Where the mistakes hide in a landscape package
These examples come from our synthetic sample landscape package, where we planted the errors on purpose. They're kinds of mistakes to look for, not a report on any real project. Use them as a checklist, with or without software. Landscape is where LandSight started, so the examples are landscape ones. In another trade the details will differ, but holding sheets against each other still works.
Between the floors
- 1 sheet standing for many floors. A typical floor plan can stand for 4 floors while the bill of quantities prices only 1. Check how many floors each sheet really covers.
- A planter over the elevator shaft. It looks fine on the landscape sheet. You only see the problem when you compare it with what's underneath. Better to send it back before anyone prices it.
- Planters that narrow an egress corridor. In the sample, 0.9 m is left where the minimum is 1.2 m. Don't just price the planter. Measure the space it leaves.
Between the bill and the drawing
- Tree counts that disagree. Billed 12, drawn 8. Check counts and specs against what's drawn.
- 1 hedge note, hundreds of plants. The drawing has 1 line of text. The bill has a number. Someone has to work out whether they agree.
- Paving priced above the firm's own list. Check each paving line against the price list, not only against the drawing.
Between the drawing and the local building code
- Roof soil too shallow. In the sample, 0.3 m of soil where the minimum is 0.4 m.
- Tree pits on the slab too small. A large tree in a small pit may only count as a small tree, and then the site falls short on greening.
- Soil on the slab too shallow to plant in. Check soil depth on the slab against the code, area by area.
What these have in common
You won't find any of them by looking at a single sheet. Each one shows up only when you hold 2 things side by side. That's what makes the check slow by hand, and it's the part we built LandSight to do. It links every number back to the mark on the drawing or the line in the document it came from, so a person can confirm or dismiss it quickly.
A code result is a review, not legal advice. A registered architect still signs off.