If your new garden space design is to be a natural extension of your home both from an ergonomically and stylistically then it is essential to make accurate measurements of the area in the garden you wish to design. If however, your plot is bigger than a third of an acre and/or it is on a significant slope, my advice is to seek professional help. For the purposes of this blog we will assume that you will be doing the garden site survey and that the site is reasonably flat – finding exact levels is be beyond the scope of this article.
The purpose of the garden site survey -
- Get an accurate idea of where the house is in relation to all the other parts of the garden
- Determine your boundaries both to your garden and of any ground that may be designated for an alternative use e.g. for agricultural purposes.
- Note the position of any trees or significant plants that you may like to keep or that must be removed
- Note the location of all utility points including drains and manholes, overhead cables and electricity poles, rainwater pipes and surface water drains and finally any satellite dish.
- Find the location of all windows, doors and constituent parts of the house which may determine the position of features – both planting and hard landscape – in your new garden.
- Determine the location of all existing outbuildings, green houses and sheds
- Identify good and bad views
- Find the geographical orientation, sunny spots and shady areas
Tools of the trade
- A compass
- A 30 metre tape measure
- An assistant to hold the tape measure
- A digital camera – not essential but very useful
- Pencil paper and ruler
Later on you will need a drawing compass with extension, A3 or larger paper and a scale rule.
Measuring The Garden
Running Dimensions
Use a tape measure to take a series of consecutive measurements along a straight line. You might use this to measure up the house, determining the insertion points for windows, doors, drain pipes etc.
Triangulation
Using the tape to measure the distance between a given object e.g a tree or boundary corner and two fixed points e,g the corners of the building.
Off set measurements- used to measure curves on eg driveways and borders.
Establish a base line reasonably close to the curve you wish to measure. Establish the location of the beginning and end have been determined by triangulated measurements. The divide the base line into 1 metre lengths. Now take measurements at right angles to the base line to the curve.
Accuracy
Measurements of the building should be accurate to 50mm horizontally and 10mm vertically. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve this level of accuracy in measuring a garden due to obstructions.
If you are measuring on a slope then be careful to hold the tape horizontal or your measurements will be inaccurate.
If all of this seems to be a hassle then call in a landscaping design professional! Alternatively if your garden is over a third of an acre and or the ground slopes more than a metre or two contact Ian Humby Chartered Surveyors 012428752 861.