Can you make a floor plan with an iPhone?
A floor plan does not necessarily need an architect. With a tape measure and a drawing app, or a phone with LiDAR, you can make a scaled drawing yourself — but the two methods give different accuracy, and an architect solves a different problem.
Short answer: yes. You can either measure the home with a tape measure and draw it onto a digital drawing board to scale, or let an app scan the rooms automatically using the LiDAR sensor in an iPhone or iPad Pro. Both routes produce a floor plan with real measurements on it — but neither replaces an architect if the job is a building permit or a structural change that has to be approved.
Two ways to make a floor plan on your phone
One method is measuring it yourself. You walk around with a tape measure or a laser distance meter, note down lengths and widths, and draw the rooms onto a drawing surface where you enter the measurements by hand. This works on any phone, needs no particular sensor, and you decide how carefully you measure.
The other method is scanning. Using the camera — and on newer iPhone and iPad Pro models also LiDAR — the app works through the room and recognises walls, doors and windows on its own as you move the phone around. It is faster, but you hand the measuring over to the sensor, and you still have to go through the drawing afterwards and correct whatever the app misread.
What does the scanning method require of the phone?
LiDAR scanning requires an iPhone or iPad with a LiDAR sensor — that is the newer "Pro" models, not the standard ones. If you do not have one, you are left with measuring by hand and drawing the rooms in manually. It is slower, but the result can easily be just as usable if you measure carefully.
How accurate does the drawing become?
With manual measuring, the accuracy is entirely your own: a tape held at an angle or a reading rounded off carries an error all the way through the drawing. With LiDAR scanning, the error is typically in the centimetre range over an ordinary wall length, but it grows in long, open rooms and at odd angles, where the sensor struggles to keep track of distance. Neither method is as accurate as a proper surveying instrument — both are good enough for furnishing, quotes and a realistic sense of the area, but not for settling a boundary dispute.
What does it cost to have an architect draw the home?
The price of an architect's drawing depends on what you ask for. A simple measured drawing of an existing home is cheaper than a set of permit drawings for an extension, which has to include structural details and calculations. Prices vary a great deal from country to country and job to job, so the only reliable answer is to get an actual quote from an architect or drawing office in your area and compare what is included — the measuring itself, dealing with the authorities, the number of revisions.
When is the phone drawing enough?
- Furnishing and layout. You need to know if the sofa fits there, not pass a building inspection.
- Quotes from contractors. Painters, flooring fitters and kitchen suppliers can work from a drawing with real measurements, even if it is not a legal building drawing.
- An overview when buying or selling. A drawing you made yourself beats no drawing at all — but it does not replace the figures in the public building register.
- A quick estimate of area. For comparing homes or planning a budget before you go further.
If the drawing is going to be used for a building permit, an extension, or anything that changes the building's structure, a professional has to be involved — however good the phone drawing looks.
What a phone drawing cannot do
Neither manual measuring nor a scanning app can determine whether a wall is load-bearing. That can only be seen or investigated on site by a building surveyor. The app also will not draw ceiling heights precisely if it cannot measure them itself — most scanning apps estimate the ceiling rather than measure it. And neither method gives you a drawing a building authority will approve automatically; that usually requires a specific format and a professional's signature.
What files do you get out of the two methods?
Measure and draw manually, and you typically end up with whatever the app itself can export: usually a PDF for printing, and sometimes a DXF file that an architect or a drawing program can open and edit further. Scan with LiDAR, and you get the same export options, but often supplemented with a 3D model in formats like OBJ, GLB or USDZ — because the scan has already built a spatial model, not just lines on a flat sheet. Neither method delivers an editable CAD format like DWG directly; that usually requires an architect or draughtsperson to convert the file further.
But is a drawing made in an app even a "real" floor plan?
It depends on what it is for. Technically, a floor plan is just a drawing of a building at a fixed scale with measurements on it — nothing in the definition itself requires it to be made by a licensed architect. A contractor, an interior architect or a buyer can perfectly well work from an app drawing, as long as the measurements can be trusted. What an app drawing is not automatically is a legally valid building drawing for an authority — that usually needs a specific professional to stand behind it, no matter how neat it looks on screen.
How long does it take to make your own floor plan?
Manually measuring an ordinary home of 80–120 m² typically takes one to two hours, depending on how many rooms and corners need measuring and noting along the way. A LiDAR scan of the same home can be done in 10–20 minutes, because the phone measures while you simply walk around — but you need to allow time afterwards to check the drawing and correct whatever the app misread, a door registered as a plain wall, for instance. Neither method is instant, but scanning typically saves the measuring itself, not the clean-up.
What HouseSense does
HouseSense supports both methods. If you have an iPhone or iPad Pro with LiDAR, you can scan the home, and the merged geometry becomes a measured floor plan with wall thicknesses, doors and windows. If you do not have LiDAR, you can draw the home from scratch on a digital drawing board — placing walls, doors and measurements based on what you have measured yourself with a tape. Both routes end up with the same kind of drawing, which can be exported to PDF or DXF and sent on to a contractor.
How to choose between drawing it yourself and hiring an architect
- Will the drawing be used for a building permit or anything that changes the building's structure? Hire an architect or a drawing office — no app drawing replaces that.
- Do you just need measurements for furnishing, a quote, or an overview? An app is enough, whether you measure by hand or scan.
- Do you have an iPhone or iPad Pro with LiDAR? Scanning is faster and usually catches more detail than a manual measurement.
- No LiDAR, but a tape measure and patience? Manual measuring and drawing gives the same kind of drawing, just with more of your own work along the way.
If the drawing is going to be used for a building permit or anything touching the building's load-bearing parts, a building surveyor or architect should always see the home before you go further.