I'm always under a time crunch, but I almost never have to take crap off anyone, but I'm doing 99% residential construction.?ÿ
It's easy to make friends with the excavators just by going directly to them if they didn't dig quite far enough or something caved in....I'll go find them if they're nearby in the subdivision and then they can fix it while I'm pinning the rest of the house. That way they don't take bs off the formers because there's not enough room outside the pins.?ÿ
They made it very clear they really appreciate me going to them first. A previous guy that used to do all the construction had the "not my problem" attitude.?ÿ
"Construction Staking" comes in a lot of different flavors. I've done my share of the subdivision development type and I'd rather not do any more.?ÿ Between 2016 and 2020 I did a lot of building site development staking in urban Portland. I found it quite interesting and modestly lucrative.?ÿ I'd be glad to continue with that.
We did a lot of construction staking over the years, and yes all of the previous comment are true. It can be a BIG headache and at the same time be profitable and satisfying.
After years of stressing out over all the crap that comes with construction staking a fellow surveyor told me his philosophy on frantic calls from contractors - ??How does lack of planning on your part create urgency on my part?. Keeping this saying in mind decreased my stress level and increased the profitability.
@ncsudirtman Pipe crew plus materials crew dirt crew and cover the pipe stone crew all waving and screaming across the site saying over hear just need one shot to see if we are good. Lol that was my life this past week. I had rtk going robot going and I still could not keep up. I have another robot going this week so i can set one robot up at one end and another at the other end so I don??t have to break set ups. My boss said you can??t run but one at a time. I said true but it takes 20 minutes to drive around from one end to the other. It takes 5 minutes for me to walk it and having the both set up i will not have to walk out of the hole and drive around. I can just walk and switch jobs and radio settings and do what i need to on north and south end of the job. I am already pushing trig elevations anyway but i am keeping them under 800 feet and that??s about as close as i can get to what i need to shoot. Cant put the instrument on the pad so we have no choice. I really wish they would have set up the control for rtk and a base. Our vrs is not good enough repeatable to get the accuracy required.
It??s called construction staking because the contractor and crews use the stakes/hubs to check line and grade. ?ÿIf they don??t have qualified employees they need to hire some or invest in machine control. ?ÿAn offset hub and tack set 50 feet from the beginning of a pipe run is sufficient to check into. ?ÿJust because someone yells at me to check something doesn??t mean I need to do it then. It better be in the contract if it becomes a habit. I don??t like having someone interfere with my productivity.
here's an interesting tidbit for the fire.....
?ÿ
?ÿ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDezu3QcJU0&feature=youtu.be
?ÿ
?ÿ
here's an interesting tidbit for the fire.....
?ÿ
?ÿ
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDezu3QcJU0&feature=youtu.be
?ÿ
?ÿ
Yep!!
Watched it in real time some years ago.?ÿ
Another reason to leave it to someone else.?ÿ
It's like that old joke about the landowner who hired a surveyor to set monuments and was outraged by the bill because "all you did was set some stakes"...
...and the surveyor tells him that 5% of the cost was setting the stakes, and 95% was knowing where to set the stakes.
@rover83?ÿ
Ok, there is something to be understand about many of our clients in your old joke.?ÿ I think the thing to understand is the overall reason for the poster's comments.?ÿ It fascinates me.
Here are the aspects to understand about many of our clients and potential clients:
- They don't appreciate what we do.?ÿ
- Many don't understand what it takes (education, equipment, time, etc.) for us to do what we do.
- Some don't even *WANT* our services...they just need a permit/get to closing/a loan and someone told them they had to have a survey.?ÿ
- Overall, a fair portion of our clients resent their need/dependency on our services.?ÿ Say, 10-20%? Seems like a lot to me.
Is it any wonder these types will complain about the cost and time of our services?
Here is something else that fascinates me.?ÿ At this point in my career, I can spot these people/projects a mile off. I usually decline the project.?ÿ Sometimes I don't, and in these occasions, I get frustrated when the client grumbles or complains about my service.?ÿ Why??ÿ I knew it was coming!?!?! I saw it a mile off, right?!?!? So why am I frustrated?!?!?
I think there a few things have improved this situation for me: 1) Say no to the project - it is OK to say that you can't get to that project and refer them to XYZ - end of conversation; 2) attitude adjustment on my part (benefit of being over 50) - just learn to grin and bear it - this has probably been the hardest but best thing for me; 3) a retainer for services.
