How can I measure a width on a building without having direct access to it.?

[bulltaco]

Hi, I know I ask some strange things on here but is there an optical instrument that would measure from the left end of this house to the edge of the protruding bit where the white downpipe drops, behind the bushes. I would like to transfer the measurement to the back of the house where the neighbour from hell I've mentioned before has definitely stolen some ground from the elderly lady next door.

 

[JohnD]

Large scale OS map

And aerial photos.

You can also request title documents and plans from the Land Registry

Make sure you use gov.uk

HM Land Registry

We register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales. HM Land Registry is a non-ministerial department.

www.gov.uk

All the others are crooks.

 

[Tigercubrider]

There are diy (and subject to error) methods that allow simple trigonometry to estimate distance/measurements
An iPhone can measure distance but I wouldn’t trust it for legal stuff.
As suggested proper plans help

Don’t assume that a plot is square or even that the house is.
My plot is on the outside of a corner so I have a triangle of land that my neighbour doesn’t have.
My side passage is wider than theirs.

also look at google earth historic.

 

[Munroast]

at a guestimate, if that is a 3" downpipe, then a tad under 12'6"

 

[Deleted member 174758]

A laser rangefinder such as a Leica Disto X310 can measure height from a distance using a built-in trig function. Straightforward length measurements to the corners in the horizontal plane, combined with a bit of trig will suffice for the width measurements

 

[SpecialK]

You can measure stuff using google maps if it helps?

 

[bulltaco]

Thanks all, I have the title deeds at 1 to 2500, but haven't a clue how to get measurements.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Complete waste of time measureing anything off google earth, a map, the deeds. Any map or deeds plan will have been copied multiple times and lost any meaningful scale and any lines are about half a metre thick.

 

[Munroast]

what sort of accuracy are you aiming for ?

This will do it down to a metre.

Route Planner for Walking, Running, Cycling - plotaroute.com

Free route planner - plan, measure and discover new routes, with choice of maps, directions and elevation profiles. Making Routes Made Easy.

www.plotaroute.com

(although I have just measured my house and it says 19m when its only 17.5m

a digital camera will do a much better job, place an object of known dimensions in front of hedge, have exact distance from camera to object, and guess as accurately as poss from object to gable wall. (make sure camera to object is at least twice as far than from object to gable. I'll do the maths for you.

 

[Mike13]

Have you tried https://magic.defra.gov.uk/

 

[scbk]

at a guestimate, if that is a 3" downpipe, then a tad under 12'6"

12ft odd is the width of the gable facing the camera, think he wants the total width of the house up to the party wall, so more like 19ft/20ft. Which kinda tallys up with google earth and the road markings.

 

[robinbanks]

I can sometimes get my iPhone to make a reasonable estimate of measure using its camera

Measure dimensions with iPhone

In Measure on iPhone, use the camera to measure the dimensions of real-world objects near you.

support.apple.com

 

[DiyNutJob]

If you have the size for the door or window, you can extrapolate the size of other parts from the photo using pixel distances. Best to use cameras that have large lenses to minimised lens curve distortion when taking the picture.

Additionally, if you use the chimney for reference, one side of it marks the boundary.

 

[Dereekoo]

Wait till they have gone out and then nip in with a tape measure

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Have you tried https://magic.defra.gov.uk/

I've just tested that, measuring my garage, and it's pretty accurate. It's only 6" out over the 24 feet.