Using an app to determine proposed boundry lines

[paulsharvey]

To the guy asking about using a cell phone to place fence;
You can use OnX Basemap, or others to help locate the corners, as a guide, if you are just completely in the dark on where the corners are; but then try to find the actual corners (nail and disk, rebar, concrete monument, spike in tree, iron pipe, ect) and pull strings. Probably set it back 12" just to be safe, but don't just blindly assume any App is right. Some will get you Far off, like 30+ feet, either from GPS signal and accuracy, or inaccurate property lines. If you have access to your old survey, it should tell you "found 5/8" iron rod, or found RR spike in tree or whatever" that will help you locate the actual corner. Note, they often are buried a few inches; and a metal detector can help.

 

[paulsharvey]

Also, the old survey will often show location of a power pole or other semi fixed point. Sure, that may have moved, but it gets you looking in the right direction.

 

[ponytug]

I've seen descriptions referencing trees that were gone a hundred years earlier. E.g. "11 feet SSE of large chestnut..." and stone wall stones. Not the wall mind you, a stone in a wall that disappeared who knows how many winters ago due to freeze thaw.

I like reading old deed descriptions for entertainment as I find many of them amusing. However, putting money them, isn't something I would do, but we are all different.

All the best,

Peter

 

[paulsharvey]

No offense to Dodge Man, but surveyors are often an odd lot. They tend to be Very set in their ways, from how they do a survey to obsessing about odd things, or what they might use as a monument, to the fact that 10:30Am is time to eat an apple, or go to the gas station to get 2 hot dogs, with the same fixings every single day. Stuff like swapping legs for an instrument or how to hang the plumb Bob, ribbon colors, ect

 

[paulsharvey]

I've seen descriptions referencing trees that were gone a hundred years earlier. E.g. "11 feet SSE of large chestnut..." and stone wall stones. Not the wall mind you, a stone in a wall that disappeared who knows how many winters ago due to freeze thaw.

I like reading old deed descriptions for entertainment as I find many of them amusing. However, putting money them, isn't something I would do, but we are all different.

All the best,

Peter

I grant XXX rights to approx 24,000 acres in Florida, from the western bank of the St John's River to the mission at the bay, provided they don't disturb the natives" old Spanish land grants.

 

[2manyrocks]

All I hear is the current surveyors saying how bad the other surveyors are or used to be.

 

[dodge man]

When modern day surveyors look at the quality of the measurements they did in older times, it’s easy to say what a lousy job they did. Since the mid 1980’s when the ability to measure a distance came in to gps which became common in the 1990’s our ability to measure has improved. The corners don’t move because we measure better, we just know the actual distance better.

An example of this is when the sections of ground in Illinois were laid out it was done to an accuracy of about 1 in 100. That means for every 100 feet measured they might have an error of 1 foot. That’s terrible by todays standards but that was the standard of the day.

 

[ponytug]

All I hear is the current surveyors saying how bad the other surveyors are or used to be.

What's the line about walking a mile in someone else's shoes?

I've done a little bit of old school surveying and while I found it fun, it is harder than it looks.

Personally, I'm amazed the other way around. I think that the old school surveying was amazing, given the tools that they had to work with.

All the best,

Peter

 

[dodge man]

Illinois was laid out with a compass and a 2 pole chain (33 feet). When I started working in 1984 we taped everything, a 100 foot long steel tape. Not bad for a lot in town but for a rural survey it wasn’t easy.

 

[paulsharvey]

Also, roads move over time; records get lost, ect. Also, if you work from east to west for prop A and then from west to east for its neighboring parcel B, there can be either a overlap or gap. Creeks move, people destroy monuments, people move monuments, ect.