In western KY and southern IL, we have a problem with old-timers
signing updates for $50 and generally working for nothing; of course,
they never go out into the field except to throw some ribbon around
the fence corner.
Lately I have read in survey magazines about FL, RI, and Texas having
problems with their state legislatures. So I called a surveyor I found
on the Internet who was in the Yellow pages but who had what looked like
a residence address in Houston. He said things were really slow (maybe he was trying
to scare me away). I asked about prices. Several surveyors were tacking
on $1 per mile for gasoline. I asked what the price of a
lot survey and house locstion was -- $1000 woweeeeeeee!! He said once the
engineers get control of the board of surveying, the price would be up to
$1500. I asked, "What about a bunch of development lots?" He said their
was so much corruption in city hall that most engineers were not touching
subdivisions for less than $5000 a lot for design and surveying; all
construction staking added on that at hourly rates of $170 per hour!!!
All engineer's time at planning approval was billed at $200 per hour.
"What about flood certificates?" $800 per lot; no mention of FEMA on the
map (added liability). Because somebody on the board of reg thought all
certificates should be done with GPS, the price doubled during the last year.
Any running of elevations for TBM's to the subdivision was $1500 per day
additional for a field crew.
Regarding those old-timers mentioned above, they will probably giving up
their licenses soon. The renewal of $378 last year is going up to $578
this year when the new law for the new Texas joint board is passed.
I am sure the old-timers won't stay around to pay $578!!!
Kent -- am I dreaming about those Texas prices??
> Kent -- am I dreaming about those Texas prices??
Well, all I know is that I base all my fees on the amount of time the work actually requires, computed at my hourly rates plus expenses such as travel and copies of records. I usually ask for a retainer of 40% of the estimated fee before I start work.
Probably half of my work involves stuff that ended up in litigation after some quickie-dickie surveyors worked their magic, so I wouldn't want you to think that there aren't plenty of surveyors trying to meet the minimum technical standards for a low-ball price. I send the routine work to other surveyors I think will do a good job and keep the best projects, which are usually anything but routine. It's worked pretty well so far.
As a footnote: I don't take builders on as clients and try real hard not to do any land development related work. So I really have no idea how little builders and developers want to pay for what surveying they need done. That is all work that someone else is welcome to.
So much wrong in the above; this has got to be some kind of joke.
Lot surveys in a new subdivisiob go from $250 (lowballers) to $500. In older or more costly subdivisions read:trouble) may go for anywhere from $500 to $1,200.
That engineering control theory was crazy - I see costs going down.
Most construction staking runs from $0.85 to $1.00 per foot.
The cost of Flood Certs vary. They cost anywhere from $200 to $1,000, depending on how long it takes to get good vertical onto the site. No one on the TBPLS thinks all EC's should be completed using GPS. However, if the EC is inside the Houston ETJ, you must use GPS as a basis for the vertical in addition to the local RMs. Houston requires the NSRS to be the basis for all horizontal and vertical work, which means CORS, which means GPS, but all the FEMA work is related to Harris County Flood Control District monuments (sorta) based on a 2001 adjustment, so there are extra calculations which must be done.
I hope RPLS license prices go down - to about the same as a PE license!
More and more companies are going under. There are very few companies that have work. There are only about 5 companies in the Houston area that have the same number of employees and workload that they had 4 years ago and there were probably 150 survey companies in Houston 5 years ago. Probably less than 50 now.
