Land Surveyor Blogs

2012 is bringing expansion to our firm. We are now offering Civil Engineering services and will be relocating our office in the near future...

Civil Engineering Services and New Office Location

Matt

The Excelsior Group, LLC

As a Land Surveyor I have spent much time contemplating my profession. I have sought to engage Land Surveyors across the world in order to deepen my understanding of what constitutes good practice and good principle. The theory behind Land Surveying always was my focus.

I joined and posted to websites that I thought were dedicated to the purposes I mentioned above. I was very active at some of these sites and participated in many debates dealing with the business and practice of Land Surveying. T

Basic Tool Mason Plum Bob

Zero Error Tool

It is truth that books were written from experiential but no one can do any thing by book, because fun is knowledge based and shifted from a practical person to others followers.

About 25 years ago a mason question me that what is man made thing which has no error, I went to think about man made machines daily used equipment, tools etc and guessed many things, he reject all my pointed tools, then I tired and let him to tell me, he did not replied only sho

This is a continuation of an earlier article that I wrote on the subject of Certificates of Merit. I am not surprised that this issue continues to arise.

We continue to see tests of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code due to changes that were a result of the recent tort reform. Case law in the particular area of Certificates of Merit has been evolving and despite some early questionable statements by the Court (see my previous article) it seems to have reached a certain maturity.

In the in

Let me first say I have been in business for 22 years, during this time I have seen and been through alot. Over the first 20 years two things were consistent work and my ability to increase my prices. Over the past two years work has been very inconsistent and prices have plummeted.  Of course we have a bad economy to blame, but what is disturbing is this free fall that has occurred even as inflation rears its ugly head. My business is surviving these times thanks to a loyal group of clients who

In an article titled "10 Things Your Neighbor Won't Tell You" Quentin Fottrell lists this as #7..."I'm secretly stealing your land.""Few homeowners have heard of "adverse possession," but it's the legal grounds on which a neighbor can claim rights to your land. Say a neighbor moves a fence or wall, or plants trees or a bush. If he encroaches on your property, and no one notices, he can claim "continuous, exclusive, open and notorious" use of that land -- and if he's able to do so for an average

Survey Wisconsin in a day

Here is a link to an article recently published by the Wisconsin State Cartographer’s Office describing the events of “Surveying Wisconsin in a day”.

Dozens of member surveyors of the Wisconsin Society of Land Surveyors around the state simultaneously operated Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers to create a massive network of observations, being the largest ever on record for one day in Wisconsin.

I was proud to be a participant in the event. If you navigate around t

Below are excerpts from a diary my great grandfather kept between 1897 to 1956. He was born March 20, 1875 and started keeping a diary a few months before he turned 22. He lived in East Texas during the time and he worked on survey crews and did a lot of surveying as a young man. His first entries in his diary in January of 1897 are crude chaining notes. Later it is clear he is operating the transit and level. As the year of 1897 wears on his diary becomes more detailed. Below is a selection of

Caveat emptor! Translation: Let the buyer beware! Under this doctrine, the buyer could not recover from the seller defects on the property that would render the property unfit for ordinary purposes.

The purchase of an automobile is typically the second most expensive purchase that people make. Prior to shelling out their hard-earned money though, they research their choice. They take the vehicle for a test-drive. If it is a used vehicle, they might even have their mechanic look over the car to en

S t r i p p e r :  C o n f e s s i o n s  o f  a  L a n d  S u r v e y o r
B y  P e a n  C h e n e y i n g  P L S

(Originally published in Gulf Coast Surveyor, September 2011 under the column "Chain!")

PART 3

STRIP SEARCH

Jack called us wanting a Standard Land Survey on 2 parcels that had been cut out of a large lot in an old recorded subdivision. He would only say that he needed the survey for a possible transaction on the properties in the future and that there was no Title Insurance Company involv

S t r i p p e r :  C o n f e s s i o n s  o f  a  L a n d  S u r v e y o r
B y  P e a n  C h e n e y i n g  P L S

(Originally published in Gulf Coast Surveyor, September 2011 under the column "Chain!")

PART 2

STRIP NAKED

Joe called saying he wanted a Land Survey to define a strip of land he was occupying next to the recorded lot he owned that he wanted to purchase from his adjoiner. He said he had read some positive reports about our firm and that is why he was contacting us. A current tax mosaic was

S t r i p p e r :  C o n f e s s i o n s  o f  a  L a n d  S u r v e y o r
B y  P e a n  C h e n e y i n g  P L S

(Originally published in Gulf Coast Surveyor, September 2011 under the column "Chain!")

PART 1

Striptease

I received a phone call from Joanne who said she was purchasing a home on a lot in a block of a recorded subdivision. She said she needed a Land Title Survey. I pulled the current tax report on the property, the current tax mosaic showing the property and sent her these along with a p

So last time we did a cursory review of the PLSS and went over the basics of simple legal descriptions.  We start the survey process at the office looking up the original surveys for the area, I’m a history buff so I love reading the original notes, and looking at the original maps. Then we head to the courthouse to research deeds for not just the parcel of land that we are surveying, but also all of the adjoining deeds to look for any issues that may involve junior or senior rights. Then we hea

Gerr I lost my data.. Be it a picture, a survey job, a letter or some other item you took a few minutes to a few hours, days creating. Here is a example. I had this whole article typed and in this box and hit submit and the page failed to load. It got lost in the digital wasteland that is wifi to my router and on to the internet to the sever that is LSU. where did it go?? I dont know but if I typed it local and hit save then copied and pasted it I would have a backup. Thats where we start... AGA

Do you ever wonder what the pros use to make your computer run right? Well here is a list of a few that I use to make it run better. This is by no means a complete list but it is a good list to get you started and save a few bucks.

AVAST
The BEST antivirus out there in my experience is AVAST. It is fast, stable blocks everything that has ever tried to attack my system and doesn’t slow my computer down like Norton or some of the others. I am not saying the others don’t protect you. I am saying that

I have been talking with some of the wonderful folks on here and I think I can help some of you and learn from many of you. I am a computer and network systems engineer and by NO means a surveyor. So what brought me here.. Well when I was in school I worked as a survey tech and construction inspector for about 5 years and I still help my uncle as a rod man when he needs an extra hand on a weekend here and there. So let’s get down to what brought me here. My uncles Recon is a little slow compared

The first part of this series we looked at what a Surveyor is, and does.  This article will look at what a Land Survey is, and will briefly look at the history what is called the Public Land Survey System or PLSS which is the basis of most non-colonial surveying.  This article will by no means be exhaustive--but will be longer than my normal posts.  The story you are about to read is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent...

The Public Land Survey System or Rectangular Sur

Center 1/4 Corner.PDF

For photos posted 11/30/2011