Surveying the Land

Because our lot is steeply sloped and no previous surveys had been done to our knowledge, our architect felt it was important to conduct a topographic survey before furthering any design concepts.  The idea behind the topographic survey is to ensure that we have a full understanding of how the current placement of large trees and the rise in elevation will impact the design, given the various height- and slope-related restrictions imposed by our local government.  We also expect that the topographic survey will be useful for landscape design at a later date.

As we were aware of an easement on the property, a boundary survey would also prove helpful.  However, finding a qualified surveyor at a reasonable rate was surprisingly difficult and required significantly more research and time than we had anticipated.  In most cases, quotes for the topographic survey included marking of the easement but not a boundary survey.  We called several companies and individuals and in most cases we were unable reach anyone at all with our messages left unreturned.  Eventually, our architect had to start calling on our behalf and received two quotes that were quite high even for the San Francisco Bay Area, which suffers from a high demand for and limited supply of construction-related services.  Since we found the prices to be a potentially wasteful draw on our limited budget, we called on our realtor for possible recommendations but none turned up.  Our architect then suggested that we check with our city hall to see if there was a list of surveyors who had done work in town.  This proved to be just what we needed, as there was indeed just such a list.  We contacted a few of the companies on the list and received quotes which were a bit more reasonable.  We then selected a company whose quote included both topographical and boundary surveys for about the same price as the second best option which did not include the boundary survey.  We suspect that the surveyor was able to include the boundary survey at minimal cost because the company had records from a survey done for a neighboring property some years ago.

The day of the survey was rather uneventful.  It involved a team of two people taking measurements and noting major landmarks, such as large trees and poles.  The whole thing took less than 6 hours, including a lunch break.  Within two weeks, as we had been promised, a printout of the survey was mailed to us.  We had to call to receive an electronic version which had been specified in the contract, but that was easily rectified with an email.  Upon review, though, we found an error on the survey in that only one of two easements on the property had been marked.  Beyond that, we found the quality of the work to be excellent.  Surprisingly, it took another two weeks to fix the missing easement problem due to the difficulty of getting ahold of someone able to follow up at the surveyor's office.  However, the initial survey map was enough for our architect to begin his work.

To summarize the lessons we learned from this experience:

• Your architect should be able to tell you whether you need a topographic or boundary survey for your project but may not be able to arrange the best surveyor for your property.
• You should verify whether the surveyors you solicit quotes from are licensed in the state in which your project is located.  For California, you can check online at the California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors' web site http://www.pels.ca.gov/consumers/lic_lookup.shtml.
• Understand the details of the quotes and proposals you receive to see which elements are included or excluded from the price.  If you are unclear about whether you need something, check with your architect.
  
• Require an electronic copy of the survey map in a format usable by your architect, usually something compatible with AutoCAD.  Our architect was later able to layer the topography lines onto the design to great effect.
• If you are in a "hot" real estate market, the time and cost for conducting a topographic or boundary survey may well exceed your expectations.