Staking "Opportunity"

I say decline the job. You are in business to make money, and this job looks like it has a high probability that it will cost you, instead.

Brad Ott, post: 349675, member: 197 wrote: I see no prior survey

Because there was none!

I don't understand why architects think that they are competent to prepare site plans - they can barely design a building correctly.

Take my advice with a grain of salt. I am not in the private sector.

If you need the work, I like the idea of bidding it high-dollar and going into it with the expectation of error. Propose to do a boundary survey, and have the architect make sure his design is tied to your property pins. Make sure the dimensions add up clear across the property and if there is not enough information, get the architect to provide it. Find the problems right away and let them know you need them fixed before you proceed. In many states (I think) it is probably illegal (or not within your expertise) for a land surveyor to do design work.

One lecturer I saw (Elgin?) said that he never turned down work. He might bid it very high so that he either could do the job for that exorbitant price or he prices himself out of the job. (I'm not saying to gouge the client, but make sure your maximum price will cover all potential problems)

I would hope that going into a difficult job with caution would make you extra-vigilant in watching for problems and having them repaired right away.

Turning down work is similar to what Sgt. 'Gunny' Highway said about jumping out of perfectly good airplanes..."It's not a natural act, it's an acquired thing...."

I use to take everything that called. Screw that. When I realized I could see bad news a mile away I decided I was smart enough to know when to say yes...and when to say no. If you don't feel good about it now, you darn sure won't two months into the job.

I turn down a lot of work. I still have more than I can say grace over...and it's the kind of work I like AND make money. In my book, that's an accomplishment.

The quicker you start thinning the BS, the quicker you'll get to that happy place. Really. You're worth it.

One word: Contingencies.

I learned long ago to listen to that little voice in my head that says (with sound effects): Aoogah, aoogah, aoogah. Danger ahead.

Do you really need more headaches? Let someone else have them. If your intuition tells you there will be costly problems, your intuition is probably right.

Brad Ott, post: 349675, member: 197 wrote: Happy Friday Beer Leggers.

This church wants to talk to me about staking this site, with building additions, parking lot expansions, etc:

They have at least 3 strikes right off the bat:

Strike One: I have a past bad experience (about 15 years ago) with this architect and a light pole base at a Credit Union.

Strike Two: They are ARCHTIECTS!

Strike Three: They show flood zones, septic fields, I see no prior survey, ..

I was just thinking out loud here with my wife hoping she would say, yes walk away, but instead she said, make the proposal high dollar.

My concern is that because they are architects, I know going into this thing that there WILL BE PROBLEMS. And I worry that I will be dragged into professional liability, stress, finger pointing, etc.

So, as a solo guy, I am not excited about getting involved at all.

But, my wife says otherwise, and IF I had an employee (which I do not), well this is one of those times that I would not want to turn away any work.

Thanks for listening.

Your thoughts?

++++++++++++++++

Brad-

I might suggest:

Dear Artichoke.

I note your drawing indicates "setbacks".

Please forward a copy of the current boundary plan from which you have derived the proposed internal improvements' positions as this must be a portion of our research to provide a professional estimate for our fees.

Please also provide the dimensions of all components of the existing site improvements and the said proposed internal components.

Yours in expectation,

THKPS (Iall Handsome Knowledgeable Professional Surveyor)

I see one problem. Look at the text "Flood Way". Does the Artichoke know what that is?

If you do give a proposal, there's no way that you can foresee all of the potential problems going in, and if you do account for almost all of them and price accordingly, you'll probably be several times the amount of the low bidder and way higher than average. I think that it would be better to pass altogether than to try to price yourself out like that. Having a reputation of being 3 times as expensive as everyone else (even if that is an exaggeration) may discourage future good potential clients from even checking with you before hiring someone else.

Prior to issuing a proposal, call the architect and ask questions about the survey the design was based on (was it recent, was there a boundary survey, who did it, did they leave a project benchmark, did they reference a known benchmark nearby), and ask about the site and utility design (did a CE do it, who is that CE, would I be able to contact that CE directly if I encounter a design issue while staking). If the answers leave you with the feeling that the job has greater potential to blow up into a mess than to be reasonably profitable, walk away.

If the answers give you any positive reassurance and you are comfortable enough to submit a proposal, give an honest estimate for staking all items one-time. Make sure that your Scope of Work is tight, specifying what is included and also specifying what is not included. Ensure that the contract, either in a contract clause or in the Scope of Work section clearly indicates that time spent identifying design mistakes or deficiencies, time coordinating with the design professional to resolve the mistake or deficiency, and any restaking in connection with resolving those mistakes or deficiencies will be billed extra to the contract amount and such efforts are presumed to be approved by the client. All other work not outlined in the Scope of Services and all other restaking for any reason is extra to the Scope of Work and will be performed only after receiving written authorization from the client. Specify minimums for the amount of work requested, either in half day or in full day increments, depending upon the site's proximity to your office.

In short, an honest estimate with some extra project management time for the hand-holding you are likely to have to do but otherwise have difficulty billing out, and a contract that covers you whatever the cause of extra work/costs. But that only works as long as you are willing to stop work immediately upon encountering a design problem and start your "extra services clock" right then. Once you start trying to figure ways to make the bad design element work in order to keep the job moving, you make it much more difficult to collect extra fees for your effort and the delay, and you pick up liability for that portion of design that probably wouldn't be covered by your insurance since you would be working outside of your expertise and license authority.

On anything that I have never set foot on and did the initial survey, topo for those that do the planning, I never accept any project unless the architect, engineer, site manager and/or whoever is in charge can not provide me with a siteplan and a copy of the survey and point list that all of that was created from.

Without the original data, to me it is pure fiction and I can not make any promises to that sort of data.

0.02

Art S, post: 349746, member: 8983 wrote: I see one problem. Look at the text "Flood Way". Does the Artichoke know what that is?

What is the concern with the parking and absorption field being in a floodway?

It would really depend on current household finances. If we're about out of pork and beans I would come up with a win/win/no matter what price. If the livin' is easy I would pass along the name of a couple other surveyors who might be getting low on pork and beans.

A floodway is lower in elevation than the Base Flood Elevation (BFE). A flood Plain a project can have dirt added to be one foot above the BFE or more.
A floodway can not have dirt added in that area because it will raise the water elevation when it storms. It is kind of don't build in the floodway.
The following is from the FEMA web site.

A "Regulatory Floodway" means the channel of a river or other watercourse and the adjacent land areas that must be reserved in order to discharge the base flood without cumulatively increasing the water surface elevation more than a designated height. Communities must regulate development in these floodways to ensure that there are no increases in upstream flood elevations. For streams and other watercourses where FEMA has provided Base Flood Elevations (BFEs), but no floodway has been designated, the community must review floodplain development on a case-by-case basis to ensure that increases in water surface elevations do not occur, or identify the need to adopt a floodway if adequate information is available.

FEMA does not like to bend the rules in a floodway zone. No one at the planning department will approve adding dirt to construct a parking lot.

Four words, it's called a "Time and Materials Contract". I'll admit that I don't do construction stakeout (and this is probably the reason why), but do you guys really quote lump sum prices for stuff like this? Unless they give me a very specific list of what exactly they want staked, at what intervals and how many site visits that it's going to be, I don't see doing it any other way. Oh yeah, and ask for a nice sized retainer.