Surveying Articles:

Setting Out

Setting out is the very accurate marking out of the position of a feature (eg. building corners, wall line or boundary) in order that the feature can then be built in the correct design place.

We are often asked to undertake setting out work as a follow on from the original land survey, although this does not have to be the case.

Setting out can be fraught with all sorts of problems, which is why we control everything we do as carefully as possible. Ideally we require a copy of any original land survey that has been prepared and a drawing or list giving the co-ordinates of the points which are to be set out.

Sometimes we get to site and find that the survey stations (control markers) that have been put in when the original land survey has been undertaken have been destroyed. If this is the case or if no land survey was prepared we will need to survey a few salient features to establish control. (i.e. so that we have an starting point.)

We will not set out using tapes or chains, or by off-setting positions to be set out from other features on site, as the risk of something going wrong is too high.

Once we have set out the points, we will re-survey the points and check these co-ordinates to those supplied, to ensure that they fall within acceptable tolerances.

We have set out numerous development sites, buildings, roads, drainage routes, walls and fences as well as for positioning of new industrial machinery and equipment.