Question 1

Will a scan pick up Victorian trim and detailing?

Accepted Answer

At the resolution we scan for historic work, yes. Pacific Grove's cottages carry a lot of profile: bargeboards, brackets, bay windows, patterned shingle, and those details are usually what review is looking at. We scan the elevations at a fine enough setting to draw the profiles from, rather than at the coarse setting that is fine for a plain stucco box.

Question 2

What does historic review need from the existing drawings?

Accepted Answer

Elevations that show the building as it stands, with the original fabric distinguished from later alterations. Many Pacific Grove homes are on the city's historic resource inventory, and review turns on whether the proposal reads against the original. We document what is there and flag what we can see has been changed, so the design conversation starts from fact.

Question 3

The house is occupied. How disruptive is the visit?

Accepted Answer

Not very. The scanner sits on a tripod and moves room to room, needing a clear line of sight rather than clear floor space, so we work around furniture and people. We take our confirmation measurements in the same visit. A typical Pacific Grove cottage is a few hours on site, once, with nobody needing to move out.

Question 4

We are only touching the back of the house. Do you scan all of it?

Accepted Answer

We scan the whole envelope. On a small lot the setbacks, the roof lines and the neighbouring structures all bear on what you can do at the back, and a partial scan means coming back when the first question about the rest of the house comes up. The extra time on site is marginal; a second mobilisation is not.

Question 5

What files do we actually get?

Accepted Answer

A permit-ready drawing set as PDF and the working CAD file, plus the 3D model where the scope includes one. The point cloud itself is available as an add-on if you want the raw record kept.

LiDAR Scanning and As-Builts in Pacific Grove

01Will a scan pick up Victorian trim and detailing?

02What does historic review need from the existing drawings?

03The house is occupied. How disruptive is the visit?

04We are only touching the back of the house. Do you scan all of it?

05What files do we actually get?