Landscape Existing Feature Record Checklist

Work the perimeter first and then the middle of the plot, writing down every item even where it seems too obvious to be worth recording.

A fixed route stops the eye skipping the things it passes every time, which is where the omissions almost always are.

Include the items you have stopped noticing, such as an old post, a washing line anchor, a rotary dryer socket or a stopcock cover.

Small fixed items dictate more of a layout than they deserve to, and they are the ones nobody mentions to a designer.

Look behind and beneath the large items, since a shed, a bin store or a run of dense planting is usually concealing something.

Covers, taps, old bases and abandoned fittings tend to end up behind whatever was put in front of them.

Repeat the walk once planting has died back, because a cold season reveals structures and fittings that summer growth hides completely.

An inventory taken only in full growth reliably misses fence condition, old fixings and features swallowed by planting.

Number each item on the list and mark the same numbers on a rough sketch, so the record and the plot stay connected to each other.

A numbered sketch lets somebody else stand in the garden and follow your notes without needing you there to explain.

Note anything on the plot that may belong to somebody else, including items a neighbour placed, left behind or built up against your side.

These are the items that generate awkward conversations later, and recording them early keeps the question factual.

Ownership of items, structures and boundary features is a legal question for a suitably qualified adviser rather than an inventory judgement.

List every surface separately rather than as one area: paving, path, drive, decking, gravel, stepping stones and the edging between them.

Surfaces of different ages and construction behave differently, and lumping them together loses exactly that distinction.

Note where a surface has lifted, sunk, cracked or shifted, and whether the movement follows a line across the area.

Movement along a line often relates to what is underneath, which is worth flagging for somebody qualified to consider.

Look at any exposed edge to see what the surface appears to be sitting on, recording only what is visible without lifting anything.

Whether something sits on a base or straight on soil governs whether it can be kept or overlaid, and the edge usually shows it.

Note which surfaces shed water freely, which hold it, and where the fall appears to send it after heavy rain.

This is observation of behaviour rather than of construction, and it is the part an owner is genuinely well placed to record.

Where surface water should go and how it is dealt with is drainage design for a qualified professional, not a conclusion from watching puddles.

Record every drain cover, gully and channel set into a surface, since each one constrains what can be laid over that area.

Covers that must stay reachable are a common late surprise in a paving layout that was drawn without them.

Note where each surface meets the house and what that junction looks like, keeping the description to what you can see.

The junction at a building is where several trades and several requirements meet, so a photograph of it is worth having.

List each outbuilding and record what it stands on, whether that is a slab, a timber frame, blocks, paving or bare ground.

The base decides whether a structure can be moved, kept or must be taken away, and it is often the costliest thing to discover late.

Note whether each structure could be moved whole, would have to be taken apart, or is fixed to something that is staying.

Assuming a shed can simply be shifted is common, and it usually turns out to depend on age, condition and access.

Record whether power, water or any cable runs to each structure, and photograph where it appears to enter.

Supplies to outbuildings are frequently undocumented, and they matter to anything dug, moved or altered nearby.

Treat any outdoor cable or supply as live and unidentified until a qualified electrician has established what it is.

Note the visible condition of roofs, doors, floors and fixings on each structure, describing what you can see rather than judging it.

A plain description dated and photographed is useful; an owner verdict on condition is not, and can mislead badly.

Record what each structure currently holds, because removing it means finding somewhere else for everything inside it.

Contents are almost never in a brief, yet they usually generate a storage requirement that has to be designed for.

Note pergolas, arches, arbours and trellis separately, including how each is fixed and what it is fixed to.

Light structures are easy to overlook in an inventory and awkward when they turn out to be attached to a boundary.

Note any low wall, kerb or timber edge where the ground stands higher on one side than the other, and photograph it from both sides.

A difference in ground level across a small feature is the first clue that it may be doing more than dividing an area.

Whether anything is retaining ground must be established by a qualified professional before it is altered, undermined or removed.

Record any step, upstand or threshold detail that appears to keep water away from a door, a wall or an opening.

Levelling out a threshold for the sake of appearance can remove protection nobody realised was there.

Note hedges, fences and planting that provide screening, shelter or containment as well as simply looking like planting.

Removing a hedge that was also the windbreak and the screen creates several new problems at once.

Record anything that stops a child, a pet or a vehicle going somewhere, including a gate, a rail, a bollard and a run of planting.

Containment is usually invisible until it is taken away, and it is one of the first things a household misses.

Note where a gravel strip, channel or grating runs along the house, and treat it as functional until somebody qualified says otherwise.

These details are frequently paved over because they look like leftovers, and their purpose only becomes clear afterwards.

Write down anything that props, supports or leans on something else, since removing one item may affect whatever it was holding.

Ageing gardens accumulate mutual dependencies, and the order of removal starts to matter once they are noticed.

Walk each boundary and record everything attached to it, including trellis, lights, hooks, cables, planters and a hose reel.

The accumulated weight and wind load of attachments is a common reason a boundary structure gives way.

Note which attachments are fixed to a structure you do not own, and photograph each one where it sits.

A dated photograph is the calmest possible way to open a conversation about something that has been there for a long time.

Fixing to or altering a boundary structure raises ownership and neighbour questions to confirm with a suitably qualified adviser.

Record where climbing planting is growing on or through a boundary, and what is actually holding the weight of it.

Mature climbers hold a great deal of wind and water, and the structure beneath them is often invisible until it fails.

Note where a structure of yours stands hard against the boundary, leaving no room to maintain either side of it.

Access for upkeep is decided by these gaps, and once something is built tight against a fence the choice has been made.

Record any gate hung on a shared post, noting which side each hinge, latch and stop sits on.

Shared fittings are where responsibility becomes genuinely unclear, so the detail is worth photographing rather than describing.

Note where a neighbouring structure, fence or planting overhangs or leans into the plot, and date the photograph you take of it.

A dated record shows how a situation has developed, which is far more useful than an impression of how it has always been.

What may be done about overhanging planting or a leaning boundary structure is a matter for the parties involved and local confirmation.

List every outside tap, water butt, pond, pump, birdbath and irrigation fitting you can find on the plot.

Water fittings tend to be added one at a time and never written down together, which hides how many there actually are.

Note where each electrical fitting sits outdoors, including lights, sockets, a gate motor and anything running on a timer.

Position and appearance are all an owner should record here, and even that is useful to whoever looks at it next.

Outdoor electrical work is a regulated matter for a qualified electrician; record positions only and confirm locally what applies.

Record how a pond or water feature is lined, how it is filled and where it would overflow to in heavy rain.

Overflow is rarely considered until it happens, and where the water goes affects neighbours as well as your own ground.

Note the position of oil tanks, gas bottles, meter boxes and any fuel store, along with how each one is reached for filling or reading.

Access to these is often taken for granted and then blocked by new planting, a structure or a change in levels.

Record every access cover and chamber on the plot and whether each one can still be opened where it sits.

A cover that has been surfaced over or planted around is a problem waiting for the moment somebody needs to reach it.

Mark every fitting that appears to be out of use, such as a dead light, a capped tap or an empty bracket, and note its status as unconfirmed.

Households quietly assume an old fitting is dead, and an inventory that records the assumption as unconfirmed protects whoever works there next.

For each item you might remove, note what would be revealed beneath it, such as a concrete base, a membrane or bare compacted ground.

The condition underneath decides how much work follows a removal, and it is usually the part nobody has looked at.

Record where a stump, footing or post concrete would remain in the ground after the visible part has gone.

Buried remnants restrict what can be planted or built in the same spot, and they are easy to forget once the surface is clear.

Note whether taking out a hedge or structure would open a view into or out of the plot that nobody has considered.

Screening lost during removal is difficult to reinstate quickly, and the household usually notices immediately.

Write down which items would need machinery or several people to shift, and by which route they would leave the plot.

Access governs whether a removal is straightforward or a project in itself, and it is checkable now.

Note where a removal would leave an unfinished edge against a surface, a wall or a neighbouring feature.

Edges left behind by removals are a familiar source of disappointment and they are rarely drawn on anything.

Record anything that cannot simply go into a skip, and ask what applies locally to taking it away.

Some outdoor materials and fittings have particular disposal requirements that need confirming before removal is planned.

Disposal of certain materials is regulated; ask a qualified professional and confirm locally what applies before anything is taken out.

Give every item a provisional note of keep, move, replace or undecided, and put the date beside it.

Dated intentions show how thinking has developed, which matters when a scheme changes and nobody remembers why.

Write one honest sentence about each item based only on what is visible to you, and say plainly where you cannot tell.

Recording uncertainty is more valuable than filling the gap, because it tells a professional where to look first.

Mark the items you would genuinely regret losing, kept separate from the ones you have simply grown used to having there.

That distinction is difficult to make once a scheme is under way and everything starts to feel negotiable.

Note which intentions depend on something else happening first, such as a store that can only move once a surface is relaid.

Dependencies decide the order of work, and they are far easier to spot from an inventory than from a drawing.

Photograph every item from the same positions each time so its condition can be compared as the project goes on.

Comparable photographs settle later questions about whether something was already like that before work began.

Record who made each decision and when, since intentions about a garden drift once a scheme starts moving.

Households change their minds legitimately, but an undated change is indistinguishable from a misunderstanding.