Scanning in New York

Vernier is based in Williamsburg, which makes New York the shortest trip on the map. Most of the five boroughs is under an hour door to door, and same week scheduling is usually possible.

What the building stock does to a tape measure

Much of it is old, narrow, and modified. A typical brownstone has been split, rejoined, extended at the back, and had its stair rebuilt at least once. Nothing is square. Floor to floor heights differ by inches between the parlor level and the top floor. Party walls lean.

Hand measuring that kind of building is slow because every room has to be checked diagonally, and it is error prone because the drawings assume orthogonality that the building does not have. A scan records the building as it is, including the walls that are two inches off plumb, so the drawings start from reality instead of from an idealized rectangle.

Typical projects here

Gut renovations of rowhouses and brownstones, rear extensions, cellar and garden level conversions, rooftop additions, and warehouse to residential or office conversions. Apartment combinations and townhouse renovations. On the commercial side, restaurant and retail fit outs where the landlord’s drawings are twenty years old and wrong.

Access

Scans are usually scheduled around tenant or homeowner availability. If the space is occupied, two to three hours of quiet access is enough for most apartments and single family houses. Whole building scans of a three or four story rowhouse take longer and are quoted by floor count.

Landmarks and facade work

A large share of renovations here fall inside historic districts. If exterior work is in scope, ask for the exterior elevation add on at the time of booking. A measured facade drawing of the existing condition is what LPC reviewers want to see next to the proposed one.