Why we quote per project, not a day rate
A day rate tells you what the scanner costs to put on site. It does not tell you what you will pay, because the site day is usually the smaller part of the job. Registration, QA, drawing or modelling, and the checks that make the output trustworthy are where the time goes, and they scale with what you need rather than with hours on site. So we price each project on its scope and give you one figure for the outputs you have asked for.
The five things that drive the price
1. Floor area and number of buildings
A single 300 m² house and a 10,000 m² warehouse are different jobs, but not ten times different: setup, travel, registration and reporting are fixed costs on every project. Multiple buildings on one site add stations and registration time; multiple sites add travel.
2. Complexity and congestion
An open warehouse scans quickly. A hotel with 40 bedrooms, a plant room full of pipework, or a listed building with irregular rooms needs many more scan stations to see every surface, and far more modelling time to represent what was captured.
3. Level of detail
The biggest lever. In rough order of effort:
- Registered point cloud only (E57, RCP): the cheapest output, ideal if your architect or engineer will measure from it directly.
- 2D drawings: plans, sections and elevations drawn from the cloud. Priced by the number and type of drawings.
- Scan to BIM: a Revit or IFC model at LOD 200, 300 or 350. LOD 300 architectural and structural is our most common request; adding MEP or going to LOD 350 roughly doubles the modelling.
- As-built verification: comparison against a design model with a deviation report.
4. Access and working hours
Occupied buildings, out-of-hours working, security clearance, working at height or in dry dock all add time. Roofs and high facades are usually cheaper by drone than by access equipment.
5. Formats and standards
Standard formats (E57, RCP, DWG, RVT, IFC) are included. Modelling to a client BIM execution plan, specific naming conventions, worksets or CDE uploads is quoted for.
What to send for a quote
- The address, or a plan of the site
- Which areas and floors are in scope, inside and out
- What the data is for: planning, refurbishment design, fit-out tender, verification, handover
- The outputs you need: point cloud, 2D drawings, BIM (and LOD), CAD
- Programme: when you need to be on site and when you need the outputs
- Access constraints and working hours
- Any BIM or CAD standards the outputs must meet
With that we quote within one working day. If you are not sure what you need, send the address and the question you are trying to answer and we will suggest the cheapest output that answers it.
Typical turnaround
Most single buildings in Hampshire and Dorset are captured in one site day. The registered point cloud follows within 48 hours, 2D drawings in 5 to 10 working days, and BIM models in two to four weeks depending on size and LOD.
Request a quote, or read more about our reality capture services.