Surveying the land is an important and fairly necessary activity that one has to do before building a house, bridge, or any kind of structure. Land surveying will give you the exact measurements of the land one is planning to work on helping you how to develop it in a proper way. Most people don’t realize the importance of land surveying at first, but start to realize how massively important it is once they get to a later stage of building.
What is Land Surveying?
You have probably seen people in the field with hard hats on and looking through some peculiar types of equipment that resembles but definitely is not a telescope. Those people are land surveyors and by using those tripod thingies they measure the land or the surrounding area with pinpoint accuracy. Land surveying is an absolute must when it comes to building new infrastructure or simply improving the existing one.
Land surveying allows us to understand the boundaries of the land being worked on. Land surveyors will go into the field to describe, locate, monument, and essentially map the corners and the boundaries of a specific piece of land. But surveying does not only include mapping a completely fresh piece of land, they also include mapping the entire topography of the land which may also include some existing buildings or structures.
Land Surveying Importance
Land surveying plays an important role in the development of land. This also involves the planning and the design of roads, landscape construction, and utility. Surveyors are the first people on the land as their job is to chart and make the necessary calculations on a construction site. Surveyors will then provide their findings to architects who will use the given calculations when planning the design on a given landscape. Engineers will then step in and make sure that the work done by surveyors and architects is created in a safe and correct manner.
Before any construction work begins, surveyors will check the formations, features, slopes, and heights of a particular piece of land. Their final report will include a map of the land which contains all the necessary pieces of information that the architect will use to implement their design.
Who are Land Surveyors?
Land surveyors are specially trained individuals and professionals that use a combination of mathematics, engineering, law, and physics to work out the proper boundaries of the land being surveyed. In order to do their job, they use specialized equipment which involves software, prisms, GPSs, radios, and robotic total stations. Land surveyors need to be licensed in order to perform these calculations. Only licensed surveyors will be allowed to do this type of job and only the results of their work will be taken into consideration.
A licensed surveyor is able to provide a certified plan of the surveyed land. Surveys conducted by a non-licensed surveyor do not have legal status. In the case of a boundary dispute, unlicensed plans are not going to be taken into account as evidence. It is not worth the risk, so employing a licensed surveyor is crucial.
Unlicensed surveyors can still do some type of work and it involves the surveying of infrastructure, existing conditions, environmental surveys, construction, and monitoring.
Types of Land Surveys
Being that we have a number of different reasons that require land surveys, there are also a few different types of land surveys that could be conducted. Each one of them comes with its specifics and tools needed to perform the job correctly.
Some of the most used types of land surveys involve the following:
- Mortgage location survey: MLS is usually performed in order to provide proof that specific improvements have been done and are actually located on the land described in the legal document and description. The survey plat must produce the information discovered from measurements taken at a designated site, which does not necessarily have to involve evidence by public records.
- Boundary survey: This type of survey is used to identify the boundary lines of a certain property. The intention of this survey is to establish, or recover, the exact corners of a property and create a detailed map or plat. To conduct this type of survey, the surveyor will also need to access public records as well as do research in the field.
- Topographic survey: This type of survey includes field measurements as well as preparation for a plat in order to establish land elevations. A commercial or a residential property owner usually contracts these types of surveys before making some kind of improvements to their property.
- ALTA survey: A type of survey contracted by a company, lender, or an attorney for commercial property purchase, improvements, or refinances. An ALTA survey utilizes universal standards and guarantees and provides confidence in its results.
