right levels.
Levels, gradients, drainage covers and invert levels for drainage and highways design.
The topographical survey your planning application needs, before you commit design fees.
A land survey of your plot or garden for an extension, basement or new build. Yes, we survey single houses.
A site survey for setting out, earthworks volumes and progress records.
THS Concepts surveys UK-wide from offices in Essex and London, and internationally on larger commissions.
Most of our work is in London, Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire and the South East. We travel nationwide for framework clients and one-off projects, and we’ve surveyed as far afield as Jersey and the Port of Monrovia.
Recent topographical land surveys, from single residential plots to live infrastructure. Every drawing below was produced for an architect, engineer or design team working to a live deadline.
A topographical survey is not always a formal requirement, but local planning authorities almost always expect site plans drawn to existing levels. For anything beyond a minor extension, a topographical survey is the easiest way to provide the data planners and architects need.
Yes. In the UK the terms are used interchangeably. A land survey and a topographical survey both produce a measured, scaled drawing of a site’s features and levels. “Topographical survey” is the term used in most architects’ and engineers’ specifications, while “land survey” is the everyday phrase.
Usually, yes. Most planning authorities expect existing and proposed drawings showing accurate site levels and boundaries, and your architect needs a measured base drawing to design from. A topographical survey of a single residential plot typically takes one site visit and costs £750 to £1,500.
We quote within 24 hours and can usually attend site within [confirm] working days. CAD drawings follow 5 to 10 working days after the visit. If you have a planning deadline, tell us the date when you enquire.
Not by default. A topographical survey records what is visible at ground level, including drainage covers, gullies, inspection chambers and any service markers. It does not trace buried pipes or cables. If you need the runs between covers, we can lift and measure invert levels, or carry out a full underground utility survey using electromagnetic and GPR equipment. Tell us at quote stage and we’ll price it in.
The main benefit of a topographical survey is that it gives your design team accurate site information before planning, design or construction work begins.
A topo survey helps reduce risk by showing existing ground levels, boundaries, buildings, trees, drainage, roads, hard surfaces and other site features in a clear, scaled drawing.
In simple terms, a topographical survey helps you design properly, plan with confidence and avoid expensive surprises later in the project.
Topographical land surveys are used to produce accurate site plans showing ground levels, boundaries and key natural and man-made features.
They are commonly used at the start of a project so architects, engineers, planners and developers can design from reliable site information.
In simple terms, a topographical land survey is used whenever a project needs an accurate understanding of the existing site before design, planning or construction work starts.
A land surveyor measures the position, level and shape of features on a site and turns those measurements into a scaled drawing. On a topographical survey that means recording boundaries, buildings, levels, kerbs, trees, drainage covers and visible services, establishing control tied to the Ordnance Survey grid, and producing a layered CAD drawing your design team can work from.
A site survey is the contractor’s and developer’s name for a topographical survey. It is a measured drawing of a site’s existing features and levels, produced before design or construction begins. THS Concepts delivers site surveys as layered .dwg drawings tied to the OS grid.
A topographical survey records land features, including levels, boundaries, trees, drainage and hard surfaces.
A measured building survey records building features, including floor plans, elevations and sections.
Many projects need both, particularly where proposed works affect the building and the surrounding site.
Read more about our measured building surveys.
We use Leica GPS RTK receivers and total stations for site capture, and BricsCAD for DWG drawing production. For complex or hard-to-reach sites, we add 3D laser scanning and drone photogrammetry.
Standard delivery is AutoCAD (.dwg) and PDF, both scaled to OS grid. Revit (.rvt), DXF and PDF site photo packs are available on request, plus point cloud files for 3D laser scanning add-ons.
Quotes returned within 24 hours.
Email:
[email protected]
Call:
020 8935 5160
(Monday to Friday – 09:00 – 17:00)
Essex Office:
92 Bellhouse Ln, Leigh-On-Sea, Essex, SS9 4PQ
London Office:
76 Quill Street, Islington, London, N4 2AD
