A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words — And Dollars!

Tip: Mark Wagner, CLP, recommends drawing base maps to scale and using a digital camera to improve the accuracy of designs and cost estimates.

“The old days of taking photos with a Polaroid camera and making dimension notes on a piece of paper are over,” according to Mark Wagner, CLP, of Wagner’s Landscape Company, Inc., in Aston, Pennsylvania. “Today, when visiting a site I use one-eighth-scale grid paper and a digital camera to help get the base map as accurate as possible in terms of the house size and the location of existing landscape elements and downspouts.”

Wagner says he draws the base map to scale and uses the camera to help improve the accuracy of his designs and to reduce estimating mistakes. “In fact,” he continues, “I think I have charged several thousand dollars alone for drainage pipe that I otherwise would have missed on a drawing or failed to see without an accurate picture to remind me.”