DIY Network

Digging In the Dirt: Surveying the Lot From "Blueprint for Home Building" episode DBHB-102

You've found out the difference between virgin ground and fill soil, you've found out how to procure a soil engineer if your site needs one and you've discovered the limitations of septic tanks and sewage lines. Now it's time to survey your lot because doing this will give you pertinent information that you'll need throughout the excavation process.

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	Figure A
	Figure B
	Figure C

What Is a Survey?

A survey is something you do to provide a definitive physical proof of where your property lines are (figure A). One of the most important things in ending up with a satisfactory construction project or new-home project is to make sure that you site the home property on the lot, and there only one way to do that -- have a tree and topographical survey done.

"It's the first thing, as an architect, I want from a client, is to provide me with a survey of the property, because it provides you with all the basic information." Dave Watson, an architect, said. "It tells you how big is the lot. It locates the property lines. On a good survey, you'll have pieces of adjoining buildings shown, so you can scale and see how kind of close those buildings are so you can figure out the square footage, the area of the lot."

Surveying your lot accomplishes several things:

• It locates the property lines, which are the formal boundaries of your lot.

• It will help you determine exactly where your house will sit on the lot (figure B).

• It will tell your excavation contractor exactly where to dig.

The biggest mistake that people make concerning property lines is that they get to the site, look at the fences and say, "Here we go, there's our property line." But it rarely is. Sometimes the fence is off a couple of inches. Other times it's sweeping into your neighbor's yard or your yard by a couple of feet. So you need to know the exact measurements.

Note: The tools that were used to locate a house 30, 40 and 50 years ago were no where near as sophisticated as what is being used today (figure C) to do surveys. So you can imagine how things have shifted a bit over time, and your survey is going to show that.

Another advantage to having an accurate survey is that you'll get important information on the drainage capacity of your lot. What happens without a survey is that the house could be below the highest elevation on the lot. And then you'll have instead of water run-off draining away from the house, it will run toward the house, which is obviously "not" a good thing!

Figure D

Who Will Perform the Survey?

The person who will perfume the survey is called the "site surveyor," and it's his or her job to stake out and mark all boundaries on your property.

Site surveyors will tell you what your property lines are and the elevations of your home and your property corners. They will come to your site at various times throughout the construction process, but the initial visit -- staking out the property lines (figure D) -- must be done before the rest of the excavation process can continue.

Note: You must have correct setbacks from the property corners or property lines to your house so that way your surveyor will stake out your house corners and also the property lines of the house. It is a requirement that you have to do this before your start building.

The surveyor will use wooden stakes, and these are tied with ribbons so that they'll remain visible during the entire excavation process.

In the final segment on excavation, our host will look at making the grade, literally, as he examines what it takes to prepare your site "physically" for construction.

GUESTS :

Greg Allen
Site Supervisor
Hendolhurst Homes
955 Markman Park Rd.
Baden, PA 15005
Phone: 724-935-5658
Fax: 724-935-0884
E-mail: gcrbs@adelphia.net

Jim Sperdute
Surveyor / Project Manager
Sperdute Land Surveyors
108 Deer Lane
Harmony, PA 16037
Phone: 724-452-4362
Fax: 724-452-9357
E-mail: pasurvey@zbzoomnet

Craig Hill
President
Earth Systems Southwest
79811 Country Club Dr.
Indio, CA 92203
E-mail: chill@earthsys.com

Dave Watson
Architect
E-mail: architalk@att.net
Website: www.watsonarchitect.com