I purchased a 1 acre property a few months ago. I recieved a location drawing at closing. It shows property pins were set on the corners. It also gives Degrees, Minutes and seconds as well as bearing (N, E, S, W). It also gives feet of each property line. On the drawing it indicates iron rods were set at each point of the property. It also gives coordinates, but in thousands. For example it shows pin 24 is set at (10015.861, 10646.883)???? My goal is to find the location of the property pins. Can I deduce the location based on this drawing?
your pics are not showing up
you can look for your corners, but what you find may or may not be your actual corner. there are all kinds of rods driven in the ground, just because you find something doesn't mean it is the corner. not trying to scare you out of looking but before you do anything important (build a shed or a fence) based on those "corners" i would advise you have a professional look it over.
the surveyor who prepared the plat should have his name and phone number listed on the plat. this will be your best bet for having the corners retraced. if he is not available any professional land surveyor should be able to handle the job for you.
Oh boy! This should be interesting.
The coordinates are essentially meaningless since it appears they just used an assumed coordinate system (10,000.000, 10,000.000)
One you find one monument, you might be able to use the bearings and distances to find the others. Sometimes they are buried and you would need a metal locator. Call the surveyor that made the map if he's still around.
Looks like the Building restriction lines are pretty tight.
Find a good starting point, one of the monuments on the cul de sac would do, get a 100 foot tape, look around you and see the occupation lines and then measure down them using the plat distances, mark the point temporally and search. Repeat around the tract. You will soon know if what you find is a reasonable fit between occupation and record also if any monuments are missing. Having done that yourself you will know your boundary, probably will meet your neighbors and will know if you are comfortable with what you found or if you need the services of a surveyor. People have been looking for their corner monuments for a very long time and few have created problems for themselves. The coordinates appear to be local and of some value if used in a cogo setting, forget your hand held device and rent or borrow a good metal detector for your monument search, then with that, a 100 foot tape and a shovel you can determine your needs, just don't attempt to set your own missing corners, you have neighbors who would be effected by that act.
jud
Hire a Land Surveyor to do the job. The plat is for other Surveyors to retrace. Most Surveyors won't try to do other peoples jobs.
I assume your link is just a part of the drawing? that doesn't look like an actual survey to me. That could just be a tax map of some sort with assumed coordinates, like what you could just generate from a legal description. If I were you, I'd contact my closing agent and find out who created this and what they actually did, since you probably paid for it. Does the whole drawing show who did the work?
The land owner is expected to defend his rights, not the surveyor, all land owners need to spend some time learning about boundary's, that will teach them when and why they may need additional expertise. An owner that won't spend some time searching for his own corners before calling a surveyor needs to be encouraged to do so, that is what I do, even loan a 100' tape or pin finder occasionally.
jud
> The land owner is expected to defend his rights, not the surveyor, all land owners need to spend some time learning about boundary's, that will teach them when and why they may need additional expertise. An owner that won't spend some time searching for his own corners before calling a surveyor needs to be encouraged to do so, that is what I do, even loan a 100' tape or pin finder occasionally.
> jud
Wow. Apparently this surveying business is pretty simple stuff.
Reminds me of the guy who found his front and back lot corners and built a fence between them.
Neighbor showed up some time after the fact and wanted to know why they guy used the monument marked BM Elev 102.32' instead of the one several feet away marked LS 2345 that his surveyor had set when he bought the place.
Looks like a portion of a PUD, or Site Condo to me, that is why the coordinates are listed.
> .... that doesn't look like an actual survey to me.
It looks like it was inked, with circle templates and leroy lettering to me. That would imply age, but it could well be based on a survey.
If I use a measuring tape, won't that take in account for the hills in the area. The land is not completley flat? Is there something I can use that will measure based on a straight line (laser measuring device)?
I have no idea what a "location drawing" is. Maybe that is the local term for a survey map?
The image I provided from a part of a Land Survey created by an Engineering Company. The survey is stamped with a state stamp, it also contains various signatures from both the eng company as well as state employees.
Laser Measuring Devices
> If I use a measuring tape, won't that take in account for the hills in the area. The land is not completley flat? Is there something I can use that will measure based on a straight line (laser measuring device)?
Yeah, I got one of those,it's called a Total Station and it cost me $9,000. Dragging a cloth tape, or pacing and estimating slope correction is usually enough for an experienced field man to find the corner monuments. Then, the Total Station is used to get more precise measurements.
call that company and ask how much to find your corners
If you know the slope and it is uniform, you can compute the hypotenuse. Yes there are many ways to measure, could even use a range finder to determine the slope distance. You are measuring in order to determine a small search area only, not setting monuments. After locating a monument you can refine your measurement between monuments as a check and if you find a conflict, or there are missing monuments, talk to a Surveyor.
jud
How old is the plat? What is the date by the signatures? What state are you in? Does it have a "seal" with a land surveyor's name and number on it?