At Landscape Design Lab, we pride ourselves on creating detailed, accurate remote landscape designs that are both biddable and buildable. We rely on our contractor clients to conduct a detailed site analysis and provide us with as much documentation as possible. With years of experience providing remote landscape design services, we make that site analysis process simple and straightforward. 

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Gathering the documentation for remote landscape design

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The first document we need is a current survey plat for the property. At a minimum this will show us the house location relative to the property lines. A good survey plat will also include features like driveways, existing decks and patios, and outbuildings, as well as any easements we need to consider. A great survey plat will show major trees, as well as topographic details. 

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If your homeowner doesn’t have a copy of their survey plat we can still create a landscape plan, but it will require more legwork on your end. To help homeowners locate their plat, you can remind them that a survey plat was typically included in their closing documents from when they bought the home. 

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Additional documentation needed includes their Homeowners Association (HOA) design guidelines. This lets us know what we can and cannot include in the design, and how we need to present the design for the review board. 

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We also encourage you to have your homeowners share inspiration photos, Pinterest boards, and Houzz ideabooks. These allow us to get a deeper sense of their preferred style. 

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Site analysis for remote landscape design 

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This is where we rely on you for a successful remote landscape design. As part of your onboarding we’ll provide you with our guide to measuring a site. We’re looking for the following information:

• On the house: windows, doors, downspouts
• Around the house: decks, porches, and patios
• Away from the house: driveway, trees, sheds, and any other features that impact the design area
• Spot grades (if applicable)

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We also ask for as many photos as possible. These allow us to get a good feel for the site. Photos also allow us to identify details that we need to consider. A video walkthrough is also helpful. Again, we go over all this in our onboarding guide. 

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Sharing via Basecamp

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We utilize Basecamp as a collaboration tool for remote landscape design. We will create a project in Basecamp for each design. You’ll upload all measurements, documents, and photos to the platform, allowing us to have all the information we need in one centralized location. We’ll also share design drafts with you via Basecamp, and you can comment on them there. That way no one has to search back through multiple emails or text messages to see what was discussed. We’ve been using Basecamp to collaborate with clients for years, and it has streamlined the design and review process.

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Once we have all this information, we can start the design process! As long as we have detailed measurements your design will be accurate to the fraction of an inch. Your estimates will be accurate, and you’ll have detailed drawings for your crews to build from. 

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Still have questions? I’d be happy to explain more about how we work with you to create accurate, detailed remote landscape designs. Contact us today to get started. 

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