Marking property lines

[Ken45101]

I bought an 8 acre piece of wooded property a few years ago. It's a mile long and 72' wide. The survey cost me $10,000.00 and all they did was put pins in the 4 corners.

Now I want to build a fence on part of it but it is impossible to tell where the property line is since the pins are a mile apart in the woods.

I called the surveyor back and he wants $2000.00 more to come set pins every 500' on the property line.

I have no choice so I am going to go pay him today to set the pins.

Will he do just one side for half the price? Then measure 72' on your own. ;-)

 

[bdeboer]

What kind of neighbor would pull your surveyed pin ???

Just because they live next you doesn't make them neighbors.

We have a real estate agent that lives next to us that has both pulled a pin and 100' markers.

Fortunately the semi-retired surveyor who orginally split up the lot's is reasonable for putting markers back.

 

[sherpa]

My boundries are all woods. I cut pieces of aluminum flashing into 3 inch squares and simply nailed them to trees using aluminum roofing nails. Every couple of years I check them and if a tree fell over or whatever I just put up another. Real easy to see the lines.

I like the aluminum flashing idea for the property lines!
I also like the PVC idea for the 8 or so metal pin corner markers!
It is a lot easier doing this in the fall when all the foilage is gone.
sherpa

 

[Gale Hawkins]

I bought an 8 acre piece of wooded property a few years ago. It's a mile long and 72' wide. The survey cost me $10,000.00 and all they did was put pins in the 4 corners.

Now I want to build a fence on part of it but it is impossible to tell where the property line is since the pins are a mile apart in the woods.

I called the surveyor back and he wants $2000.00 more to come set pins every 500' on the property line.

I have no choice so I am going to go pay him today to set the pins.

I got into this problem too and is the reason now I pay a little more to get stakes close enough to see from one to another to drive T posts on the initial survey.

 

[bdeboer]

I use treated post's when marking corners

 

[stratton]

The initial survey sounds a little high to me. But I have no idea what the going rate is in your area, Or do i estimate jobs. From experience here the going rate here is 700ish up to 5 acres then 50 bucks an acre over that. That is for an average shape lot. But with your lot being so long(mile) there is a lot more field work needed to get back to the corners. Plus along that mile there could be a lot of adjoining properties that would need to be researched out in order to give an accurate estimation of the line. Any job like that where i live would be done in the winter with no leaf coverage. that knocks a job down in half the time or more. 500' in the woods is a long way. that's pretty much impossible to see between. Fence installers want much closer points than that depending on how thick the woods are. Not sure if you called around to get prices but at this point your current surveyor is probably your best choice. Anyone else will have to charge more for establishing control through the woods. Atleast your current guy has already been paid for most of the calcs and field work.

 

[MNBobcat]

I bought an 8 acre piece of wooded property a few years ago. It's a mile long and 72' wide. The survey cost me $10,000.00 and all they did was put pins in the 4 corners.

Now I want to build a fence on part of it but it is impossible to tell where the property line is since the pins are a mile apart in the woods.

I called the surveyor back and he wants $2000.00 more to come set pins every 500' on the property line.

I have no choice so I am going to go pay him today to set the pins.

I had 30 acres surveyed for $500 and they put markers every 200 - 300 feet.

 

[jpm]

if the lines are stright get a gps and mark the two points.start at one an go to the other marking along the way. if it's wavy things are harder

 

[tallyho8]

Surveyors are way more expensive in our area than anywhere else since Katrina. They still have tons of work to do surveying homes being rebuilt and homes raised. I wish I had learned surveying when I was younger because it is a very well paying job here at this time.

Even though I have straight lines and my surveyor uses a gps, he has a very expensive gps and I have been told that a consumer grade gps is not accurate enough for a fence line, especially one on a lot only 72' wide.

 

[tallyho8]

Will he do just one side for half the price? Then measure 72' on your own. ;-)

No, he said that most of the work is paperwork and that only marking one side would only save me a very small amount.

 

[SpringHollow]

Using GPS is a very iffy proposition. You never know how accurate and precise you really are. The same GPS unit in the same location can vary at different times based on weather, foliage, satellites, etc. You can normally be 95% certain that you are within 10 - 30' of where you think you are, I believe.

Unfortunately, it is not that they are very precise but just inaccurate with the exact location. Their precision is constantly varying.

So, they are great if you own 100 acres and you just want to know approximately where you are. But if you want to know if you can cut down that particular tree on what you think is the lot line, they are not so great. Or so I have been told.

Ken

 

[dodge man]

Thanks for speaking up Springhollow. Hand held GPS is not that great. Survey grade GPS cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000. I strongly discourage people from doing there own surveying. I am licensed to survey in two states.

That said, its not like surveyors have the corner on the measuring market. Carpenters measure 2x4's all the time and get them the right length without our help. Its just when a person does his own surveying, I've seen a lot of bad things happen.

30 acres for $500. I'm pretty amazed. Either the guy was desperate for work, was unlicensed, or was a buddy. Its tough for me to do simple lot surveys in town for $500.

As far as the OP goes, if you had your property surveyed at one time, there is not a thing wrong with freshing the marks up every few years, and lots of good advice on here on how to do it.

 

[jonyyuma]

I put down 1 inch stainless pipe two feet into ground and 2 feet sticks out, at the corners. On other property, the surveyor used steel fence post on the corners for me. yeap I had one so- and so pull one fence post out of the ground.I put it back into the hole. Any of you ever hear of a "witness tree"? Jy.

 

[sherpa]

That is exactly what I am doing.
I got the PVC pipe.
Should I just drive the PVC over the steel pin or put it beside the pins?
I also want to put some kind of markings on the trees along my borders as well.
Nobody has mention anything about using paint?
The US Forest Service uses red paint on their side.
sherpa

 

[dmccarty]

I use flourescent paint, flagging, and hatch marks on trees. The paint if exposed to the sun will not last long nor will flagging or posted signs.

I and a neighbor have put in Tposts to mark our corners. I have had said T posts stolen. Next time I am putting in wood posts. :laughing:

Or maybe I should start piling up rocks. We gots lots of rocks.....

Later,
Dan

 

[ShenandoahJoe]

its not like surveyors have the corner ...

:laughing:

 

[stratton]

Consumer grade gps is only accurate to 30 or so feet at best. Even with WAAS. Surveyors gps is going to cost ya around 30,000 but you can get down to a couple of .01's. They do make a handheld for surveyors or wetland delineation but that still cost around 2,000, its only submeter at best. And you have to post process to get anything decent.
If you really want to know where the lines are you have to bite the bullet and pay for it Or find a guy that will work on the weekends cheaper.

 

[sherpa]

I am not going to put up a fence, I just want a walking path on my lines so I can access my hilly forest property and know where my line is. I want to harvest the down oak trees for firewood as well. All my corners (8) are well marked with the surveyor pins from 20 years ago.
sherpa

 

[rjkobbeman]

Consumer grade gps is only accurate to 30 or so feet at best. Even with WAAS. Surveyors gps is going to cost ya around 30,000 but you can get down to a couple of .01's. They do make a handheld for surveyors or wetland delineation but that still cost around 2,000, its only submeter at best. And you have to post process to get anything decent.
If you really want to know where the lines are you have to bite the bullet and pay for it Or find a guy that will work on the weekends cheaper.

Everything I have read says consumer grade GPS with WAAS is accurate withing 3 meters (or better). That has been my experience with my Garmin.

Granted, this isn't good enough for surveying... but it can get you pretty darn close... if that is all you're after.

 

[aczlan]

That is exactly what I am doing.
I got the PVC pipe.
Should I just drive the PVC over the steel pin or put it beside the pins?

Put the PVC NEXT to or near the pin NOT over it. Otherwise you will disturb the pin, make it impossible for the next surveyor to find the pin or you could get in trouble for moving a pin.
One of the first things I was taught when I worked for a surveyor is that you DO NOT move a pin once it has been set (no matter what). Set a new one offset by x amount yes, but you never move a pin (even to straighten it) as someone else may have used it as a reference and moving it could throw them off.

Aaron Z