Buying Guide
How to Survey Your Own Garden for a Veranda
A pre-visit head-start — five photos and four measurements you can take yourself before we come out for the full site survey. Optional, but a useful way to get a sharper conversation going early.
Posted 11 May 2026
A site survey is something we always do before installing a veranda. At this kind of value — with a structure that spans 5 or 6 metres, weighs several hundred kilos, and bolts directly to your house — neither of us would want to skip it. We'd want to be sure, and you should be wary of any company that tells you it isn't necessary.
That said, if you'd like to take a few photos and measurements before that visit, it's a genuinely useful first step. With a clear picture of what we're working with, we can talk through models, prices, and side options in much more detail before we come out. You'll know which models are realistic, what they cost, and what the trade-offs are — and the survey then confirms what we've already discussed, rather than being where the conversation starts.
This guide is the same checklist we'd run through if we came out tomorrow. None of it is required — if you'd rather just have us come over and do the lot, give us a call. But if you fancy doing a bit of DIY surveying yourself, here's exactly how.
Why this helps. Modern aluminium verandas are pre-engineered systems — widths, depths, post counts, glass panels, and side options all come in standard increments. Once we have a rough idea of your wall length, available depth, eaves height, and what your house wall is built of, we can give you a much sharper indicative price and model recommendation before we visit. We'll still measure everything ourselves on the day — this is just about getting the conversation off to a more useful start.
The 5 photos we need
All five can be taken in five minutes with a phone in good daylight. Hold the phone roughly chest height. Stand far enough back that you can see the full subject in frame. That's it — no special settings, no editing.
Stand at the far end of your garden and take a single photo showing the full back of the house, ideally including the gutter line, any first-floor windows, and the patio or ground area below. We use this to understand the overall geometry, where the house wall meets the roof, and how the veranda will sit visually against the building.
Tip: take it landscape (phone sideways), not portrait. You want the whole back of the house in one frame.
Walk halfway back from the house and take a straight-on shot of the wall the veranda will attach to. We're looking for the build — brick, render, stone, or timber cladding — plus any features that affect fixing: soldier courses, bonded brickwork, render thickness, signs of cavity construction. This is the photo that tells us whether we can use standard fixings or whether we'll need resin anchors or extended bolts.
Tip: if the wall is rendered, also include one photo of any exposed brickwork nearby (around an air brick, a cellar window, or where render has been chipped). It tells us what's underneath.
A shot of the floor where the veranda will stand: existing patio, decking, gravel, lawn, or bare ground. The detail matters: paving slabs tell us whether we need to drill through them or lift them; decking changes how we anchor; lawn means we'll be digging post holes. We're not judging the surface — we're working out what to bring on install day.
Tip: include the edge between the house wall and the ground in the same shot. We need to see whether there's a damp-proof course, a step down, or a drain right where a post would land.
Two photos, one for each side — a shot from a few metres out showing where the wall ends. This is where the veranda's outer posts will land, and we need to see what's there: a fence line, a side gate, a flowerbed, a path, a neighbouring property. Side returns are also where most of the awkward bits hide — soil pipes, downpipes, electric meters, satellite dishes, kitchen extractor vents.
Tip: if there's a downpipe or a soil vent within a metre of where the veranda will end, get a close-up of it too. We'd rather plan around it now than discover it on install day.
A photo looking up at where the veranda's roof would attach to the house. On a typical two-storey house that's the strip of wall between the top of the ground-floor windows and the bottom of the first-floor windows — usually 2.4 to 2.8 metres up. On a bungalow it's just below the gutter line. Either way, we need to see what's in that band: soil vents, downpipes, kitchen extractor vents, satellite mounts, anything the structure would have to clear or work around. This is the photo that decides what height we can fix the veranda at, which in turn decides which models fit and how the roof pitch resolves.
Tip: on older houses (especially Victorian and 1930s) the first-floor windows sometimes come down very low, leaving very little room for the veranda above the ground-floor ones. If that's you, make sure the bottom of the upstairs window is in shot — it's often the limiting factor.
The 4 measurements we need
Roughly the same five-minute job. A retractable tape measure works fine; a phone-based laser measure (the Measure app on iPhone, or a free equivalent like AR Plan 3D on Android) is even quicker. Round to the nearest centimetre. Don't worry about being millimetre-perfect — we just need to know which standard size fits.
Safety first. Please don't climb any ladders or stretch off anything to get these shots — ground-level photos are all we need. Anything you can't safely reach from the lawn, leave for our site survey.
1. Width along the wall (max available)
Measure along the wall from one obstacle to the other — obstacle being anything that limits the veranda's width: a corner of the house, a side gate, a kitchen window you don't want to block, a soil pipe. This is the absolute maximum width you have to play with. We work in 0.5m increments, so any width from 2.5m up to 6m is workable depending on the model.
2. Depth out from the wall
Stand at the wall, walk out to where you'd like the veranda to end, and measure that distance. Most people pick somewhere between 3m and 4m, but anything from 2.5m upwards works really well — it just depends what you'd like to use the space for and how much of the garden you want to keep. A smaller depth still gives you a proper sheltered area; a deeper one gives you more of an outdoor-room feel. If you're considering going beyond 4m, it's worth a quick check against your patio depth before committing. And if you're not sure, give us a range — "between 3m and 3.5m" is fine. We'll show you both options.
3. Height to where the veranda will attach
Measure from the ground (where you'll be standing under the veranda) up to where the veranda's roof would attach to the house. On a typical two-storey house that's the wall between the top of the ground-floor windows and the bottom of the first-floor windows — usually around 2.4m to 2.8m. On a bungalow it's just below the gutter line, more like 2.2m to 2.5m. Older Edwardian and Victorian properties often have more headroom because their ground-floor ceilings were taller. This is the single most important measurement for determining which models fit.
4. Distance to obstacles
Walk the wall and note anything within a metre of where the veranda would sit: drainpipes, soil vents, exterior taps, kitchen extractor vents, satellite dishes, security lights, French doors. For each one, measure the rough distance from the corner of the house to the obstacle. We don't need to be precise — "downpipe about 1.4m from the left corner" is plenty.
If you're unsure about height — stand a broom or a long stick against the wall, mark where you'd want the veranda to attach with masking tape, and measure to the tape. Or just send us a photo with a tape measure visible and we'll read it off. We'd rather have an approximate measurement plus the photo than a precise number with no context — and we'll re-check it on the day of the survey anyway.
The checklist
Quick recap of everything we need in one place — print or screenshot before you head into the garden.
Your 5-minute garden survey
- Photo 1: wide shot of the back of the house (landscape orientation)
- Photo 2: straight-on shot of the wall the veranda will attach to
- Photo 3: the ground — patio, decking, lawn, or whatever's there
- Photo 4: both side returns of the wall (two photos, close-ups of any obstacles)
- Photo 5: looking up at the eaves where the veranda will meet the roof
- Width: maximum available along the wall
- Depth: how far out from the house you'd like it
- Height: ground to where the roof will attach
- Obstacles: anything within a metre of where it will sit
- Postcode: rough postcode is fine — we don't need the door number
What this gets you before we visit
If you've sent photos and measurements before your survey appointment, we'll usually come back to you within 24 hours with:
- A specific model recommendation with the reasoning — not just "the cheapest" or "the most expensive"
- The likely dimensions and post layout we'd build (e.g. "5m × 3.5m, 3 posts, glass roof, side wall on the left")
- An indicative price including installation and VAT, accurate enough that the final number after our site survey rarely changes
- A breakdown of any side options you might want and what they each cost
- An honest note on anything in the photos we'd want to look at carefully on the day
Then we come out, run the same checks ourselves, and confirm everything before you commit to anything. The survey is what gives us — and you — the confidence to actually order. The pre-visit brief just means the conversation on the day is "yes, this is what we're doing" rather than "let's start working out what's possible".
Common mistakes to avoid
Three things that tend to bounce the brief back to you for more information — worth checking before you hit send.
Photos taken at an angle
If you shoot the wall from the side, the perspective skews and we can't read the proportions properly. Stand square to the wall, hold the phone level, take the shot. If the wall looks like a parallelogram in the photo, we need it again straight on.
Distance shots only, no close-ups
A wide shot from the bottom of the garden is great for the overall view but loses detail on the wall. Send both — one wide, one close enough that we can see the brickwork pattern or render texture.
Forgetting the eaves shot
This is the photo most people skip, and it's the one we use most. Without it, we can't tell which models will fit at the height you have. Looking up at the gutter and including any first-floor windows takes ten seconds — please don't miss it out.
Why we still always survey
A veranda isn't a small purchase. Most installations are well into four figures, sometimes five. The structure is bolted to your house and stands there for decades. We'd be daft — and you'd be right to be wary — if we tried to commit to dimensions, fixings, or post placements without measuring everything ourselves on the day.
What we don't do is hide behind the survey to delay quoting. If you've taken the time to send us photos and measurements, we'll come back with a real, model-specific indicative price within 24 hours, well before we visit. The site survey is then about confirming what we've already discussed and catching anything the photos couldn't show us — not about a sales pitch at your kitchen table.
The DIY pre-visit survey is just an option we offer for people who like to be hands-on. If you'd rather skip it and have us do the whole survey from scratch, that's just as good — give us a call and we'll book a visit.
Send your photos and measurements via WhatsApp (07894 594394) or email to [email protected] with a rough postcode. WhatsApp is usually the fastest route — or book a 15-minute video walk-through via meet.brevo.com/thegoodverandacompany and we'll go through them with you live before booking the site visit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to take these photos and measurements myself?
Not at all. If you'd rather we just come out and survey from scratch, give us a call and we'll book a visit. The photos and measurements just help us prepare and have a more useful first conversation — they're optional, not required. Some people enjoy doing a bit of DIY surveying, others would rather we do the lot. Both are fine.
Why do you still come out for a site survey if I've sent photos?
Photos and measurements get us most of the way to a confident quote, but the survey is where we check the things a camera can't pick up: how plumb and true your wall actually is, what's hiding behind the render, whether the patio is sitting on a proper base or on bedding sand, and how your specific wall material will take the fixings we'd be using. It's also when we agree the exact post positions with you on the ground — much better than guessing from a screenshot. Usually 30–45 minutes, no obligation, no kitchen-table pitch at the end.
Do I need professional photos?
No — a modern phone camera is more than enough. The photos just need to be sharp, in good daylight, and taken straight-on rather than at an angle. No wide-angle, no editing, no drone. Five clear phone photos and four measurements is the entire pre-visit brief.
What measurements should I send?
Four measurements: (1) the available width along the house wall where the veranda will attach, (2) the depth you'd like it to project from the wall, (3) the height from the ground to where the veranda's roof will meet the wall — between the ground-floor and first-floor windows on a two-storey house, just below the gutter on a bungalow, and (4) the distance to anything that might get in the way — drainpipes, soil vents, satellite dishes, fences, French doors. A retractable tape measure or a phone laser-measure app (such as Measure on iPhone) is fine.
What if my garden has an awkward slope or step?
Slopes are usually fine — most modern verandas can be installed onto a level patio, paved area, or new concrete pad. If your patio steps down sharply or the ground falls away from the house, include a side-on photo and rough estimate of the drop. We'll talk through how to handle it before our visit, and confirm the approach on the day.
How accurate is the pre-visit price compared to the post-survey final quote?
On standard installations the price doesn't usually change between our pre-visit indication and the post-survey final quote. The exceptions are about one in twenty — usually something the photos didn't show clearly (a hidden steel lintel, a buried drain, a soil pipe behind a hedge). When that happens we either absorb it or call you to talk through it before we order anything — never afterwards.
Where do I send the photos?
Email them to [email protected] along with your measurements and a rough postcode. Or book a 15-minute video walk-through via meet.brevo.com/thegoodverandacompany — we'll go through them with you live before booking the site visit.