Property Survey Problems
So you plan to get a property survey, but don’t know where to start. How does one go from needing a survey, to actually getting one? Let me give you the perspective from the other side of the table. I get inquiries for estimates all the time that say “I need a survey” and when you ask why the response is “because I need it” or “because I was told to get one”. This information does not exactly help. Translating laymen’s terms into surveying terms, and vise versa, might help here. I’ll give it a go:
Property Survey - It is exceedingly rare that surveyors are not surveying property. It’s the vast majority of what we do. What type of survey we are performing, can vary immensely. So if this is how you start off, you will be asked a lot more questions like “what for”
Land Survey - Same as above, we will need to get more information out of you.
Boundary Survey - Now we are getting somewhere. This at least informs surveyors that you are interested in establishing, or better defining, your property boundaries. My next questions will be: “Do you need the whole property surveyed or just a portion of it?” “Is there any area where this is going to be most important or less important?”
As-Built Survey, Building Survey, House Survey, Topographic Survey, Site Survey - These are are generally similar terms, with varying levels of detail being collected. Specifying where and what is most important is very helpful here. Do you only need buildings located? Do you need to know where every tree, and landscape feature is? These details ensure we estimate correctly and you get just what you are looking for. One important thing to consider here is that if you need the boundaries defined as well as information within the property, you might as well make sure to include the information that you will want a boundary survey as well.
Construction Staking, Construction Survey, Stakeout, Construction Layout - There are a million ways to say the same thing here. Basically, if you are building something and you want to make sure it has the correct layout, matching the prepared plans, you will want some form of Construction Staking. If you are building something near the property lines, it might make sense to get a boundary survey done prior to a Construction Survey
Monitoring - This request is usually only made by people who know what they are requesting. If you are requesting monitoring you should specify why you need it and what time frame you will be monitoring for. This work requires high accuracy and precision, making it challenging, but also very interesting and rewarding.
That is certainly not all the different survey varieties, but it is all I have time to get into currently. If you have any questions or clarifications needed, you can reach out or comment on this post. Once I dig through all the comments and find it I will get back to you. So far my blog has generated a lot of site traffic through my begging and coercion of friends and family. Just look at all the comments! Wow. If it keeps going this way you might get to see some AI Generated Blog posts just so I can keep up with the demand.
