Welcome to our site. We want to provide you with information on Land Surveying in general and specifically in the City of Pell City, City of Harpersville, City of Columbiana, and Shelby County, Alabama area.If you have any land surveying questions, you’ve come to the right place.

Land Surveying is a very important industry, and it has been around for ages. To know more about the basics of land surveying, you can click here.

Land Surveyors are professionals who measure and make precise measurements to determine the size and boundaries of a piece of real estate.  While this is a simplistic definition, this is one of the most common types of surveying related to home and land owners. To know more about what a land surveyor does, click here.

What you can expect from Pell City Land Surveying

If you need assistance on any land surveying services, we are the best people to help you out. We give nothing but the best service, and we have the best deals in town.

Pell City Land Surveying offers different land surveying services. We also offer Boundary surveying, Percolation surveying, Septic System Design, Subdivision Design, Topo Surveying and House Site Plans.

How to contact Pell City Land Surveying?

CALL Pell City Land Surveying TODAY at (205) 291-4795 to discuss your land survey needs. You can also send us a message by going here.

Most of you have probably never thought about land surveying until you needed it at some point. Many of us hear about land surveying all the time but never really give it much thought.

Since an investment in land and/or a home will likely be the largest investment you will ever make in your lifetime, knowing where your property lines are becomes very important indeed.

The art of land surveying was developed centuries ago. In fact, it’s one of the oldest professions in the world. The fact that it was used by man at such an early time and is still being used now shows how important surveying is to our survival.

The Many Uses of Land Surveying

Surveying land has many uses. Boundary surveying, for instance, allows you to know where your property corners or property lines are. This is especially helpful when disputes with a neighbor or with other people arise in terms of where your property ends.

If your family wants to divide a tract of land and transfer ownership to other family members, a boundary survey is the first step to do so. If you’re having a building constructed, it is very important that you have the land surveyed to make sure that you are not encroaching onto other peoples’ property.

A mistaken building location is very expensive to fix so you might as well invest in a boundary survey to prevent this.

A topographic survey, or topo survey for short, is another important type of land surveying. A topo survey is done to locate natural and man-made features on a particular parcel of land.

A topographic survey is different in that the elevation of the land is surveyed which means it can show man-made underground features, retaining walls, utility lines and etc.

Before you start any kind of construction activity, it’s important to have a topo survey done in the area so they’ll have an accurate record of the land’s existing conditions. Yes, that spot with the new mall in the neighborhood had to have a topo survey done first.

Now, a flood survey or flood determination – this is very important too. It isn’t evident just looking at a property whether you are at risk of flooding or not. And, in some cases, even looking at the flood maps doesn’t give you an accurate answer.

The flood survey determines the elevation of the home and compares that to the base flood elevation. This is the only way to be sure you’re not in a flood hazard zone. If you’ve just been told that you live in a flood-prone area, having that confirmed by a professional land surveyor would let you know how to best proceed.

When getting flood insurance, insurance companies would require an elevation certificate from you. A land surveyor would be able to assist you with this.

If a company wants to invest in another state, or if there is a national lender on a commercial project, they will likely need an ALTA Land Title Survey done before anything is constructed.

An ALTA Land Title Survey is a lot like a regular boundary survey except that nationally accepted ALTA Standards are used to guide the surveying effort.

Land surveying standards vary widely from state to state and an ALTA Land Title Survey is used to cut down on this variation. Also, an ALTA Land Title Survey typically is more involved than the state standards variety.

Because of this, an ALTA survey can be more anywhere from 50% to 200% more expensive than using the state standards only. If you need this type of survey, I suggest seeking an experienced land surveying company who is familiar with these additional requirements.

In summary, there are many uses for a land survey and for seeking the services of a land surveyor. If you’re unsure of your situation, consult Pell City Land Surveying at (205)291-4795 today or go to the Contact page and send us an email.

The post How Important is Land Surveying in Today’s World? first appeared on Pell City Land Surveying.]]> http://pellcitylandsurveying.com/land-surveying-estimating-cost/ Thu, 12 Apr 2012 00:30:31 +0000 http://roanoke-land-surveying.com/?p=655 Land surveying, in a nutshell, is the art and science of establishing or re-establishing property corners, property lines and/or boundaries. There can be different reasons why someone needs a lot surveyed. One of the common would be to see whether … Continue reading →

Land surveying, in a nutshell, is the art and science of establishing or re-establishing property corners, property lines and/or boundaries. There can be different reasons why someone needs a lot surveyed.

One of the common would be to see whether a piece of land is vulnerable to flooding, to subdivide a property to sell or deed to relatives or to determine if there are any encroachments. This may happen when a neighbor disputes that you are using a piece of his lot or vice versa (for more on this, read this page).

How much does land surveying cost?

If you need to have a piece of land surveyed, first thing that may come to mind is “how much does it cost?”

There are many factors determining how much land surveying on your land would cost. The fact that this sort of service should be done by an expert contributes a lot to the overall cost of the service, but choosing a non-professional to survey your land is dangerous, and possibly illegal for the non-professional.

For this reason you should to take a good look around before settling with a surveying company. If you must work inside a particular budget, discuss this with the surveyor up-front. Many times he might manage to offer cost saving steps to get the work you need done within these cost limits.

The shape of the land should also be considered. A square or even a rectangle piece of land is somewhat easier to survey than an odd shaped parcel, or one with many different sides.

With the latter, the surveyor is required to spend more time in surveying the curves and the bends which means the cost of the service would increase. The overall measurements the land is also key factor here.

Remember that the cost of land surveying is usually proportionate to the time and effort that the land surveyor would spend on the project. If the land that you’re having surveyed isn’t accessible, or has thick vegetation, then the total price of the survey might go higher.

This is true of the weather conditions which might impact the work. Surveying in hot weather is somewhat slower to keep from putting the crew members at risk. Also, most surveying can’t be done in the rain.

When asking for a quote, bear in mind surveyors base the estimate on expected conditions at the site. These conditions could change, bringing about additional costs. Always ask about these potential additional cost scenarios.

All that being said, competitive prices are also to be expected, which is why we recommend choosing a surveyor according to his experience and reputation instead of on the price he writes on a piece of paper. Mostly it is far better to spend a good amount of money on a survey that’s well-done rather than select a company with a very “affordable” price but have the survey repeated because the results were wrong.

To sum up, it is best to discuss the expenses of the survey prior to ask the surveyor to begin with his work. It’s also advisable to receive a contract that lets you understand what is expected of the land surveyor. This is one of the most important steps in getting your land surveyed.

For a free land surveying quote, call Pell City Land Surveying at (205) 291-4795 or send us a message by going here.

The post Land Surveying: Estimating the Cost first appeared on Pell City Land Surveying.]]>

Despite this though, a land surveyor still has several guidelines to follow. If you’ve had an experience with a dishonest surveyor, or are wary about hiring one, this article should be able to help you out.

What ethics should a land surveyor follow?

A surveyor should always start a project with fairness in mind. Your client as well as everybody party involved in the project is expecting you to be fair and just so make the best possible assessment with the evidences handed to you.

Before a project commences, the surveyor assigned to the project should come forward if there’s a possibility of conflict of interest. This is very important to preserve their relationship with the client. A surveyor should avoid professional impropriety by declaring involvement or any prior affiliations with any of the involved parties. It is also the surveyor’s responsibility to keep any information regarding the project as well as the client confidential even after the project is done.

Several cases were reported where the surveyor overcharged the client. This usually happens when the client doesn’t know anything about land surveying. A land surveyor running his business with ethics will never do this. Fortunately, there are more honest land surveyors than dishonest ones.

A surveyor should charge a project according to the length of time needed to get it done as well as the level of technical complexity required for it. For the surveyor’s sake as well as the client, one should never sign plans, certificates or reports unless these are personally supervised by him. Not only is this unfair on the client’s side, doing so could put his reputation in danger should the results get disputed and he doesn’t know anything about them.

Just like with other industries, a land surveyor should never undermine the capability of other surveyors or the people from the land surveying industry.

New technologies come up for land surveying all the time. When a surveyor knows that a project is beyond his skills, he should tell the client about it. There’s no sense accepting a project only to come up with a subpar result. It will only hurt your business and your reputation.

Surveyors should also be responsible enough to study, do a thorough research, practice and utilize his skills before offering clients a new service. If a surveyor is new to flood determination, for instance, then he needs to make sure that he knows how to perform it before offering it to his clients.

Surveyors do not work alone. They usually have a staff to support them. The land surveyor needs to be responsible for their actions at all cost, for actions or work carried out by them.

If you need assistance looking for a land surveyor, call us at (205) 291-4795 or send us a message by clicking here.

Land surveying is fascinating. The strategies used try to decide which part of land belongs to whom, hopefully ending arguments forever.

In short, surveying is a process using mathematical ways to survey land.

A bit of land surveying history

The very first accounts of surveying land starts back to ancient Egypt. Experts discovered evidences that the ancient Egyptians used basic geometry to redraw the lines of boundary when the Nile River overflowed. An Egyptian land register going back 3000 BC was found.

Following Egyptians, the Romans – also about the most powerful civilizations from the ancient world – practiced land surveying. They took it one step further and made “land surveyor” a certified position in the Empire. They were called agrimensores, often called Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum.

Though they used rather simple tools, they were very thorough with their jobs and would create straight lines and correct angles with the use of these tools. As soon as the lines were measured, they would create shallow ditches to mark the lines. In fact, some of the furrows they created remain today.

One of the recorded land surveying of the “modern” times is that of William the Conqueror who wrote the Domesday Book in 1086. This book is really a directory of names of land owners, the quantity of land they owned and also other information about the land. Whilst it was a fabulous volume of information during this time, the bits of information were not 100% correct. The locations were not accurate and the maps were not made to scale.

One among history’s greatest icons have also been an ardent surveyor – Napoleon Bonaparte. The interest in surveying land was really just a product of his want to conquer the entire world. Napoleon Bonaparte founded a registry called cadastre. This consists of a registry of properties of a county, ownership details, locations and as much information about the land’s value. Yes, Napoleon Bonaparte can be viewed a land surveyor – plus a very smart man.

The ways used in land surveying also have evolved over the centuries, over time. Long ago, people would use anything that might help them determine the length from one point to another. This implies using chains with links and even ropes. Not surprisingly, this didn’t give accurate results but they didn’t have the technology we’ve got in those days.

Today, land surveyors enjoy the best technologies to help them with their job. There’s GPS, or Global Positioning System, which is among the most accurate technologies used today. Total stations are also vital to a land surveyor, which employs the usage of an EDM or Electronic Distance Measurement device together with a theodolite that allows for further precise angle and distance measurements.

For your land surveying needs, call us today at (205) 291-4795 or send us a message by clicking here.

Buying land, whether commercial or residential, is always a really expensive endeavor, regardless if prices have eased somewhat lately. That’s why selecting a lot which you like and making an agreement for it without performing a land survey within the area is likely to be the greatest mistake that one could make.

Here’s why it’s crucial that you have land surveying done first:

Land surveyors can evaluate if you’re actually getting what you’re likely to pay for. This simply means uncover whether the sidewalks, trees, driveways and even the bird bath is part of the property you’re gonna buy.

Land surveying would also check if the neighbors are encroaching into the property, which might then mean you’re going to have problems at some point with your neighbors.

Having a land surveyor doesn’t only mean they evaluate which you’re getting or otherwise not getting – land surveyors are the experts, and they can help with building regulations, wetland regulations, etc. Note that that these regulations can change anytime, but land surveyors should be updated on these regulations, or they’re going to refer you to a person who is.

Let’s suppose the existing landowner (the one selling the land) supply you with old land survey documents? You should still hire your very own land surveyor to determine if the boundary monuments continue to be in place.

Also, land surveying done quite a while back will possibly not show recent changes to the land. When the existing survey is older than about 10 years, you must get the most current survey. Technology and surveying standards are significantly better now and may provide you more confidence in the survey work.

Second, that survey was completed for that owner. He could have instructed the surveyor not to show specific factors on the drawing. At least have a land surveyor get out there and look at the parcel with this particular survey in hand.

We have witnessed numerous cases where a whole new land survey would save the customer thousands so don’t become a victim.

I’ve heard many individuals say having a land surveyor is nothing but unnecessary expense. I’ll show you what’s unnecessary: the worry brought on by paying thousands for something and finding yourself not getting what you were expecting. If you’re smart, you’d hire a licensed land surveyor prior to any land purchases.

For any questions about land survey and how it can help you, call us at (205) 291-4795 or send us a message by going here.

Call Pell City Land Surveying today at (205) 291-4795 for more information concerning your land and boundary surveying needs.You can also go to our contact page and send us a message by going here.

If you’re looking to hire the service of a land surveyor, here are some guidelines that you may want to keep in mind.

Hiring a Land Surveyor:

Start by looking for land surveying companies in your area. Knowing your options allow you to choose the best. Checking the internet, the yellow pages and the newspaper is a very good way to start. Make sure to make a list of the companies’ contact information since you’d need to make contact with them later.

Licensed Land Surveyor

Only deal with licensed land surveyors, so ask to see their license before hiring them. If possible, ask for a copy and authenticate it. Furthermore, check with the Better Business Bureau for any complaints the company might have against them.

Another important thing to remember is to hire a land surveyor whom you’re at ease working with. To find out, meet with the person. Study how he answers your questions and how he talks to you and you’d be able to determine if you’re comfortable with him. Aside from this, you’d also be able to gauge how knowledgeable he is by the way he answers your questions.

Contract Signing with a Land Surveyor

Read and understand every bit of the contract before signing it. Some people overlook the fine print, but make sure that you don’t. Make sure that there are no hidden charges, and that will be getting all the services that you’ll be paying for. Signing a contract makes a person legally bounded to it, so you have to fully understand what you’re signing up for to prevent any problems in the future.

As long as you get the best value for your money by hiring someone who will give you what you paid for, hiring a land surveyor shouldn’t be any problem.

For a land surveyor at Pell City,AL and surrounding areas, call us at (205) 291-4795 or send us a message by going to our contact page.

Boundary Surveying Today

Surveying is used for many reasons today.  Land surveying or boundary surveying is done to establish a specific location of a parcel of land along with its exact acreage.  It is used to determine the boundaries of an area of ownership.

It is also used to identify a piece of property by a written legal description or to provide a review of the accuracy of an existing description. This data is of the utmost importance with regard to buying and selling land, and is also used to insure a clear title to the land.Here’s a little more about boundary surveying.

There are many different kinds of surveys that can be performed. Boundary surveying is typically done for undeveloped land. A lot survey or closing survey is typically done to re-establish the boundary of a previously established parcel of land. 

These types of surveys measure the actual physical extent of the property in question. Most surveys progress through the basic procedures regardless of the type being done.

Any pertinent deeds, contracts, maps or other documents that contain a description of the property’s boundaries are located, studied and interpreted. A determination is made of what the actual property description says, along with the locations of any physical evidence of the boundaries.

This can be in the form of both natural and man-made monuments or markers that exist in the field. The property is then measured to establish the boundary, not only using the appropriate existing monuments but with setting new markers where necessary.

Measurements are accomplished using a total station and other surveying tools. A total station measures both vertical and horizontal angles, as used in triangulation networks. After these steps are accomplished, the property description and plat are prepared.

Boundary Surveying: Interpreting results

Interpreting the results of boundary surveying is not as difficult as it may first seem. For instance, a property plat will usually contain a directional orientation which is typically indicated with an arrow pointing north.It will contain the bearing and distance of each boundary line, the property lines of other properties shown on the plat, and the names of adjacent property owners listed in the areas of their property.

Corner monuments, along with the names of any natural monuments (such as “Smith’s Creek”, for example) or a brief description of any unnamed natural monuments (such as the “30-inch oak tree”) are on the plat.

There is also a title block containing the property’s location and owner name, the land surveyor’s name and license number, the date the survey was performed, the scale of the plat and any other relevant data.

Boundary Surveying Services

For a free boundary surveying quote, call Pell City Land Surveying at (205) 618-8876 or visit our contact page to send us a message. 

Land Surveyor: Definition

A land surveyor is a professional person with the academic qualifications and technical expertise to measure and plot the lengths and directions of boundary lines and the dimensions of any portion of the earth’s surface (including natural and other structures.) That definition is quite a mouthful, but in actuality the field of surveying (geomatics) includes many other facets.

For the home-owner the land surveyor is the person who locates the boundary of your property and the location of your home within that boundary to determine if there are any encroachments by your neighbors onto you or vice versa. Common encroachments are fences, driveways, etc.

Alabama Land Surveyor

Land surveyors in the United States are regulated and licensed by the various state governments. In Alabama, the Alabama State Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (www.bels.state.al.us) was established in 1935 to protect the public by helping “to safeguard life, health, and property, and to promote the public welfare by providing for the licensing and regulation of persons in the practices of engineering and land surveying.

This purpose is achieved through the establishment of minimum qualifications for entry into the professions of engineering and land surveying, through the adoption of rules defining and delineating unlawful or unethical conduct, and through swift and effective discipline for those individuals or entities who violate the applicable laws or rules.”

As of 2007, a newly licensed land surveyor is required to have a four year degree in surveying or a closely related field and an additional four to eight years of on-the-job training under a licensed land surveyor.

Licensed Land Surveyors are also required to maintain and update their professional knowledge and skills by attending 15 hours of continuing education each year.

In preparation for a typical lot or mortgage survey of your house, a land surveyor may review tax maps, aerial maps, deeds, subdivision plats, zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations and possibly flood maps.

For a typical lot survey the subdivision plat is the most important of these because it gives the exact dimensions of your lot and the relative location of your property corners. The surveyor uses this to locate and/or re-establish your property corners.

In the field the survey crew will find the property corners along with some of your neighbors corners if yours can’t be found, measure the distances and angles between all of the points, locate all improvements on your property, including your house, pool, out-buildings, retaining walls, fences, driveways and sidewalks, etc.

Other improvements like sanitary sewer mains, storm drainage ways, overhead power lines and the like are located because these might indicate an easement across the property. The plat should show these, but they don’t in all cases. We’ll talk about easements in a later article.

Once all of the field information is gathered, the chief land surveyor takes the field notes and prepares a preliminary sketch of the work. This is passed along to a draftsperson who prepares the final drawing for your use. The draftsperson will check all of the maps mentioned earlier to make sure that all building setback lines and easements are shown on the drawing.

The surveyed distances and directions are compared to the plat distances and directions also. Any discrepancies or encroachments are shown on the drawing. Your attorney uses the drawing to determine if any other legal work is needed during the closing.

The mortgage company or bank uses the survey to insure they are loaning you money on the correct property (in case they end up owning it. Yikes)

So now, what do you have for your money. You have a drawing which shows your house on your lot. You should have stakes and/or flagging by all of your property corners. Make sure you know where they are located.

The actual corner is marked by an iron pin or pipe of some sort. (The type of monument should be shown on your survey drawing.) You might also want to take a look for them at least once a year to make sure they’re still there.

For a land surveyor at Pell City,AL and surrounding areas, call us at (205) 291-4795 or send us a message by going here.