caps plastic or aluminum

cheap plastic for me.

Those larger plastic caps are made from the same plastic as the "cheap" ones, so I think you already know the answer.

The larger ones have been around for awhile and haven't really caught on.

I've been using Bathey Plastic Caps since I started my business in 1988. They use a different polymer in their caps than the ones most surveyors around here are using. The caps are a softer plastic and are more brightly colored (especially when offset by the black imprint lettering which looks really sharp). I've gone back to markers I've set 20 years ago and never have found them to be hardened and cracked by the sun. I have found them gnawed on by ground squirrels (the ittle varmints seem to love chewing on the rims of the caps).

I'd highly recommend them. I also use the aluminum caps on occasion when requested or I have a special client.

JBS

Plastic caps suck. 9 times out of 10 I find them illegible and unidentifiable as to the person responsible for setting them. They are banned in our state..."Securing Identifying Markers. Professional land surveyors, and professional engineers and land surveyors engaged in the practice of land surveying, shall obain and use metalllic identifying markers which shall show the registrants Wyoming Registration Number"...Section 4 Monumentation. (a) All corners establishing real property boundaries shall be monumented with a durable monument, indlucing accessories, that are appropriate to the local site conditions....Thue use of wooden, plastic stakes, hubs, posts and caps is unacceptable as permanent monuments".

Pablo

Aluminum (or brass) all the way.

Loyal

I set a 2" aluminum monument with 3-1/4" aluminum cap 500' east of the ocean shore in Cayucos a few years ago. Was back there two weeks ago and it is already pitted and dull.

I think in the case a rebar with shaded plastic cap might be better.

brass is best but getting the dept to buy them is an uphill battle.

$60,000 staff time is OK.

$60 monument is not.

Hey, hey ,hey now. Watch who you're disparaging there! It may depend on the soils and environmental conditions since virtually no one around these parts (western WA) uses anything but the standard yellow plastic cap on, mostly, 18" 5/8 re-bar. I have had no problem with them and have found many that are 40 years old. The older ones go white, but the license no is generally still readable and that's all that I am looking for anyway.

The look of the cap is pretty unimportant. They almost always get buried and can't be found without a metal detector and shovel anyway. I have heard of problems with aluminum caps as they can react with the metal in the re-bar, but have never tried them.

For monuments, it's different. Most municipalities have their own requirements, but in general, it's 2" brass in concrete. I prefer to use "Feno" mons but my local county balks at it for some reason. Then again that only applies to monuments set in the R/W.

When I first got licensed I bought a box of 200 plastic caps to celebrate. All 200 are still in the box. I use aluminum, would prefer brass but the brass is so expensive most clients won't pay the extra cost. Aluminum will not last in some environments so a plastic or brass may be better. Another option for a real heavy duty marker is cast iron.

> cheap plastic for me.

:good: me too.

I too use the Bathey Yellow Plastic caps, no problems with fading or cracking, just the occasional animal chew....I do use aluminum in one County that requires them..

Gig...
You are right. Environmental conditions are mainly the reason plastic caps don't work around here very well. I can see where the ones chemically formulated and manufactured to withstand cracking, sunlight, soils etc. would be perfect for WA. At times we have to dig down through frozen ground to locate monuments and you end up spliting or damaging the cheap plastic caps. I've seen some manufactured plastic caps that do hold up well until a forest fire or wild fire takes care of them. It's difficult to regulate which caps to use and the word "permanent" in legislation. That's where a professional surveyor's judgement steps in.

Pablo

The plastic caps like to get chewed up by critters. That has been my experience.
However, those I've worked for, we set plastics unless we did DOT work.

One advantage to the plastic is I have found a number of the pins that were pulled out, cap and all, and pounded back in resulting in the pin smashing up through the top of the cap. It was an obvious clue that they were disturbed.

Orange plastic on rebar and in pipe

99% are set subsurface with pin flag attached under the cap

Monuments that are visible and/or above surface have a way of disappearing around here, usually by moving machinery and fence builders.

John - I've been using MORASSE in orange for 5+ years now.
Haven't gone back to observe the oxidation, solar fading etc.

But, they seem to fasten better to the rebar. I have gone back to some of my older alum. caps and found them frost heaved off.

Scott

Cheapo plastic (or whatever they are made of) here also, I have no desire to make whats on top of the pin a percentage of my profit.

I'M WITH PABLO

No plastic! Only aluminum or brass. As he said, it's not allowed anyway, and for good reasons. 2" aluminum cap as a minimum size on a mininmum 5/8" rebar at least 24" long. Always set the same in concrete or pavement with the help of the HILTTI.

Point taken..The code does say the monument must be "permanently marked or tagged". I guess it comes down to how literally you want to take the word permanent. Permanent, as in not temporary or as in for all time. No mark or tag is completely permanent no can it survive all situations. So we have to decide what it is fills the intent. Hiking through the forested hills with multiple pieces of 18" re-bar is work enough and then adding to this several steel 2" brass caps along with all the other equipment to mark a line in the woods that will be buried and not seen for 40 years seem a bit much. The plastic caps will last just fine.

I have marked boundaries of tidelands (saltwater) with Feno mons and 2 inch brass since I knew the saltwater would eat up the plastic. Each application needs to be looked at on it's own merits. Simply stating that 24" re-bar and 3" steel is the answer for all occasions is not smart or workable.