As-Built Surveys in Mill Valley, CA

We deliver laser-scanned as-built surveys in Mill Valley, Marin County — point clouds, scan-to-CAD plans, sections and elevations, and BIM-ready models of houses and commercial buildings that were never drawn accurately.

As-Built Surveys in Mill Valley: Local Conditions

Much of Mill Valley's housing stock started as summer cabins and shingled canyon houses from the 1890s through the 1920s, then grew by accretion: a bedroom over the deck, a garage cut into the bank, a kitchen pushed out on posts. These buildings step down slopes on post-and-pier foundations, almost nothing is square, and the drawings, when they exist at all, describe a version of the house that stopped being true several owners ago. Downtown around Lytton Square and along the Miller Avenue corridor, the small commercial and mixed-use buildings have the same history in a different form, with decades of tenant work layered over original framing.

The city's review thresholds make the existing building a number someone has to defend. Design review is triggered by additions exceeding thirty-five percent of existing floor area or one thousand square feet, and by renovations that demolish fifty percent or more of the exterior surface area, including exterior walls, door and window openings, foundation walls, and roofs. Adjusted floor area counts space above fourteen feet in height at 150 percent. An architect cannot argue those percentages from a hand sketch of a house that is out of square in three dimensions.

Our Trimble laser scanner records the building as it stands: real floor-to-floor heights, wall planes and their deviations, ridge and eave elevations, exterior surface areas, decks, stairs, retaining walls, and the ground the structure sits on, all in one registered dataset tied to survey control. Deliverables are the point cloud in E57 or RCP, scan-to-CAD floor plans, sections, and elevations in DWG/DXF, and a Revit model at the level of detail the project actually needs. Because the site and the structure register together, existing-conditions drawings and site data come out of the same visit. See our Mill Valley 3D laser scanning and Mill Valley topographic surveys.

Full service details, process, and deliverables: As-Built Surveys & Scan-to-CAD Documentation · All surveying in Mill Valley: Mill Valley land surveying

What's Included

Trimble laser scanning captures true existing conditions
Floor plans, sections, and elevations from one site visit
Revit/BIM models at LOD 200 or 300
Point cloud deliverables in E57 or RCP format
Catches out-of-square rooms and sloping floors tape measures miss
Ideal for buildings with no surviving original drawings

Our Process

Scope the Deliverable

We confirm what your design team needs — 2D plans, sections and elevations, a Revit model, or the point cloud itself — and the level of detail required.

Laser Scanning

We scan the building interior, exterior, and site with a Trimble terrestrial laser scanner, typically in a single visit, capturing every surface as millions of measured points.

Registration & QC

Individual scans are registered into one unified point cloud and checked against control for accuracy before any drafting begins.

Drafting & Modeling

We extract the deliverables from the point cloud — CAD plans, sections, elevations, or a Revit model — with the cloud available to your team for verification.

As-Built Surveys in Mill Valley: FAQ

Because the review thresholds are ratios of the existing building. An addition over thirty-five percent of existing floor area or over a thousand square feet triggers design review, as does demolishing half or more of the exterior surface area. Both numbers depend on accurately measuring what is already there, and old canyon houses rarely match the county records or the last set of plans.

Yes, and it is one of the better uses of the instrument. We scan from the street, the deck level, and positions on the slope below, capturing the underfloor framing, post and pier locations, the ground surface beneath the house, and the exterior envelope in one registered dataset. That combination is difficult to obtain with a tape and a level and nearly impossible to obtain safely.

Typically the registered point cloud, 2D scan-to-CAD plans, sections, and exterior elevations in DWG or DXF, and a Revit model where the team is working in BIM. We agree on modeling depth before we start so you are not paying to model what will be demolished. Any dimension missed at design time is extracted from the cloud rather than scheduled as a return visit.

Need As-Built Surveys in Mill Valley?

Call (510) 543-2220 or request a quote — we'll scope your Mill Valley project and give you a fixed price.

Get a Quoteor(510) 543-2220

Meeting-first estimates • Response within 24 hours • Serious projects only

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