You’ve seen them: people in hard hats on the side of the road looking through strange sets of binoculars attached to tripods. What are they looking at? What’s so important that men in hard hats have to stare at it through odd telescopes? Who are these people anyway?
These people are a special breed of professionals called surveyors. Michigan has them. New York has them. Even California has them. And the word “survey” doesn’t only apply to the annoying questionnaires you get over the phone that suck away your time and reward you with nothing but neck ache. The other meaning of the word is to look over or assess.
Surveyors are hired to check out a property for one reason or another. They take careful measurements, follow directions given to locate specific points, and help old women across the street. Okay, the last part isn’t part of their job description but they probably do it anyway.
So what sorts of things does a surveyor do? What do they survey? A surveyor has a number of different surveys that they do on a regular basis, depending on what type of surveyor they are. Some specialize in one industry or another, but many surveying companies offer a range of services.
One of the most common surveys ordered is a property boundary survey. This is the sort of survey you order when your neighbor comes to you and says. “Bob, move your fence. It’s sitting on my property.” Or rather, you say, “Prove it,” and he orders the survey. During the survey, the professionals come out and, using the directions they get from official records that describe the boundary lines, place stakes and flags in certain areas that prove to your neighbor that he is, in fact, an idiot. Whereupon his wife gets extremely angry with him for wasting money and he never speaks to you again. Success all round.
Other common surveys include:
- Mortgage surveys, where title companies make sure that all of the structures are where they should be and the land is zoned correctly.
- Construction staking, where locations and elevations are marked out before a construction job so the parking lot doesn’t get built inside the building.
- Topographic design surveys, that ensure that the entire area, such as a housing development, is located in an area where the basements are not future swimming pools, etc.
- And many more: Site plan, property splits, as built, etc.
Yes, surveyors are more than spectators from a distance. Whether you are in California or Michigan, surveyors are the people who solve the problems before they become problems.