....Because I'm not confident that I'm doing it adequately and it's dangerous, noisy,difficult,challenging and mostly?ÿ because I think I suck at it.
Carry on.
...solid foundation man...Yer gonna be great
Earplugs help with the noise part. I prefer earmuffs. It does improve my outlook on life. In this age you should be able to demand a free work area, within reason, to mitigate the dangerousness. Experience and good office preparation helps with the challenge.?ÿ
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I plug with the 38NRR plugs usually. The clouds of dust, diesel exhaust, spark showers,moving equipment never gets boring for sure
I do a lot of construction staking. You will have to set boudaries from the start.
If a site is really messy, i just leave and send a bill for lost time. They will look after it the next time you'll come.
Of course it isn't like working in the Savoy but i find it very rewarding to see a construction rise up through points or other stuff i staked myself.
You left out bad attitudes and being given very little notice. I mostly avoid too but occasionally stakeout a one off house. Staked out a solar farm recently and enjoyed that.
Construction staking can be unnerving at times but the most dangerous thing on the site is the Roach Coach driver. I lost 2 total stations in one year.?ÿ?ÿ ?????ÿ
Hard work.
High stress.
Rush rush.
High liability.
The hold backs, the paper work, the weekly certified payroll, the profit margins are tiny, frankly they usually can't seem to hold up their end at the job site.?ÿ
Not for me anymore, at least public construction.
We do lots of construction staking for private jobs such as the 7 miles of boundary line I staked recently, staking for roads (usually control for their machines) and houses in one of our subdivisions, dams we design, POD facilities, no problem,,,,,,,,,I'll do that kinda of construction staking everyday. But there's no bid, no meetings, no payroll to be inspected.?ÿ
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Back in the 1920s, my grandmother told my uncle to plant the onion sets that she had saved. He was reluctant to the point that force was required, but he did plant them.
When they sprouted, it was obvious that they had all been dumped into one hole. What followed was never completely clear in the telling, but apparently harsh language and blows were involved.
It's a shame that buildings don't grow from stakes.
@mathteacher I usually don't connect onion planting and construction staking unless I'm using some mild hallucinogenic.
Hard work.
High stress.
Rush rush.
High liability.
After the above $$$$$ big bucks $$$$$ ?????ÿ
I actually like construction staking, if I am the one in the field. It has been rewarding to see the stakes I put in the ground guide the creation of some magnificent developments and industrial plants. Earning the respect & admiration of the construction superintendents & construction crews is another evolutionary process I have grown to enjoy. Going from a contemptable attitude toward the survey crew to an attitude of "we can't figure it out unless you get it straightened out" is something everyone should witness at least once in their career.
When mentoring the next generation of surveyors, I have neglected the finer art of construction staking, how to take a set of plans, without any coordinate sheet, any layout a masterpiece. My focus on teaching boundary retracement and data collection techniques has outweighed the importance of teaching that facet of the profession because there are so many construction companies that have their own layout man on their payroll.
@lurker?ÿ
Well, you might tend more toward the normal on the psycho scale than I do.
On the other hand, Grandma's onion sets had positions planned in her office with my uncle assigned locate those positions. Onions were intended to sprout from those positions just as columns do on a construction project. When they sprouted in the wrong place, all hell broke loose, same as on a construction project.
Just a difference in scale, no mind enhancers needed.
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I recently completed my first of a few boundary and legal principles classed, so diving back into construction staking is a diversion for my path to license, albeit still great experience for the people I'll mentor in my future.
Being able to choose staking is different than my current role, I'm Almost exclusively construction so I've got to figure out this gambit.
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Thank you you and everyone else for responses
J
Construction staking is one bit of fieldwork where it really is nice to have a helper.?ÿ Preparation is a big deal as well.?ÿ Nailing those things down takes much of the pain out of it.
Construction staking is one bit of fieldwork where it really is nice to have a helper.?ÿ Preparation is a big deal as well.?ÿ Nailing those things down takes much of the pain out of it.
I do it solo, no problems but as you mentioned prep is key. Also tie points. Don't let anyone stress you out on site.
If someone from the site starts annoying me i'll just tell i'm off and send the invoice. Usually this helps. I have a lot of respect for construction workers but even more who appreciate my efforts as construction staking is the most difficult part of the whole surveying business imho.
If you are not confident that your layout is adequate then resolve that concern first and foremost. To continue on is to either become stressed for no benefit or to ignore a valid concern; neither is desirable.
If the environment is dangerous, resolve that concern. There is nothing you can contribute to a project that is worth injury.
If the environment is difficult and the work is challenging, well that is why they pay us the big bucks.?ÿ
Some ideas to help your piece of mind:
When starting a construction project, always check the match lines with existing conditions first thing. Nobody is going to give a hoot that your control is spot on if you miss the existing roadway by a foot.
Point to line inversing is your friend, some simple checks pay out big and COGO never has the wrong snap settings.
Walk your layout afterward, alone is fine but if you can walk it and explain it to whoever is going to be using it you will kill two birds, first to make sure that it makes sense and second that the end user understands it.
Be collaborative but play your position, have a defined scope and do your best to hold the other players to their tasks. That includes making sure that your manager actually manages, that their people pull a tape, etc.?ÿ
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Hard work.
High stress.
Rush rush.
High liability.
Everybody thinks that at first. ?ÿExperience teaches that only one of those can??t be controlled. ?ÿIt will always be hard work.
This a problem is our profession. Very few surveyors are willing to do construction layout. Which has forced contractors to purchase equipment and to it themselves.?ÿ Most contractors in my area have far better/newer equipment than surveyors.?ÿ When I called into to check a project as a third party. The contractors are almost always more accurate with layout, than the surveyor who was doing the asbuilt.?ÿ
