Need help with property line marking

  • Need help with property line marking

    Posted by jmiller101506 on January 8, 2023 at 2:00 am

    Hello, hoping someone can help me. Building a fence on a heavily wooded property. Paid for a professional survey and I have the corner coordinates and survey professional marked with stakes. Property is 872 feet long and too many trees to run a line between the stakes (my first instinct to ƒ??markƒ? the property line) so is there a survey trick to do this? GPS isnƒ??t accurate enough, fence is to built within 3 feet of actual property line. And yes I know this is a dumbass novice question but days of google searches has yielded absolutely no answers. I canƒ??t afford to screw this up and accidentally build on neighborƒ??s lot.  Thanks for helping me out!  

    jph replied 1 year, 3 months ago 13 Members · 17 Replies
  • 17 Replies
  • jitterboogie

    jitterboogie

    Member
    January 8, 2023 at 5:46 pm

    Why didn’t you ask the surveyor to give you line stakes?  Or why don’t you now?  I’m sure they would be willing to work something out. Seems weird to me this wasnt part of the original work esp if your plan was to build a fence.  Call your surveyor, please.

  • dave-karoly

    dave-karoly

    Member
    January 8, 2023 at 5:50 pm

    The surveyor may already have control points from which they could measure over to the property line.

  • Williwaw

    Williwaw

    Member
    January 8, 2023 at 6:18 pm

    Ask the surveyor to stake the line for you. With trees in the way he will have to traverse between the corners occupying points where he can see each location along the line that require marking. Thatƒ??s about the only reliable way as trees will need to be removed to make way for the fence and you have to be certain they are your trees to remove. If they already did the boundary, itƒ??ll cost less than starting from scratch. Good luck!


    Willy
  • holy-cow

    holy-cow

    Member
    January 8, 2023 at 8:21 pm

    Excellent advice.  To do it right, get your surveyor back out there.

    Many years ago I had to do this for a full half mile using a total station and pocket calculator. Seemed to me that every third tree was on the line.  It was in the upper 90’s without a breath of fresh air.  The shade was nice.

  • jph

    jph

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 2:16 pm

    Did the contract call for just the corners to be marked?  If your surveyor said that he would mark the lines too, then he should have staked them so that you could at least see from one stake to the next and prior ones. 

    If he said that he would stake the lines too, then maybe he did and you haven’t really checked.  Sometimes it can be tough to see this in heavily wooded lots.  Sometimes I set stakes and hang flagging from tree branches in between.  It depends on the lot, and what the client requests.

    As others have said, if you can’t see between points enough to set a fence, then your best bet is to call that surveyor and have him do it.

  • tickmagnet

    tickmagnet

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 2:41 pm

    This method may work and it costs the least

    https://www.fao.org/3/R7021E/r7021e03.htm

    you can also run a parallel line and back measure to the property line

  • holy-cow

    holy-cow

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 3:29 pm

    An alternative service I have provided was to set a line of stakes at a uniform offset to the true line,  This is typically a case of large trees very close to the boundary line that will all be dozed out and a new fence built directly on the boundary line,  Then the landowner can use something like a fifty-foot tape to remark the true line.  This makes better sense than putting stakes where they will probably be destroyed by the tree-clearing process.

  • jitterboogie

    jitterboogie

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 3:43 pm

    @holy-cow 

    that almost sounds like offset construction staking which  pretty sure you’ve sworn off on for longer than I’ll ever get to survey myself… ????  ???? 

     

    hope you’re feeling better Divine Bovine

  • holy-cow

    holy-cow

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 3:51 pm

    @jitterboogie 

    Thanks for the support.  Still not walking correctly and still have some sciatic nerve pain.  But, the doctor finally gave me a prescription for some REALLY GOOD PILLS that cut the pain tremendously.  It is commonly used by epileptics or diabetics experiencing neuropathy.

  • jitterboogie

    jitterboogie

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 4:01 pm

    @holy-cow

    good to hear.

    take them as minimally as possible, those are weird drugs for sure and have their own pitfalls when taken long term.  If you’re allowed try to take ibu and or naproxen instead of it provides similar benefits.  less expensive too.  IANAD but was studying to be and get lots of good advice from my siblings whom are.

    I decided surveying is less painful and less frustrating…maybe…
    ???? ???? 

  • Norman_Oklahoma

    Norman_Oklahoma

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 4:01 pm

    This method may work and it costs the least

    I was going to suggest something like that, except substituting 4 foot lath for range poles.  Nevertheless, getting the surveyor back out to put in at least a few line stakes would be best.

  • dave-o

    dave-o

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 8:47 pm

    This method may work and it costs the least

    https://www.fao.org/3/R7021E/r7021e03.htm

    you can also run a parallel line and back measure to the property line

    This is pretty slick.  Four guys and 4 poles (and a few radios) would do 900′ pretty easily.  The time might be spent finding the offset that allows line of site, but I bet there is one.

     


    dd
  • RADAR

    RADAR

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 8:59 pm

    @tickmagnet 

    GIF


    I hope everyone has a great day; I know I will!
  • bill93

    bill93

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 9:15 pm

    This method may work and it costs the least

    I’ve used this method.  It only takes two people if you can find a way to set up the end poles vertical. Just be sure you each direct the other into position. If you move yourself to align with what you see it will diverge.

     


    .
  • Gordon Svedberg

    Gordon Svedberg

    Member
    January 9, 2023 at 9:30 pm

    There is also a prism which shows an image both left and right (and forward), as you move on line, the images align with each other.

  • fairbanksls

    fairbanksls

    Member
    January 10, 2023 at 12:38 am

    Ask the surveyor to stake the line for you. With trees in the way he will have to traverse between the corners occupying points where he can see each location along the line that require marking. Thatƒ??s about the only reliable way as trees will need to be removed to make way for the fence and you have to be certain they are your trees to remove. If they already did the boundary, itƒ??ll cost less than starting from scratch. Good luck!

     

    ^^^^^^ This is the correct way.  

    I wouldnƒ??t recommend that a property owner use a method that I wouldnƒ??t use.  The range poles may have been ƒ??good enoughƒ? 50 years ago but not today. (IMHO) Mature hardwood trees arenƒ??t cheap and neither are fences.

     

  • jph

    jph

    Member
    January 10, 2023 at 4:36 pm

    I wouldnƒ??t recommend that a property owner use a method that I wouldnƒ??t use.

    Totally agree

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