Has anyone come up with a cheap solution for covering a stone bound below grade? It's always nice to dig up an original monument, but then I either have to fill the hole back up for safety reasons or the dirt just washes back in on its own after all that work.
I'm thinking of using some corrugated plastic pipe set vertical, but not sure what to use for a cover. It needs to not look like a drain, so that someone would actually think to look inside it for the corner. I know Bernsten makes aluminum caps for this, but I'm not about to spend $50+ on a monument that's already there!
Bury them, and let them call a surveyor!
N
I'd use the heavy PVC and cleanout cap then glue or screw my aluminum disk into the cap. or just bury it!
i've cut out the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket, placed it over the stone, placed copies of the original field notes along w/ some of my business cards in a freezer bag, taped the bag to the inside of the bucket, and lableled the lid "SURVEY CORNER"
hopefully someone will figger it out. there were a few other odd ball mons w/in a few feet supposedly marking the corner.
I like the idea of screwing my cap into the lid. The homeowner would realize it's some kind of survey marker, and the next surveyor would hopefully know to look inside. The schedule 40 pipe seems a bit expensive, but I think this would work perfect:
http://stores.drainageproducts.us/-strse-1384/6%22-NDS-Valve-Box/Detail.bok
When we set a RR Spike or other in a rural road, we put a few squashed aluminum cans in the hole before we backfill.
Covering a monument with something that doesn't deteriorate helps the next time it has to be uncovered.
I have made a few monument boxes out of empty paint cans.
Clean, unused empty paint cans are available at paint and hardware stores in quart or gallon sizes. I found some at Home Depot. I cut the bottom out of the can with an ordinary kitchen can opener, set the bottomless can flush with the ground over the monument, and backfill around it. The lid can then be pried open without removing the can. The lid can be painted and/or marked with a felt-tip marker to indicate that there is a monument below.
I don't expect them to last as long as the $50 cast aluminum boxes and covers, but they aren't hard to make up, and the empty paint cans are only $3 or $4.
For a monument at a greater depth than the height of a paint can, it would probably be possible to start with a length of plastic pipe slightly smaller than the paint can, and then drop the can over it. I haven't tried this.
I like dirt
Chat up some of your local contractors and get some good thick wall PVC or
HDPE pip and cut it into rings in about 3" increments, then buy a box of "deep 1" magnets.
Ring the stone with the a pice of nice heavy PVC/HDPE to about 3" below grade.
Backfill with "sand" standing the Magnet on the stone roughly where the mark is... then top with sod/dirt.
Easy to find with a magnetic locator, thick wall plastic should keep the shovels and rototillers off it (not plows or excavators sadly)... sand makes for easy digging and a good sign that something is "down there" if someone is looking....