How to Measure Your Yard for a Landscape Design: Tools, Slope, Utilities and Photos

You want a patio, a walk, a wall or a whole backyard designed, and the designer wants measurements. If you hired an online designer, they may never see your yard in person, so the plan can only be as good as the numbers and photos you send.

An afternoon, a helper and a long tape cover most yards. Below is how to measure your yard for landscape design the way we ask our own design clients to do it. If you’re planning a patio for next spring, this is the first step, and here’s why winter is the best time to plan a patio.

What You Need

• A 100-foot tape measure. A 25-foot tape works with a helper and is handy for steps either way.
• A long screwdriver or a stake to pin the end of the tape.
• Two stakes, mason’s string and a line level if the yard slopes, about $10 at a hardware store.
• Paper or graph paper, a clipboard and a pencil.
• Your phone, for photos, video and its compass.

The University of Florida’s extension guide to site measurements and base maps calls for tapes of 100 or 200 feet and a long screwdriver to anchor one end.

Start With a Rough Sketch

Walk the yard first and sketch it on paper. It does not need to be to scale. Draw the house with its doors and windows, plus the trees, beds, fences, shed, driveway and any patio or deck you want on the plan, and add an arrow pointing north so the designer knows where sun and shade fall.

Write each measurement on the sketch as you take it. If you want to draw the plan to scale yourself, our guide to landscape plan drawing covers scales, symbols and graph paper.

Use the House as Your Baseline

The house is square, permanent and on every plan, so it makes the best reference line. Pick the house corner nearest the project and call it zero. Hook the tape there, run it along the wall to the far corner and pin it tight.

Walk along the tape and write down the reading at every door edge, window edge, corner, downspout, hose bib, outlet, vent, meter and AC unit. These are running measurements, which the UF guide recommends whenever you can take them. Subtract one reading from the next to get a door’s width.

Then measure the yard itself, from the house to the back fence or property line and from side to side.

Locate Everything Else With Two Numbers

Anything with a definite point, like a shed corner, a fence post or the edge of an old patio, can be pinned down with two numbers. The first is how far along the house wall it sits, measured from zero. The second, called an offset, is how far straight out from the wall it is.

Straight is the hard part. From the point where your tape leaves the wall, measure 3 feet along the wall and 4 feet out along the tape. When those two marks are exactly 5 feet apart, the tape is square to the house, the same 3-4-5 rule the UF guide uses.

Triangulate Trees, Curves and Beds

Things far from the house, like a tree at the back of the lot, are easier to locate from two fixed points. Measure from two house corners to the center of the trunk. The designer swings an arc from each corner, and the tree sits where the arcs cross. Note the trunk width, the spread of the branches and whether the tree stays.

For a curved bed edge or path, stretch a straight tape beside the curve and pin both ends. Every 5 feet along it, measure straight out to the curve, the spacing the UF guide uses for beds and other irregular shapes. On a tight curve, measure every 2 or 3 feet, and locate both ends of the tape from the house.

Check the Slope With a String Line and Line Level

Slope decides whether a patio can sit on the ground or needs a step or a short wall, and where the water goes.

Drive one stake at the high spot and one at the low spot. Tie the string to the high stake at ground level, run it to the low stake and adjust it until the line level reads level. The distance from the string down to the ground at the low stake is the drop, and the distance between the stakes is the run.

Hang the level near the middle and pull the string tight so it does not sag. Two or three readings, one for each direction the yard falls, are enough for most yards.

Then divide the drop by the run. A 28-inch drop over 22 feet is about 1 1/4 inches per foot. We pitch patios 1/4 inch per foot away from the house, so ground that steep needs a wall, a step or a lot of fill. Our patio slope article explains why the pitch matters.

Measure Door Thresholds and Window Wells

At every door facing the project, measure from the ground up to the top of the threshold, and note which way the door swings. Count any existing steps and measure the height of each one.

The threshold sets the height of everything that touches the house. A patio has to finish below it and still pitch away, and at 1/4 inch per foot, a patio 14 feet deep falls 3 1/2 inches across its depth. A low door leaves little room, and a high one may need a landing and a step. Our patio size guide covers door steps along with furniture clearances.

For each window well, measure where it sits along the baseline, how far it sticks out and how high its rim stands above the ground. A patio beside a well has to stay below the rim and drain away from it. If the well serves a basement bedroom, say so, since it may be the room’s emergency exit and has to stay clear.

Mark the Utilities and Know When to Call 811

Measure and sketch anything that hints at a buried or overhead line, including meters, transformer and cable boxes, overhead wires, septic lids, a well head, cleanouts, a propane tank, sprinkler heads and lamp posts.

The free national 811 service, run by the Common Ground Alliance at 811beforeyoudig.com (call811.com forwards there), says anyone who plans to dig should contact 811 a few business days ahead. Utilities mark the approximate location of their lines with paint or flags, and the site’s homeowner page says to avoid digging on the marks or within 18 to 24 inches of them. Each state has its own rules for digging, and the site’s map gives details on each 811 center.

You don’t need to call while you are only measuring. When you hire a contractor, the company doing the digging should file the request, as SC811, South Carolina’s 811 center, explains. Its FAQ also notes that standard locates cover only the public lines from the street to the main meter, and that owners are responsible for identifying and marking private lines past it.

On a typical lot, private lines can include power to a garage or lamp post, gas to a grill, a propane line, irrigation pipe or an invisible dog fence. Put every one you know about on the sketch.

Take These Photos

Photos show what a tape can’t, like the style of the house, the views and where water sits. These are the shots a designer needs.

• From each corner of the yard, looking in.
• From the back door, straight out, then left, then right.
• The house wall facing the project, end to end, with doors, windows, downspouts, hose bibs, vents and the AC unit in the frame.
• The yard from an upstairs window, if you have one.
• Each slope from the side, so the drop shows.
• Problem spots, like standing water, soft ground, cracked or heaving concrete and leaning walls.
• Things that stay, like trees, beds, sheds, fences, meters, septic lids and overhead lines.
• Brick, siding or stone you want to match, and each threshold and window well with an open tape in the shot.

Hold the phone sideways, shoot in daylight and don’t zoom. Put a person or an open tape in a few wide shots for scale. Then take a 2-minute video, starting at the back door and walking the whole area while you talk through where water collects, where you picture the patio and which trees stay.

What to Send Your Designer

Send it all at once. A complete package has these pieces.

• Your sketch, with every measurement, the zero corner and the north arrow.
• Slope readings as drop and run, plus threshold, step and window well heights.
• Utilities and private lines, with their locations.
• Your photos and the video, shared as a link.
• A plot plan or survey from your closing papers or your county’s GIS site.
• HOA rules, if you have an HOA.
• Yards you like, and how you will use the space, such as the table size, a grill or a fire pit.
• Your budget range and who will build it.

Don’t skip the survey. It shows the property lines, setbacks and easements that limit where a patio can go, and the UF guide starts its base map from one.

Our online design plans are drawn from exactly this package, and for most yards no site visit is needed. Single Space plans start at $349 for one patio, walk or wall, with a scaled 2D plan showing the layout, sizes and materials. Our sample plans show what the finished sheets look like.

Comparing online design services? Our Yardzen review covers what its packages include and cost, and what any remote designer needs from you before the plan can be priced.

Related: Landscape architect vs. landscape designer: license, fees and who to hire

To start on paper, the free Patio Planning Kit has a measuring page and a graph sheet. For ideas first, send 2 to 4 photos to Redesign Friday, where we redesign one yard in public every Friday.

Before you hit send, check the numbers against each other. The readings along the house wall should end at the wall’s full length, and the yard’s depth should match from two spots. Round to the nearest inch, as the UF guide recommends.

Written and reviewed by Thayne Muthler, owner of Muthler Landscaping & Construction (PA HIC #PA212584). How we check facts: editorial policy.