How do you accurately find your property line to post signs and paint trees

[Jstpssng]

When you say metal stakes with caps what does that mean? What kind of caps? Some states require surveyors to cap their corners. You don’t want to be surveying without a license. There is nothing saying a home owner can’t measure things. I’d even say for posting no trespassing signs and purple paint a homeowner is fine, but setting capped iron rods is most likely a no-no.

When I contracted to do line maintenance with our state Bureau of Public Lands years ago, part of the contract was to set corner pins and place caps with "Bureau of Public Lands" on them. (Or perhaps they simply said "BPL")
I argued against it because it would give the appearance of having been surveyed, but a contract is a contract so had to do it their way.

 

[Jchonline]

When you say metal stakes with caps what does that mean? What kind of caps? Some states require surveyors to cap their corners. You don’t want to be surveying without a license. There is nothing saying a home owner can’t measure things. I’d even say for posting no trespassing signs and purple paint a homeowner is fine, but setting capped iron rods is most likely a no-no.

I just get some plastic caps (not the surveyor orange ones)..I think mine are yelllow. I glue them to the top of the stake so I can see them.

 

[JethroB]

I find slipping a piece of white PVC pipe over stakes and T-posts markers helpful. Pipe is inexpensive and lasts a long time.

 

[SwingOak]

I did this recently with some property I own in the UP. Fortunately, the boundaries follow section lines, so it was easy enough to locate the corners. The southern boundary had been surveyed in 2018, and the flagging tape was still up on the boundary line, so I walked it back in June and painted the trees blue. Surveyors use blue because it's not a color that occurs frequently in nature, and is easy to see in all seasons.

I read that purple means "no trespassing" in some states, don't know if that applies to the Superior State, but I used blue.

A phone GPS is not necessary that accurate, so I averaged a waypoint set on the corners using a Garmin GPS Map 66i. I created a survey map in AutoCAD, set it on the geospatial markers averaged on the GPS, and exported it to GPX format, where I was able to load it into OnX Hunt.

For layout on the property lines, I used a compass and ground-truthed it using the road as a reference to determine and confirm the magnetic declination. Then I walked the lines and estimated boundaries using the compass. This was all before the survey was done.

I had the rest of the property surveyed this fall, and will follow up and paint those boundaries next spring. I was only a few feet off on a couple of the corners and about 10 feet off on another. But now that I've had it officially surveyed, it seems one of my neighbors has put his no trespassing signs about 40-50 feet past the line and on my property. I'll move them in the spring.

Good surveys make good neighbors!

 

[dodge man]

I tested one of those units a couple years ago and it was fairly slow when high accuracy was required. The initial "cold start" point took about 10-15 minutes to lock in with 10cm accuracy, and then nearby "warm start" points were faster. But you have to go through the whole cold start again when moving to another site. Theoretically they can get down to ~1cm accuracy but that would probably take a long time with a cold start.

It was no better than consumer GPS when it came to trees and other sky obstructions. Can't beat the laws of physics.

I have many customers that use these products and very few of them are prepared/patient enough. Everybody wants to get a quick reading in the middle of a dense forest. Not so simple!

I’m not sure what kind of gps that would be. The last system we bought cost $60,000 for a two unit system. Some states and some gps companies have a state wide network that allows one unit to work but you use a cell phone link to obtain corrections. About the cheapest gps I’ve seen for surveyors is about 10k to 15k.

 

[Root Cause]

I read some time ago that the US gov't controls the accuracy and has the ability to increase or decrease it based on their whims for security reasons. No idea but I can guess that this may fluctuate in areas or at times depending on credible threats.

As said, my onX hunt got me within 6' of a metai stake in heavy woods but who knows about tomorrow. The overlay showing property lines was impressive even if it isn't perfect. I could see that I was veering towards or away from my property. The metal detector along with the app working together worked well to get my 4 corners.

 

[dodge man]

There was something in the GPS system called Selective Availability the military had turned on, it degraded the gps accuracy quite a bit. It has been turned off for about 20 years.

As a rule consumer grade gps has an accuracy of 10 meters, but it can be better. Survey grade either uses a base-rover system(2 units) or they get corrections from an internet link, usually a cell phone or hotspot. This gives 1 cm accuracy in good conditions. There is also mapping grade systems which are generally sub meter, about 3 feet.

 

[s219]

All the GPS chipsets in use by smartphones for the last 10+ years are capable of 3 meter (~10 feet) accuracy under proper conditions. I have been able to verify that in field testing. For many people that is fine, especially if they have the knowledge to sanity check and interpret the data and work within limitations.

The next best grade of semi-pro devices are known as "meter" or "sub-meter" units and capable of about 20cm accuracy under proper conditions. They are in the $500-1000 range in general. You can buy units that will tie in to a smartphone via bluetooth and supply location data to apps.

From there the prices jump to $10K and upward to get into true pro class units, capable of 1-5cm accuracy under proper conditions. I rarely hear of surveyors using them, it's more for the GIS crowd.

 

[Jstpssng]

I read some time ago that the US gov't controls the accuracy and has the ability to increase or decrease it based on their whims for security reasons. No idea but I can guess that this may fluctuate in areas or at times depending on credible threats.

As said, my onX hunt got me within 6' of a metai stake in heavy woods but who knows about tomorrow. The overlay showing property lines was impressive even if it isn't perfect. I could see that I was veering towards or away from my property. The metal detector along with the app working together worked well to get my 4 corners.

They scrambled them on Sept 11... I was in upstate NY using mine to navigate a cruise line and couldn't figure out why I came out 1000 feet off. Hand held units were even less accurate back then anyways.

 

[Paddy]

OP,

depending on how long your lines are and just how accurate you want to be is the question. We marked our lines by this method. our land was 330 ft by 1300 ft.

First, we found the corner stakes by walking with a compass. We knew where one was when we started, at the road. Walked off the 330 ft along the road and found the second. Then the 1300 ft line ended at a fallen fence. So walked the line with a compass and got within 50 feet. Had to rake along the fence to find the steel pin. same for the next 330 ft line. It was at the base of a rail road tie.

To find mid points was a bit tricky being hilly and wooded. Takes 3 people with flash lights. Person at road is looking for a waving light 1300 ft away, you can see the tree tops and figure the center. he yells to the mid point guy to walk to his right/left to line him/her up. He/she ties a marker on a tree. keep this up until yo can see marker to marker.

I wouldn't count on this for placing a shed/barn. good enough for purple paint