First, we will be asking you for your deed, abstract and a copy of a previous survey of your property if you have one. We will also check the courthouse records for a description of the properties adjacent to you. The adjacent property is just as important as yours for it can encroach on you just as you can encroach on your neighbor. We then prepare a working sketch from the records. This will enable the field crew to have an overall picture of the area.

Next, the field crew will take the working sketch and make an on the ground survey. This is sometimes the most tedious part of the work. We must find property corner markers or an established and recognized line to start from. Fence lines, roads, etc., are used as guides to locate these lines or corners. Sometimes the surveyor must go some distance from the property being surveyed to locate a recognized and correct land mark to start from. Many times a tree line, fence line or other obstruction is on the property line and the line itself cannot be occupied.

The field crew will then run an offset or random line adjacent to the property line and make ties to the property corner markers, if found, or to the fence corner or they may set a wooden stake for a reference point from which to set the actual property corner later.