Fence Line App for my phone?

[EddieWalker]

I've seen posts on something like this before, but I can't find anything that does what I'm wanting. Is there a GPS App that you can mark two points on your land and create a line between those points so you know where to place your fence?

I have fence posts set at the pins about 2,000 feet apart from each other. I want to build my fence along the first 800 feet of that property line. There is an area that is kind of cliff like and not worth fencing in, so I'll move my fence in a little bit for that area. I was going to run a wire from post to post for a straight line, but I would have to clear several dozen trees from that cliff area, and I really want to keep those trees there so it doesn't erode any more. I also think it would become very ugly if those trees where not there, so it's not going to happen.

Can I use my Android phone, or my wife's Apple phone, to mark those two posts and know where the property line is?

Thank you

 

[JethroB]

There are probably better, but Google Earth is pretty easy to use. Good for measuring distances & areas too.

 

[Walkin Horse]

I had a surveyor friend come mark mine out. He did what ever surveyors do from each cornerpin and drove a stake every 50’.
I know that’s not what you wanted. But being in the construction biz, if you could get your hands on transit,that would be the way to go. Using an app you may have a line on your phone that is plus or minus accurate and still have to transfer that to the ground. Transits and triangulation are most likely dead on. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Jchonline]

I use Gaia GPS…but these GPS apps areNT perfectly accurate.

What we do in the woods is use a compass, find the degree we want to go towards, have a person go out there 50-100ft and stand, get them to line up with that direction and drive a stake. You move to the stake and Repeat.

 

[newbury]

Eddie - How accurate do you want?
GPS-enabled smartphones are typically accurate to within a 4.9 m (16 ft.)

linky

 

[airbiscuit]

I've used both Gai GPS and Huntstand to map my trails, but neither is 100% accurate. Can you see your end points on Google Maps (satellite view), or Google Earth?

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm pretty close to figuring it our from my survey, my compass and my measuring wheel. I have one landmark on my survey that I'm using to verify my compass and wheel. I could fo with what I have. My neighbor thinks it's close enough to stain it worry about.

I'm hoping there is something that I can use to verify this, or let me know which way I'm off. 5 feet would be a lot, but 2 feet wouldnt matter too much.

 

[ultrarunner]

What would a survey cost in Tyler?

Never really heard of one in the city but becoming not so rare… at least for fence lines.

My neighbor passed at 104 with no living kids and the property is being sold…

I’m on 1.9 acres and neighbor 1 acre.

The realtor was on my property taking pictures saying he is getting a price to remove the cords of fire wood and shed and asked me if I wanted it!

I said it is mine on my property and he said it is outside your fence…

Fence is to keep deer out of garden and no bearing of property line.

Executor wants me to split 4K survey costs to which I said I know my property line and so it goes.

 

[plowhog]

Is there a GPS App that you can mark two points on your land and create a line between those points so you know where to place your fence?

My logger used this when walking in remote areas of my property.

onX Maps: GPS Map App for Hunting, Hiking, Off-Roading & Fishing

Know where you stand with onX, the most accurate GPS mapping tech for outdoor enthusiasts featuring land ownership maps that work offline.

www.onxmaps.com

 

[grsthegreat]

I used an old fashion … 30 year old…. Transit level to do my fence line. And its 1280’ between pins. When i finished, i was about 2” off of far pin. Good enough for me. My problem was the land wasnt level, and is treed. I had to set it up and swing a 180 from street pins and start cutting trees while we drove stakes as far as we could see thru transit until property dropped off. Then i moved transit to ending point, sighted one of the new stakes and swung another 180 with transit and continued. Could not believe it worked.

i dont see how a phone app could possibly work.

 

[neilkingent]

What would a survey cost in Tyler?

Never really heard of one in the city but becoming not so rare… at least for fence lines.

My neighbor passed at 104 with no living kids and the property is being sold…

I’m on 1.9 acres and neighbor 1 acre.

The realtor was on my property taking pictures saying he is getting a price to remove the cords of fire wood and shed and asked me if I wanted it!

I said it is mine on my property and he said it is outside your fence…

Fence is to keep deer out of garden and no bearing of property line.

Executor wants me to split 4K survey costs to which I said I know my property line and so it goes.

Seems to me it's there responsibility, not yours.

 

[neilkingent]

Their. (for the grammar police)

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep… only glad I was there… could have come home to find I was cleaned out.

 

[dodge man]

As a land surveyor these threads always scare me. Cell phone gps is not going to get you within a couple of feet, it might not get you within 50 feet. Even very high quality survey grade gps doesn’t always work in tree cover. If there are a lot of trees, leaves on the trees, evergreens you can’t get a good location. Even in the winter survey grade gps may or may not work in the trees depending on how thick they are.

Cell phone and consumer grade gps is generally good to 10 meters(figure 30 feet). Yes, it can do better but no guarantee.

All sorts of ways to accomplish what you want but a cell phone and apps isn’t it.

 

[riptides]

I use an app called HuntStand. On Android. It allows me to edit and place markers on property. It's primary use of course was for hunting. It has various map overlays, one of which is property lines. I used that, in conjunction with my plot survey, GPS and compass to find my property lines. It was pretty accurate since I found most iron rods. My only issue was water. As in moving creeks. I question now as to where the survey claims the creek is, and actually where it is. But a survey is recorded, Mother Nature has her ways.

I suggest using it as a trial and see if it will suffice to meet your needs.

 

[EddieWalker]

Thanks. I did some searching online before posting this and didn't see anything that would do what I wanted. It seems kind of simple to me, but accuracy doesn't seem to go along with simple.

My neighbor had some work done on his place and the company doing the work had a guy that was doing the survey work. He was not a licensed surveyor, but from what I understand, he found and marks the boundaries of land that the company is working on. His first attempt at our mutual property line was off by over 100 feet. When I asked him about it, after they had tore up my land, he said that he was going off of the County Map boundaries. Their website clearly states that the lines are not accurate and just for reference.

That's when he got serious and actually found the original corner pins. There where all there, but buried deep in the ground after decades of growth. The company cleaned up what they did on my land and did quite a bit extra to make it right. I'm very happy with the results and motivated to get my fence going.

From what I've read about some of the GPS Apps that show property lines, I think that they go off of the County Websites that show approximate boundaries. If that is true, they are not going to do what I want.

To find this line, I can remove all of the trees and pull a wire. Or I can hire somebody to find it for me, but that means spending money for this service where I would rather use that money to buy materials. Or I can go off of my landmark, and use the spot that I now is close by several feet and live with that.

 

[LD1]

I agree with others that no GPS that is available to the general population is gonna be accurate enough to do what you want.

To start a straight line and make sure you end up at your other pin....you need TWO points of reference to get started.

If two pins are within line of sight of eachother....you simply set a transit at one point and aim at the other. Once you go so far....you can simply use the angle marks on the transit.....sight back your line that you started....swing exactly 180 degrees.

When a "back" pin is not visible.....usually two up front are. Not sure how your surveys are in TX, but up here....there is a pin in the center of the road....as well as a marker pin ~30-40' off road. You can simply set up at the pin off the road....sight right at the pin in the road.....now swing 180 degrees and you should be sighting right down the property line.

A really good compass would do the same thing if you have line of sight. If you can only see ONE pin....but have an exact heading based ona previous survey....then you could accomplish the same thing with a compass.

But no APP, or GPS or even the county GIS maps will help. The county GIS is about 10ft off on my north property line.
And to the south....my property line runs straight between two pins ~500' front to back. But the county map follows a drainage ditch, which goes about 250' then makes a ~45 degree turn. According to the county map....I would have about ~150' more road frontage and ~150' less in the back.

The county GIS is good for seeing who owns a piece of property, or finding a correct address if google has it wrong....but for property lines....not a chance I'd trust it

 

[dodge man]

A little note about GIS. The company I worked for did our counties GIS. They were working on it but it was taking them to long so they hired us. They had sone about 20% of it and we did the rest. We actually had the deeds for everybody in the county but just drew it up on top of the aerial photos WITHOUT any ground based survey data.

The ironic part is my parcel has the boundary line going through my shop, which is not the case.

Eddie it’s a cost vs benefit with surveying. I told this to people all the time. I had people call in building a $500,000 house and they didn’t want to pay for a survey. In your case building a fence? It goes in the wrong spot and you have to move it. How big of a deal is that to you?

 

[dodge man]

I’m sorry, there are problems LD1.

Sighting a pin 40 feet away and extending a line? Not good. The rule in surveying was long backsight, short foresight. In this case you are backsighting a point 40 feet away and using it to extend a line hundreds of feet. Any error in one of the pins, your equipment or your skill will get multiplied several times over by the time your 1000 feet away. Picture your rifle scope off a couple inches at 40 feet. How much error is in your rifle bullet at 500 yards?

Compass bearings can be based on so many things that’s a dangerous system. I used a compass all the time to help me find corners, I was good at it, and I would get way off after a couple of thousand feet.

 

[riptides]

A little note about GIS. The company I worked for did our counties GIS. They were working on it but it was taking them to long so they hired us. They had sone about 20% of it and we did the rest. We actually had the deeds for everybody in the county but just drew it up on top of the aerial photos WITHOUT any ground based survey data.

The ironic part is my parcel has the boundary line going through my shop, which is not the case.

Eddie it’s a cost vs benefit with surveying. I told this to people all the time. I had people call in building a $500,000 house and they didn’t want to pay for a survey. In your case building a fence? It goes in the wrong spot and you have to move it. How big of a deal is that to you?

Deeds - Assuming they are read correctly, and recorded correctly...... I have had the bad experience dealing with surveyors that "interpreted" the deeds incorrectly, both in terms of recording dates and plot markers.

A lawyer had to be consulted to clear the issues, so there is no issue, now or going forward.