Pre-demolition documentation: once it comes down, there is nothing left to measure.
Short-notice measured documentation of a structure before repair, alteration or demolition removes it. Often the single highest-value hour on a matter — and the one nobody schedules until Friday afternoon.
Photographs record what someone thought to point at
A photograph answers the questions someone anticipated on the day. A measured point cloud answers the ones nobody asked yet, because every distance in the space was recorded whether or not anyone knew it would matter.
Riser height on the fourth tread. Clearance at the doorway. Slope across the walking surface. Those numbers exist in the file regardless of what the scope of work said that morning.
Who calls, and when
- Counsel, before a repair or demolition date closes the window
- Restoration contractors, before mitigation alters the structure
- Owners and insurers documenting condition before a scope is agreed
- Anyone about to lose access to a building they may need to describe later
Forensic engagements from $4,500. Mobilization inside 48 hours available at an uplift.
How fast can you be on site?
Mobilization inside 48 hours is normal for this work, not an exception. Tell us the demolition date when you call.
Can an opposing expert measure the same file?
Yes, and they should be able to. A record any qualified party can independently measure is far more durable than one only one side can interpret.
Do you testify?
As to what was captured, when, with what equipment and by whom. We do not offer opinions on causation or liability.
In Arizona this is sometimes not optional
Tucson's Unified Development Code §3.12.1 requires documentation of a structure before demolition where historic status is in play, and similar conditions attach to demolition permits across the state depending on age, district and what the parcel is zoned for. If a condition like that lands on your permit, the record has to exist before the machine arrives, and there is no retroactive fix.
Most of our pre-demolition work is not permit-driven, though. It is somebody realizing, usually late, that once the building is gone every question about it becomes unanswerable.
What actually gets lost
The things nobody drew
Almost no existing building matches its drawings. Additions went in without permits, a wall moved in 1994, the mezzanine is six inches lower than the plan says. When the building comes down, the only record of what was really there is whatever somebody captured in the last week of its life.
The party wall
If the structure shares a wall or sits tight to a neighbor, the condition of their building before your demolition is the single most valuable thing you can own. Cracks predate you, or they do not, and six months later that is a matter of evidence rather than argument.
Replication detail
Historic and character-district projects frequently require rebuilding a facade, a cornice line or a window rhythm. Photographs alone will not carry it. Measured geometry will.
What was in the ground
Slab penetrations, drain locations, service entries. Cheap to record while the building stands, expensive to rediscover through a slab.
The timing problem
Demolition schedules do not flex for documentation. By the time a project reaches the point where somebody thinks to ask, the utilities are usually disconnected, the site is fenced, and the contractor has a mobilization date. Capture takes a few hours and needs to happen while the building is still safe to walk. Once abatement starts, access gets complicated; once the roof is opened, interior capture is finished.
Practical sequence: after the building is cleared and emptied, before abatement, before any soft-strip. That window is usually a week and it is the entire opportunity.
What you receive
A dimensioned floor plan on AIA layers in DWG, plotted sheets in PDF, the measured wall geometry in DXF, and an interactive walkthrough anyone can open in a browser without software or training. For adjacent-structure documentation we capture the neighboring elevation and any shared condition in the same visit.
Delivery is 48–72 hours from capture, and it can be faster when a permit condition or a demolition date is driving it. Files are yours outright — no subscription, no hosting fee, nothing that expires. That matters here more than anywhere else on this site, because the value of a pre-demolition record is realized years later, by someone who may not have been on the project.
Phoenix metro. Anywhere within 35 miles of Gilbert — Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Scottsdale, Tempe, Glendale, Peoria, Queen Creek and the rest of the Valley — carries no mobilization charge. Outside that, travel is quoted from the published zone table, and we work nationally.