Nov 5, 2018
Why Land Surveyors Are Critical to New Construction Success
Everything’s perfect. You’ve bought a parcel of land, and you’re ready to hire a business to build your brand new house. Or perhaps you want an office building, a factory, or a farm.
But wait! Prior to any new construction happening — on any type of building, from residential to professional — you should enlist the help of a land surveyor, or be sure that your selected builders have done so. After all, you don’t want to make any costly mistakes when it comes to having construction occur on your land.
What Land Surveying Establishes
As you know, real property reports are an essential tool in determining the potential legal and dangerous pitfalls of building on a piece of land. Land surveying can help determine the property lines, easements and utilities, as well as geographic features that would affect construction.
But there’s more to surveying than establishing a report. To assist architects in construction planning, surveyors can also provide in-depth, precise measurements of the land itself. All of these factors combined help shape the final construction.
Why Land Surveyors Show up to Construction Sites First
Before groundbreaking happens — and sometimes even before architects develop a custom building plan — surveyors take stock of the building site first. In addition to alerting prospective architects to potential legal and utility issues, the land surveyors also provide valuable data in the form of measurements and calculations about the size of the land and geographic features.
The preciseness of this data allows the lead architect to make informed decisions that shape their plans. Having an accurate measure of the land’s natural geographical features can help an architect decide whether to leave those features as is, or terraform them.
But that isn’t all. Land surveyors do more than provide measurements — they also occasionally mark the ground. These markings help provide construction teams with detailed information as well, so they can avoid uncovering utility lines or venting natural gas.
Why You Need Surveys for New Construction
According to Constructionreviewonline.com, land surveying isn’t as simple as it seems. For example, many parcels of land have been split off from larger properties over the course of hundreds of years.
Each time a property is split off from another, it must be re-evaluated. But the tools used by surveyors in the past weren’t as advanced and up to date as our current tools. “With every division, the risk of miscalculation increases,” writes Dennis Ayemba. As a result, surveyors have to dig through multiple reports to eventually arrive at the truth — and prevent people from building on each other’s properties.
If your land hasn’t been surveyed recently, you might discover features you didn’t know about or that the property lines aren’t exactly where you thought they were.
The Takeaway
Getting an updated land survey — using newer tools and abiding by the most recent governmental regulations — is crucial for any new construction’s success.
To learn how LN can support your project with quality information, email INFO@LNLDT.CA or call 780.488.9064.