Garden Site Survey Information Gathering Checklist

Locate the title plan or site plan you received when you bought the property, and note whether it shows the garden boundary at all.

Plans of this kind are usually general in nature, so it is worth knowing what yours actually shows before treating any line on it as accurate.

Gather any drawings from previous work on the house, including extension plans, which often show the garden edge and the ground levels around it.

Older drawings frequently record levels, drain runs and boundary positions that nobody has bothered to write down since.

Check whether the search or survey pack from the purchase mentions drainage, trees, shared access or anything running beneath the plot.

These documents are read once at purchase and then forgotten, yet they often contain the earliest warning of a constraint on the garden.

This paperwork is historical; ask a qualified professional what current checks are appropriate before any ground on the plot is disturbed.

Check whether any existing outdoor structure came with paperwork of any kind, and put it in the same folder as everything else you find.

Keeping all site paperwork in one place avoids the common situation where a key document surfaces only after decisions have been made.

Write down how the property is held and whether any restriction on altering the outside was mentioned when you bought it.

Some plots carry obligations about fencing, planting or surfacing that only appear in the wording of the deeds.

What your tenure or any covenant permits is a legal question for a suitably qualified adviser, not something to interpret yourself.

Record anything previous owners left behind about the garden, such as where an old pond was filled in or where a soakaway is believed to sit.

Anecdotal history is not proof, but it tells a professional where to look and what to ask about.

Pace or tape the longest and shortest edges of the plot, write the figures on a rough sketch, and label the whole sketch as approximate.

A labelled approximation is genuinely useful, whereas an unlabelled one risks being carried into a design as though it were measured.

Measure the width of every gate, gap and passage a person or a wheelbarrow has to pass through, and note which one is the tightest.

The narrowest point on the route governs what can physically reach the garden, and it shapes what any professional will propose.

Note how the ground outside sits relative to the back door threshold, describing the relationship rather than guessing at a figure.

Describing what you see, such as a shallow step down or a flush junction, is more reliable than an owner's attempt at a measurement here.

Threshold levels, damp protection and how a surface may sit against the house must be determined by a qualified professional.

Mark on your sketch where the boundary changes direction, because gardens are rarely the neat rectangle people remember them as.

Angled and stepped boundaries strongly affect what layouts are possible, and they are one of the first things a designer checks.

Record the approximate positions of anything fixed you cannot move, such as a drain access cover, a tree trunk, a pole or a meter box.

These fixed points constrain a layout more than the shape of the plot does, and they are quick to record now.

Look at where the plot is wider or narrower than it looks, and where a neighbouring building sits tight against the line.

Perceived width and actual width often differ where a fence steps in or a building overshadows one edge.

Take photographs from each corner of the garden looking back towards the house, and from upstairs windows wherever you can.

Elevated shots reveal the shape of the plot and its relationship to neighbouring gardens in a way ground-level pictures never manage.

Take the same views again in poor weather, since puddles, moss, mud and dark corners simply do not appear in sunny pictures.

The problems worth designing out are usually visible only when conditions are bad, which is exactly when nobody thinks to photograph.

Capture close shots of every junction where a surface meets the house, a wall, a step or a gate, as these details drive later questions.

Junctions are where most outdoor detailing decisions are made, and close photographs save a great deal of describing over the phone.

Photograph the services you can see outside, including meter boxes, vents, outside taps, drain access covers and cables entering a shed.

A photographic record of visible services gives a professional a starting point for establishing what needs investigating.

Photographs record position only; what any cover, pipe or cable serves must be established by a qualified professional.

Label each photograph with where you stood and which way you were facing, because orientation is impossible to reconstruct afterwards.

An unlabelled set of garden photographs quickly becomes a puzzle, particularly once planting has changed between visits.

Keep the original image files rather than compressed copies sent through messaging apps, so the detail survives to be zoomed into.

Compression destroys exactly the fine detail, such as cracks and mortar joints, that makes a photograph worth having.

Build a list over several visits of every access cover, grate and stopcock chamber on the plot, adding to it as planting is cut back through the seasons.

Covers get buried by gravel, decking and borders, and a full list gathered slowly by the owner is usually better than one made in a single visit.

Only a qualified professional can establish what a chamber serves or whether a run is shared; never draw conclusions from a cover alone.

Note where a cable or pipe visibly enters a shed, garage or outbuilding, and write down what it appears to serve.

Old supplies to outbuildings are common, frequently undocumented, and always relevant to any digging in the garden.

Treat every outdoor cable as live and unknown until a qualified electrician has established what it is and where it runs.

Record whether any part of the garden has been dug and refilled, such as a line that settles differently or where grass grows unevenly.

A settled trench line is often the clearest surface evidence of a buried run, and it is visible to an owner long before anyone excavates.

Follow where each downpipe discharges and whether the water disappears into a gully or simply runs out onto the ground.

How roof water leaves the building tells a professional a great deal about what drainage the plot has and what it lacks.

Write down anything a neighbour has mentioned about shared drains, a soakaway or a run crossing your plot, in their words rather than yours.

Neighbour recollection is a lead rather than a fact, but shared runs are common and the question needs raising early.

Check whether an overhead line crosses the garden or the access route, and note where it lands and what it is attached to.

Overhead services constrain planting, structures and any machinery reaching the site, and they are easily forgotten when looking downwards.

Work near overhead lines is a matter for the network operator and a qualified professional; confirm locally before anything beneath one is planned.

Look at the ground wherever soil is already exposed, such as a border edge or an existing planting hole, and note topsoil depth, colour, stones, rubble or heavy sticky clay.

Exposed soil at either end of a plot often turns out to be quite different, which can change what any professional would propose.

Do not dig to investigate ground conditions until a qualified professional has established what services may run beneath the plot.

Note how the ground behaves after heavy rain and whether water sits in the same places every time or moves around.

Repeatable wet spots point at ground conditions, while wandering ones more often point at how water arrives at the surface.

Record which plants thrive and which sulk, since existing planting is a reliable indicator of soil, moisture and exposure.

The plants already growing are the longest-running test of the site anybody has, and they are free evidence for a designer.

Note whether the garden appears to have been built up against the house or cut into a bank, as far as you can observe from the surface.

Whether ground was raised or cut affects how it behaves under load and how water moves through it.

Made ground, imported fill and cut slopes behave unpredictably; ask a qualified professional to assess the ground before anything is placed on it.

Write down whether the soil stays workable in wet conditions or turns to a bog that clings to boots and tools.

How ground behaves when wet governs when work can be done on it and whether machinery can move across it at all.

Look for any area where grass burns off quickly in dry spells, which often marks shallow soil sitting over something solid.

Scorch patterns are one of the clearest owner-visible clues to buried hard surfaces, foundations or rubble.

Walk every wall and fence line and note which panels lean, which posts feel loose and where mortar has begun crumbling away.

A survey pack that records the state of the perimeter stops the condition of a fence becoming an unwelcome discovery once work has started.

Note how each fence is fixed and whether it appears to be doing any retaining work where the ground steps between plots.

A fence used to hold back soil is a common arrangement in older gardens and always needs a professional view.

Do not judge from appearance whether a fence is holding soil back; put that question to a qualified professional before anything nearby is planned.

Record the condition of every step, threshold and edge you use regularly, particularly anywhere the surface has visibly moved.

Movement in an edge or step is usually a symptom of something below it, and recording where it occurs helps target investigation.

Note which existing surfaces seem to sit on a solid base and which appear to be laid straight onto soil, as far as you can tell at an edge.

How a surface was built determines whether it can be kept, overlaid or must come up, and the edges usually give the game away.

Write down where moss, algae or standing water makes a surface slippery during the colder part of the year.

Surface performance in poor conditions is a genuine requirement to pass on, and it is invisible in a summer site visit.

List the outbuildings and note whether each has a floor, power, water and a roof that drains somewhere sensible.

Outbuildings are often assumed to be simple, yet their services and drainage frequently turn out to be the complicated part.

Work out which way the back of the house faces and mark that direction on your sketch rather than trusting recollection.

Aspect underpins planting, seating and shade decisions, and getting it wrong at the start quietly distorts everything that follows.

Record which parts of the garden are shaded by a neighbouring building or tree rather than by anything of your own.

Shade you do not control is a fixed constraint, whereas shade from your own planting is a choice that can be revisited.

Note any tree on neighbouring land whose canopy or roots reach into your plot, and record which side the trunk stands on.

Trees rooted next door affect light, moisture and what can be planted, and they carry considerations an owner should not resolve alone.

Trees on neighbouring land, and any tree that may be protected, are matters for a qualified arboricultural professional and local confirmation.

Write down the sources of noise and smell around the plot, including a road, a car park, an extract vent or a busy footpath.

These influence where seating can sensibly go and whether screening or planting has a job beyond appearance.

Check whether the garden is overlooked from a public route as well as from neighbouring windows, and from which points.

Overlooking from a path or road is often overlooked in briefs because owners become accustomed to it.

Record how the garden relates to the street, including whether visitors and deliveries arrive at the side, the front or the rear.

Arrival sequence affects gates, paths and where storage can sit without becoming the first thing anybody sees.