Practical guides
Plan your project on paper first.
Hands-on guides to drawing your house, your garden and what runs underneath, before you call the architect, the pool builder or the digger.
Draw a floor plan of your house
Measure, place the aerial photo, draw walls at the right thickness, then rooms and garden, and export a PDF to scale. The complete method.Read the guideWhere to put a swimming pool
Sun, wind, trees, boundaries, buried pipes, digger access and planning rules: how to choose where your pool goes, and draw it to scale first.Read the guideMap of underground pipes and cables
Water, drains, stormwater, electricity, gas, fibre: why map the buried services at your house, what to record and how to share it with a tradesperson.Read the guidePlan an extension or conservatory
Survey, layout, floor areas, light, planning permission, budget: how to prepare your house extension or conservatory before you see an architect.Read the guideDraw a garden plan to scale
How to draw your garden plan from above: survey, the sun's path, a well-placed patio, paths, lawn, hedges and trees at their full-grown size.Read the guide