Land Surveying

Construction Staking

After permitting a project with building and improvement plans prepared by your architect and engineers, your contractor will usually need a land surveyor to locate those proposed improvements (e.g. buildings, driveways, paving, utilities, fences, etc.) shown on the plans….on the ground.  Depending on the contractor’s staking needs, we will typically locate improvements on the ground by staking offset stakes (e.g. 3/4″ wood round ginnies, 60d nails, etc.) to the proposed improvement.  The stake in the ground will be accompanied by a nearby wood lathe (36” high, typical) which will have a written description of the improvement being staked, the offset distance to the improvement, the existing elevation of the stake, and the cut or fill to the designed elevation of the improvement.

For example, a typical building corner would have 5’ x 5’ offset stakes set at 90 degrees outside of the actual building corner and footprint of the building.  Often a new building or structure will require a land surveyor to stake the structure, then come back and survey in the concrete forms in order to certify the building is in the proper horizontal and/or vertical location.  The land surveyor will then provide a Form Certification or Pad Certification letter with the Land Surveyor’s stamp and signature.

For staking improvements, it should be noted that we typically need to properly establish your property boundary.  If we are the surveyors who have completed the original Boundary and Topographic Survey, then no additional work is needed. However, if others have done the boundary survey, we may need to verify the boundary lines have been established properly.  Construction staking is typically done on a time and materials estimate, thus we usually recommend that we do both the Boundary and Topographic Survey as well as the Construction Staking, to be more efficient.

The cost of each staking job depends on your specific improvement plans and your contractor’s staking needs on the job.  Some projects are small enough where 4 building corners may be needed, and the contractor can build the rest from there.  Other projects may require multiple staking trips for multiple buildings, paving, curbs, and utilities.  Email and call us with your improvement plans and staking needs in order to get a quote for your staking project.