Long known fact
tie flag on monument and a utility company or other group will find a reason to construct something there.
I put my BOR rules ahead of everything.
If it takes removing concrete, asphalt, brick or other material to set monuments as required then so be it.
0.02
Educate me
> Why are the Berntsen markers copper, when bronze is more common for disks? When is one better than the other?
beats me. I think Brass disks are more common in my world (or aluminum).
Copper is pretty soft.
on boats Brass is taboo because of salt corrosion (lots of zinc in it), but Bronze is hard as nails but much more expensive (contains nickel I believe).
> Drill a 1/4" hole with a hammer drill using a good masonry bit. Drive a mag nail with washer into the hole, it won't come out. It will sit up on top of the concrete so snow removal (if you have snow) equipment may hit and knock them out. I think the Berntsen markers are flush but I've never used them, just heard they are the best.
if you don't countersink for the washer/tag the first time someone cleans wit a square nose shovel it will disappear. (Same with cotton gin spindles or PK nails in asphalt, end loaders seek them out.)
...or If in California someone will trip on it and you know what comes next
cause it's a better monument
On a closely related note...
> That's exactly what we do. Gets a bit tricky with side lot lines that intersect at oblique angles...
What do you do for those? (if your general offset is 5', do you offset 5' along the "oblique" angle? or do you do a 5' perpendicular offset where it intersects with the scewed line?) Also, do you stamp the offset distance on the cap?
Drill 1/4" hole deep enough for a 1/4" PK or MAG nail, then counterbore with a larger masonry drill(maybe 5/8" dia.)about a quarter of inch down. The PK will flush out and look nice. It's almost impossible to remove a corner like this.
I won't set something like that
> In my climate the freeze/thaw cycle pops a disk out relatively quickly no matter what adhesive you use...
The 1" Berntsen brass disks don't use adhesive; they force-fit into a plastic sleeve. I don't have to deal with freeze/thaw, so I don't know how they'd perform in that condition.
For larger disks I use anchor cement. I wouldn't think that'd be susceptible to freeze/thaw displacement, but again I have no experience with the latter.
Educate me
>advertised as being brass
Where? The page at Dave's link contains the word "copper" 4 times, brass or bronze only in a link to another product page. It describes the pictured ones as
"Available in three styles: In copper"
Screw in Conc.
Drill a hole as deep as the stem of the screw, but a little bit smaller in diameter, hammer screw in.
Drill Hole itself is a legally recognised monument in Australia. Screws are easier to find though.
Educate me
> Where?
Apparently nowhere at present -- they changed the product description, though I don't know when. Below is a copy of my order from 2005; I've ordered another batch since (2010?), but the receipt doesn't specify material.
All the BP markers I've received have the same appearance, so I don't know if they mislabeled them originally or changed the alloy without changing the look.
Educate me
Come to think of it, sometime around 2002 I recall helping a colleague set a BP marker that looked like brass. Maybe there were both brass and copper models available for awhile, and they just took a long time (years!) to modify the catalog copy to reflect the changeover to all-copper.
On a closely related note...
> I use a cold chisel to make a "+" 4" to 6" in length then set a my typical monument 5' away on line.
I use a cordless circular saw with a concrete blade to cut crosses about 3/8" deep. This is allowed under Alabama SOP rules as being a "suitable monument".
I often set them in sidewalks and curbs as offset monuments even when the corners are iron pins.
Those brass plugs are cool, but I still like cross-cuts. They don't have an identifier, but they can't be ripped out unless the concrete itself gets torn out or broken. Our state has a clause that says something like "...corners must be marked with license number or company name where practicable..."
I set them with a cordless angle grinder equipped with a diamond blade. It makes them really well defined and obvious unlike the old chisel cuts.
We have used a 1" star drill and a 1/2" steel rod in epoxy with a brass disc set on it.
When we wanted high marks, we traced the circle out of the disc and then took a chisel to recess the disc itself.
The star drill is slow and VERY manual, but never fails to work. Just tappy tap, turn, tappy tap, turn and in a few minutes, you've got a 6" or greater hole in the concrete. We used the 1" one to make room for the shaft of the disc around the iron rod. Worked very well and they are still in place today some 17 years after we set them.
On a closely related note...
"That's exactly what we do. Gets a bit tricky with side lot lines that intersect at oblique angles...
What do you do for those? (if your general offset is 5', do you offset 5' along the "oblique" angle? or do you do a 5' perpendicular offset where it intersects with the scewed line?) Also, do you stamp the offset distance on the cap?"
We have been setting a rebar with cap marked "Witness Corner" 1.00' (measured perpendicularly from the front property line) on the side lot lines. This results in them being varying distances from the actual front corner, but they all lie 1' from the edge of sidewalk. The distance from the set monument is shown on the recorded Record of Survey drawing, but not on the cap. I don't really like this, but it was all the guy who is actually laying out the house foundations was capable of understanding...
Long known fact
"If it takes removing concrete, asphalt, brick or other material to set monuments as required then so be it."
If we were to do that here the City would repair the sidewalk (probably obliterating the monument)and send us the repair bill.
"It's almost impossible to remove a corner like this."
That last about 2 years here if you use a really good apoxy adhesive... freeze/thaw is amazing.