What Surveyors Do

For the private party such as a land owner, a Land Surveyor is engaged when trying to answer the question "what do I own?".  Prospective clients will often ask lots of questions of the surveyor. I always respect my client’s willingness to learn a little about the work we do. Surveying land involves many steps. 

A Survey begins with researching the records for the property and adjoining area with the County Surveyors office.  These archives contain recorded survey information, subdivision maps, tax assessor maps, air photos, engineering documents and clues as to what a Surveyor can anticipate locating in the field which will aid in determining boundary lines.  A copy of the current deed is paramount, a title report is very helpful.  Additional records that may be searched include State highway plans, monument records filed with the State, USGS topographic maps, State survey repository records and in-house records from other private Surveyors.

The next step is to go out in the field and look for useful information. Using the information gained from the research phase, we look for existing monuments and evidence left by previous surveys or improvements made which may have been built in relation to title lines. Besides locating the monuments and other objects and points needed for the survey, this process generates an overview of the project. This search is often the most challenging part of the survey. Existing monuments or markers can be destroyed, obscured or hidden. 

Locating an object means determining its mathematical coordinates relative to all the other points of interest.  This can be done using many different tools and is why land Surveyors are considered to be expert measurers of land.  Some of these tools include differential GPS, total stations, compasses, tape measures, levels, plumb bobs and pacing.  Every measuring method has advantages and disadvantages, including cost, accuracy and time.  Each measuring method requires a different set of skills to achieve the intended accuracy and also requires a good understanding of accuracy, precision and statistics.

Once the data from the field is collected, we then return to the office to process the data. For a boundary retracement survey the Surveyor must understand land law, local history, survey history, and how each of these apply to that particular piece of property. The professional judgment of the land surveyor is used to weigh the evidence found, from both the field work and the records research, and to come to a well supported conclusion as to where the boundary is located.

Once the boundary determination has been made, we return to the field in order to mark the boundary line. This typically means setting new monuments where none were found before.