Planning a Home Extension? How Aerial Views Can Help With Design

You don’t have to plan your next home extension blind.

Home extensions are tricky. A tiny mistake in the design phase can derail your entire project and empty your bank account.

How can you avoid nasty surprises?

Fly a drone first. Here’s how aerial drone surveys help homeowners and builders plan better home extensions.

What you’ll discover:

1. Why Drone Images Matter For Home Extensions

2. How Drone Mapping Helps The Design Process

3. When To Get A Drone Survey

4. Getting Value From Your Drone Survey Data

Why Drone Images Matter For Home Extensions

When planning your extension, you need data.

Good survey data.

Site survey data that accurately captures your land, building and immediate surroundings so your architect and builder know what they’re working with.

But a standard survey… won’t cut it.

They’re great at mapping your property, but only from street level upwards. You’ll get boundary data, yes. And some measurements.

But what about how your house sits on the plot? Or how the roof slopes and meets the neighbour’s structure? Even garden gradients can impact your build, but these aren’t visible from ground level.

An aerial view gives you everything. And it all matters when you’re designing that dream extension.

Imagine…

Drawing up plans to add a sunroom to your house. It seems easy. One job for your architect.

Your roof slopes inwards, but you’ll account for that.

The window matches your house. Of course it does.

You set the foundation depth and get digging.

But then… you hit the Earth movers license.

It’s a rainwater drain. You’ve dug straight into it.

So you start again. And dig too deep. Now you’re stuck!

Add onto that soaking wet structural engineer who needs to upgrade your foundation, and your dream project quickly becomes a money pit.

If you had complete site data before designing…this wouldn’t happen.

You’d know about the drainage, boundary encroachments and existing structure. Then you could plan your dream extension safely, knowing it’ll fit.

NDAA-compliant drones are rapidly replacing manned aircraft as the go-to solution for aerial property data. With HD cameras and mapping sensors attached, aerial mapping drones can fly autonomously around a property and produce photorealistic models of the site in minutes.

Your designer can then use this data to accurately design your home extension without fearing what they might unearth during construction.

How Drone Mapping Helps The Design Process

The thing about drone surveys is they’re about more than pretty pictures. Drone pilots use special software to create accurate 3D models of your land and buildings.

These models help architects and builders design with confidence.

Statistics from World Finance show 79% of home renovations go over budget. Hidden issues on the property are one of the biggest causes of cost overruns.

Issues that could have been spotted with an aerial survey.

You see, traditional survey methods don’t always show hidden factors that could impact your build. That’s where drones come in.

Benefits of aerial drone surveys for home extensions include:

• Exactly where your boundaries sit

• Detailed ground slope and elevation data

• How your roof joins up to neighbouring properties

• External factors that could impact your build

The list goes on.

Architects can take this data and feed it straight into their design software. No guesswork. No rearranging plans weeks down the track.

Everything they need to know is right there in detailed 3D.

When To Get A Drone Survey

If your next project is internal works, consider skipping the drone survey.

But if you’re making any changes to the exterior of your home (hello home extensions), a drone survey is money well spent.

Here are some scenarios where aerial surveys will benefit your project:

• The build is large or adds multiple storeys

• You live on a slope, bank or uneven ground

• You have a disputed boundary or unclear property lines

• You want a 3D model of your land/building

• You require planning permission and detailed site plans

The drone mapping market size is expected to reach $6.7 billion by 2035. Construction & building is the fastest-growing segment. Drones are no longer just for mega commercial builds.

Homeowners are using aerial mapping drones more than ever to save time and money on their residential projects.

Getting Value From Your Drone Survey Data

You’ve flown your drone survey. Now what?

First things first: share the data.

Aerial mapping drones come back with 3D models, elevation maps, video footage and high-resolution photos of your property. Sharing these resources with your designer and builder ensures everyone has access to the same up-to-date information.

Too often in construction projects, costly delays are caused by miscommunication.

An owner says one thing to the designer who tells the builder something else. Before you know it, you’re attacking each other with fists made of steal cut.money.

But when all parties have access to the same aerial data, everyone speaks the same language. Suddenly decisions can be made quickly, keeping your project running like a dream.

How Aerial Drone Surveys Save You Money

Extension = expensive.

There’s no getting around it. But what you can avoid are surprises that send your budget through the roof.

Sending up a drone before your design phase lets you:

• See your property from every angle

• Identify potential issues before ground is broken

• Give your designer the best possible data to create your plans

• Speed up your planning approval process

• Keep your project on budget

Want to understand why aerial drone surveys help home extensions? It’s simple.

They empower you and your architect to design smart from day one.

You get a better handle on what you’re working with.

Can you build that addition? Sure. But you’ll need to dig deeper.

These are the types of questions an aerial drone survey can answer before your architect even begins work.

Which means less wasted time… and money.

Pulling It All Together

Planning your dream extension is stressful.

But it doesn’t have to be. Aerial drone surveys let homeowners gain a better understanding of their property before designing. And when you’re armed with better data, you can make better design decisions.

Fly a drone survey first. Design with confidence.