Outdoors on the lot
Draw fences, hedges, the driveway, parking, a carport, a garage or a shed on the lot, and see the built-up area and the permit notes.
In the video0:47
How to do it
Open the Site view. The house needs its lot first: fetch it from the land register, or draw it by hand.
Under Outdoors in the panel on the right, pick a fence, a hedge, a driveway, a path, parking, a carport, a garage or a shed.
Draw a fence, a hedge, a driveway or a path point by point: click along it, or type a length in metres and press Enter, then double-click or press Finish. “Along the whole boundary” runs a fence or a hedge round the lot in one go, with a gap where a driveway or a path crosses it.
Place parking, a carport, a garage or a shed with a click, or drag out its outline. Drag it, or its points, to adjust it; “Turn 90°” turns it.
Click it to set the kind of fence and its height, the surface, the number of parking spaces or, for a building, its size, eaves height, roof and covering. The panel shows its area, its distances to the boundary and the house, and the permit notes.
Good to know
- “Draw on” picks the layer: the house as it is today, or new work, which the site plan draws in red.
- The built-up area counts what you draw in your country’s terms: in Norway the BYA, with a carport as open covered area and 18 m² for each parking space on the terrain, never counted twice under a carport or in a garage; elsewhere the outbuildings’ footprint.
- Everything stays where it is on the lot when you move the house, and shows on the site plan, in 3D and in the material list: fence metres by kind, hedge plants, the driveway’s surface with gravel in m³, and the outbuildings’ roofs, cladding, slab and doors.
- The lot itself comes first: see Address, site and maps. Or ask the assistant: “a fence along the road, 1.2 m”, “a carport for two cars beside the house, 1 m from the boundary”. It answers with the built-up area before and after, the distances and the permit notes.
Questions and answers
Does a carport or a shed need a permit?
It depends on the country, the size, the height, the distance to the boundary and the local plan. The panel lists your country’s limits and ticks or crosses each one. In Norway there is no application under SAK10 § 4-1 a for up to 50 m², with the ridge at most 4 m and the eaves at most 3 m above the ground, at least 1 m from the boundary and other buildings. In Ireland a garage or shed behind the front wall of the house is exempt up to 30 m² in all (Class 3). These are notes to check: the building authority decides.
How does parking count in the built-up area?
In Norway each parking space on the terrain counts 18 m² in the BYA, as the guidance H-2300 recommends (a local plan may set another figure), and a space in a garage or under a carport is not counted twice. In other countries the app counts the outbuildings’ footprint and not the parking.
How high may a fence or a hedge be?
In Norway a fence towards the road up to 1.5 m needs no application, a hedge by the boundary lower than 2 m is lawful, and in the sight zone at an exit hedges and fences stay under 0.5 m. In Ireland a fence may be 1.2 m in front of the house and 2 m at the side or rear without planning permission. The panel notes what applies where the app knows the rule.