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The Land Survey
Since the beginning of time
people have fought over land
Countries have gone to war to expand their borders, neighbors have found themselves in court and sometimes taking up arms against each other. Through the centuries, countless lives have been taken over the issue of land ownership. For those who have had to defend or prove their property lines, an accurate survey is a really big issue.
What is a Surveyor? Someone who professionally measures and examines an area of land.
As defined by Wikipedia:
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them, commonly practiced by surveyors, and members of various engineering professions. These points are usually on the surface of the earth, and they are often used to establish land maps and boundaries for ownership, locations like building corners or the surface location of subsurface features, or other purposes required by government or civil law, such as property sales.
A close to home look at why property boundaries can be important to you the craftsman -
A number of years ago, I was working with a general contractor who had been hired to pour the foundation for a new home. The property owner met with the contractor and told him where the property boundaries were. The contractor brought me in to handle the foundation work. This property was in a mountain subdivision and we were pushing the limit for getting the work done before the snow came and the ground froze. If everything went well I would have the foundation work done with just a little time to spare. I work pretty well under pressure and jumped right in. I laid out the foundation based on the information the homeowner had given the contractor. I was almost finished laying the forms when the contractor told me to stop. He just had a “bad” feeling about the information he had been given. He decided to verify all of the property boundaries using the services of a surveyor.
I started getting nervous!
This particular subdivision is at 9100 feet elevation and winter usually hits much harder and earlier than most other places. Needless to say, I was getting a bit worried, not too bad yet because I’m the eternal optimist. It is said that some people are "waiting for their ship to come in," my wife says that I’m waiting for the ship that never left (and she may be right).
Well, it snowed. Imagine that! The eternal optimist got a dose of reality. Not only did it snow but it froze – HARD! Then it melted, soaked into the ground, and it froze again. At this point, I need to add a little note. The dirt at this site wasn’t just dirt, no sir; it was, to a large degree, decomposed granite. When it got wet and froze it was like concrete.
Still waiting for an answer-
We finally got the results of the survey. The property owner was wrong! The foundation was off by about ten feet. Not so bad, right? I can handle this; I was a tough young man with plenty of gumption. After spending a couple of hours shoveling snow, I got right to work on moving the forms. Yeah right! The ground just laughed and said “Oh no you don’t either!”
Fortunately, I had used steel form stakes so they didn’t break. It was, however, like trying to pull your tooth out with tweezers. Remember the part about me having plenty of gumption? Ha-ha, my gumption waned fairly quickly, but I didn't have time to waste.
I began the arduous task of getting all of the forms moved. It had only taken a little more than a day to get them set the first time, but with winter settling in it was a shear test of my resolve to do the whole thing over again. I shoveled snow and chipped ice for two days just to get the forms out, then I had to reset them in the right location.
I did finally manage to get it finished AGAIN, but now we had to cover and heat the area with blankets meant just for this type of weather. We also had to order more expensive concrete to combat the freezing potential. Does this story have a happy ending? I’m sad to say that it does not; neither the contractor or I ever recovered the costs from that portion of the project. The only bit of silver lining in all of this was the lesson I learned to "never assume anything." Always verify the facts so you don't get caught out in the cold! (no pun intended - literally). This experience served me well when I became a general contractor myself.
One of the ways this ordeal helped, was in the wording of the contract that I used with my own customers. I spent quite a bit of time fine-tuning my contract so that all bases were covered. I learned how to look at all of the details of each project to ensure that I added provisions into every contract to cover unexpected events. That fact alone saved me a court battle later on that could have been disastrous for my business. You can read about that in “A Good Contract”.
So you can see from my experience how important the survey is - ALWAYS!
Imagine what kind of issues could be involved in a large development if property lines aren't verified. So the main point here is - never assume anything. Generations ago when deals were done with a handshake that actually meant something, this kind of issue might have been resolved with a happy ending for both parties. Today, however, in the land of contracts and lawsuits when it seems like everyone wants to sue someone, the battle that would have ensued would have been cost prohibitive for us. Sometimes you just learn your lesson, get it finished and move on.
If you need to find a reputable surveyor, you can try some of the following:
- You can try this link - http://landsurveyors.com
- Call your local building department and ask for references
- Ask local builders who they use
- See if there is a state or local "Registry of Professional Surveyors" - there should be a link to your state office of DORA - "Department of Regulatory Agencies". They should have a list of licensed surveyors you can download. You can use this list and check for any disciplinary actions under the "Verify License Tab" (Be sure to check references of any surveyor you are considering)
For a more in depth look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying
Follow this link to a good article:
http://behreassociates.com/why_do_you_need_a_survey
For images of land survey monuments and property markers:
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=images+of+land+survey+monuments&qpvt=images+of+land+survey+monuments&qpvt=images+of+land+survey+monuments&FORM=IGRE
