I'm trying to think of a term which means that one expends extra effort or materials in making sure that something is done properly, to an almost excessive or extravagant extent.
One good is example is 'belt and braces'.
I'd like to think of equivalents which, similarly, don't have a negative connotation - equivalents which imply thoroughness.
'Overzealous', for example, has a similar meaning but implies negative excess.
It could be a word or phrase.
I'd like to use the word or phrase to describe an approach, i.e. 'I did it X way because it was sure to cover everything, a [word or phrase goes here] approach.'
So far, many of the suggestions have been negative in connotation:
Over-designing
Pedantic
Nitpicky
These are all undesirable traits and therefore not what I was looking for. Meticulous is more what I was looking for, but is less suitable when talking about one specific act.
The context is something like:
'It was likely that the necessary part lay between 5-10, but we took all of 1-20 in order to make certain that we got it.'
That is a belt-and-braces approach.