Construction Stake reading 101

Old foreman a few years ago was telling about a survey he had done. The corners were marked with stakes that had Property Corner" written on them. The old lady next door he had been having line issues with came out while he was looking at the stakes. So when he showed them to her she was not happy. He said. All he knew to tell her was, there are the stakes, and you see what it says on them. She took a look, turned around and said "It says GO TO HELL" and stomped back to the house.?ÿ

So so it's not just site superintendents. ?ÿ

Most of the construction staking I did was in Sacramento County...5 in a circle would equal 5 off whatever the stake says.

I recently heard about a newbie contractor who built a curb return along six chords because he went straight from stake to stake, but he got the offset correct!

So the stake says C dash zero point eighteen, is that cut zero feet eighteen inches? That was an actual question from a curb crew.

I've had a few run-ins with inexperienced contractors in my short surveying career (surveying 5 yrs, licensed 2 yrs, 4 yr degree).

For instance, we had the duty of doing the construction staking for a new Starbucks in a nearby city, well, we proceeded to layout hubs and offset stakes (at the actual corner and for the offsets) for the building corners when along came the contractor. He said something of this nature - I understand the hubs at the building corners but what am I supposed to do with these offset stakes? My co-worker and I looked at one another with a puzzled, frightened look on our faces... Well, sir, they are so you can re-establish the actual corner when you dig out the footer and the hub for the corner is gone. You can use the offset stakes to mark your batter boards when you set them up. He replied with another disturbing question, "Do you think I need batter boards? I've never set any." --- Needless to say, we spent a lot longer on that site than we should have but we were getting paid by the hour so it worked out pretty well.?ÿ ??ÿ

As a result, the steel contractor ended up having to weld the footplates of his steel beams to the anchor bolts because the were so misaligned...they never protruded through the holes.

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As far as curb stakes go, we have gotten to the point that when the stakes may be confusing, we will pull from our stakes and paint what the curb should look like on the ground. Maybe we stay on the construction site too long but I think it is better and more efficient to convey the message in an easy to understand method rather than having to answer questions over the phone and revisit the site several times.

We always do a walk-through with the foreman or the ones performing the work and ask to make sure they understand everything before we leave - the answer is usually yes...

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Having done construction staking in several parts of the country, I can tell you that there are regional differences in typical staking configurations and in abbreviations that the construction crews expect to get and the survey crews are accustomed to providing.

For instance, in one area, drainage structures (CB or STMH) would get a 10' and 20' offset, grades on both.?ÿ In another region, they would get a 10' & 15', grades only on the 10', 15' was for line only.?ÿ The strangest typical offset configuration was two 10' x 10' offsets - the contractor would swing 14.14' from each and actually thought I was an idiot because I had given him a 10' & 15' perpendicular to the curb line.

In some places, they wanted the actual point set as well.?ÿ In others, they didn't want to waste the money to have us set a stake that they were going to dig out right away.

I had one foreman ask "what the he!! does this 10 in a circle mean?"?ÿ The normal way to mark an offset there was o/s.?ÿ The list of varying abbreviations for various features could get pretty long.

In almost all cases, there are local surveyors or contractors who have never worked in other areas and think that the abbreviations, staking configurations, and sometimes even the flagging colors that they have learned are THE standard across the country and see it as a sign of complete incompetence if someone new to the area stakes, marks, and flags stakes in the typical manner from where they got their experience.

I would have asked what 10 in a circle is too. Where I grew up, I used to put 2 lines under the offset distance, above the ribbon. Here it's O/S. Local flavor. What I find most is each crew or sub has their unique layout needs. One wants storm box offsets one way, the next another. Figuring that out quickly helps. The general has no clue sometimes.

I had a run in with the moron fairy here recently too.?ÿ Foreman calls me in a panic as he says our stakes have the grades too high on a house pad they are doing.?ÿ He's wondering who to blame, as usual, the surveyor's the first to get it (even though we didn't rough stake the pad, the dirt guy did).?ÿ Anyhow, he says our "marks" on our stakes are 6" above the dirt pad.?ÿ I call party chief he says all of the stakes were cut 1 foot, which around here ever since Moby Dick was a minnow C-1 means cut 1 foot from the mark (F-1 means fill 1 foot from the mark).?ÿ So I call him back and ask him what's on the stake.?ÿ He says "A line across with an arrow going up to C-1'".?ÿ I said yes, so that means our marks aren't too high and you don't have too little dirt, you actually have too much.?ÿ Crickets.?ÿ I asked him if he understood. Crickets again.?ÿ I then asked "Do you know what C-1 means?", to which I got the answer "no".?ÿ I then asked him if his concrete guys (the ones who said the marks were too high) knew what C-1 meant, and he tells me "I'll get back to you".?ÿ Never heard back from him and house was built to grade etc. but it amazes me these folks are building structures humans are going to reside in.?ÿ Well...not this human anyways...

I used to find contractors that couldn't figure out tenths of a foot.?ÿI wrote out the conversion formula for him , still couldn't do it.?ÿI finally found a tape that had inches and tenths to let?ÿhim borrow.?ÿ That was a job you definately didn't want to be there any longer than you had to.?ÿ In and Out.

For cuts: C-??.?? (decimals of feet written smaller and underlined)

For fills: F+??.??

Offsets are written at the very top of lath/stake with a circle around it.

D/L: daylight stake

Set at grade: C=F*

There are probably others that I could think of, but it has been a long time since we've done construction staking on a regular basis.

?ÿI should see if I can get a copy of the photo where I used virtually every inch of a lath for a slope stake with numerous related items on it.

* Just kidding 🙂

I always ask the the contractor, or better, the equipment operator what would make it easy for them. Better to have it plain before construction, and, get it right.

The easy way to forego the inches and decimal feet conundrum is to have the cut or fill in even feet.

One operator asked me to use colors rather than write anything on the stake. That way it was easier to him. After all, he was driving the bulldozer, and, could easily see the colors on approach rather than stopping to read the stake. Anyway we worked out a color scheme and things went well.

Just like in boundary work, it is better for the success of the project when everyone is happy. I find getting their input promotes success just like any team effort.

As an example, I write on the stake it is usually C-1?ÿ for cut one foot and F-1 for fill one foot. It is also customary to have a horizontal line?ÿ with an arrow point up for fill and an arrow point down for cut. If both arrow points are drawn, then, that means finish grade.

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Would C-1 and F+1 be better?

Ha ha. I see what you mean.

One more reason why I no longer participate in the world of construction staking. ?ÿI will gladly leave it to those who enjoy it. ?ÿNOW, leave my boundary work alone!

@sellmana?ÿ That's the way we always wrote things up in the western Washington area.

Great use of broken pocket tapes.?ÿ Cut them at 1' sections and hand the sections out to the ignorant when needed.?ÿ Jp

I don't do construction layout, with the exception of small residential homes, any longer.?ÿ Since I went out on my own, 15 years ago, I left the heavy construction to others that enjoy it more than I.

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However, in my brief career (37 years so far) I have only once set batter boards for a builder. I didn't think anyone was using them anymore.

?ÿConstruction staking is a young mans game; I don't do much of it anymore. However, when I do I always provide a cut sheet and a sketch of what was set, where to find a benchmark and what dimensions that I used from the plans to arrive at the location of the stakes. All of this takes time and is appreciated by those how can read it. I don't hold hands.?ÿ

A construction worker not reading a stake is indeed a troubling occurrence,?ÿ but we should also be aware of the blind spots in construction layout that are present in the Survey profession.

I worked with a Carpenter recently who said that in 25 years we were the first survey crew he had worked with that could layout a straight line. Upon further conversation he conceded that the DOT Surveyors down in Oregon were pretty good but had a heap of tales about poor layout which were pretty embarrassing to Surveyors in general.?ÿ ?ÿ

From a customer service point of view I generally try to walk the site with someone, for full service a PDF of the off-set schematic and a report of set points or copy of the field book is a worthwhile expenditure of time both from a Quality Control and Marketing perspective.

If used, batter boards are usually set up over hub and tack after the surveyor is down the road.