As-Built Surveys in San Rafael, CA

We deliver laser-scanned as-built surveys of existing buildings throughout San Rafael, Marin County — registered point clouds, scan-to-CAD plans, sections and elevations, and BIM-ready models for renovation and retrofit design.

As-Built Surveys in San Rafael: Local Conditions

San Rafael's building stock is the kind that punishes assumptions. The Fourth Street core is two- and three-story commercial with deep, narrow tenant bays behind historic storefronts. Montecito and the Canal hold mid-century apartment buildings now being repositioned or seismically upgraded. Northgate and Terra Linda carry postwar offices, medical suites, and retail, and the Andersen Drive and East Francisco Boulevard corridors are light industrial and flex space with clear-span structures, mezzanines, and dock conditions. What these have in common is that the original drawings either do not exist or stopped matching reality several tenant improvements ago, and a renovation budget built on them is a budget built on fiction.

Scanning replaces the guess with measurement. Our Trimble terrestrial laser scanner captures the building as it stands: walls that are out of plumb, floors that sag, real floor-to-floor heights, column and beam locations, exposed structure, ceiling plenum depth, and the roof and site immediately around it. Every setup registers into one coordinate frame tied to survey control, so the interior model, the exterior shell, and the site all line up. For a designer, the practical difference is that dimension questions get answered from the cloud during design development instead of triggering another field visit and another mobilization fee.

Typical deliverables are the registered point cloud in E57 or RCP, scan-to-CAD floor plans, reflected ceiling plans, building sections and exterior elevations in DWG/DXF, and a Revit model built to the level of detail your team actually needs rather than a blanket LOD. Where the project also touches property lines, easements, or the ground, we combine the building capture with boundary and topographic work in the same mobilization. See our San Rafael 3D laser scanning page for the scanning workflow, or our San Rafael ALTA/NSPS surveys when the as-built supports a transaction.

Full service details, process, and deliverables: As-Built Surveys & Scan-to-CAD Documentation · All surveying in San Rafael: San Rafael 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 San Rafael: FAQ

Field time depends on floor area, partition density, and access, not on how many dimensions you eventually want. A typical Fourth Street storefront tenant space is often a single day on site; a multi-story office or a large flex building takes longer. Because everything visible from a setup is captured at once, adding scope inside the same building rarely adds a second visit.

Yes. The scanner is quiet, needs no cabling, and works around furniture, staff, and tenants. We plan setups so that occupied areas are captured with minimal disruption, and we can work evenings or weekends for retail and medical spaces. Objects that move during the scan are cleaned out in processing.

Either, or both. Some teams want only 2D scan-to-CAD plans and elevations; others want a native Revit model with walls, floors, structure, and openings modeled from the cloud. We agree on the modeling depth up front so you are not paying to model mechanical runs you will demolish anyway. The point cloud comes with the deliverable in every case.

Need As-Built Surveys in San Rafael?

Call (510) 543-2220 or request a quote — we'll scope your San Rafael 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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