Survey Stakes and Markers

I was a little unclear at 2:47 when I say this is 'about' 5 ft away from the wall. No - that pin is EXACTLY 5ft. from where the face of the wall should be.
This is the first video of the storage project Nate is building in Arizona. Nate is EC's son, and the guy who produces the Essential Craftsman videos. We mentioned this project briefly in this video • Why Our Spec House Is ...
As soon as this project is completed (including all videos) we will pick back up on our spec house series. If you are enjoying these videos will you please share with your family and friends!
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Thank you, be safe, and be grateful.

[@andrewv5104]

If your a surveyor and ever get lost doing a survey. Just pound some lath in the ground and a contractor will show up to knock them over.

[@pais4957]

This is very accurate man

[@ringonor4298]

😅 so true

[@Dan4052]

Wow, is this man well spoken. You don't find a guy like that every day in the field. And knowledgeable. Really appreciated this video. Very helpful. Thank you.

[@maxkonta6284]

You helped me to solve a problem when I'm marking the center of the plumbing fitting with the whiskers, really appreciated Sir.

[@suckerfree23]

I can say that I'm as excited if not more to see this series. I'm a law student, so studying land law was a bit of an abstract subject. It's great to be given a chance to follow real issues in construction, explained by an expert.

[@pendulousphallus]

So happy to be back on site with you, boss. We're designing an industrial steel building in school next year. This sub-series with doubtlessly be instructive to me.

[@Neii234]

The quality of your content is amazing. Thank you

[@Jesse__H]

Woohoo it begins once again!

[@huggy2]

Have a dozer that wont run? Drive a grade stake within 10ft of it and I guarantee it will fire right up just to be able to get the chance to run that stake over!

[@jamess662]

Also works for old dump truck drivers...

[@Kaptain13Gonzo]

You know it. It's like magic. No need for a mechanic.

[@marshallmoneymaker8322]

Actually it's the other way around. Surveyors will watch a 100 dump trucks drive in and out of the same site ALL DAY LONG and put stakes directly in the roadway we are using!

[@arkansas1336]

Huggy --- I found during site visits with all equipment operators, have them do 2-3 hours (manual labor) of assisting setting a 1/2 mile of staking which will cut down on "survey destruction". Cheaper than correcting mistakes and they hate having to redo their on work (staking).

[@arkansas1336]

Marshall Moneymaker --- I've seen that several times also!

[@jakeconrad11]

Hello Scott and Nate. I just entered the world of industrial carpentry a year and a half in SW Louisiana. Im 33 years old and had little experience in the trade. Thanks to your videos i was able to have the basic knowledge to at least gain the respect of my co workers right off the bat. I stared as a labor and last week i passed my nccer certifications test. I give a lot of the credit to what u guys do. So from the bottom of my heart thank you.

[@essentialcraftsman]

You are most welcome!!!

[@judahchadwick6577]

So cool! We have started a new zoo expansion project at the Ark, so survey markers are everywhere. Now I have a grasp of what they mean! I love building, whether it's a personal project, at work, or watching and learning from someone else's project.

[@herbertreano7951]

Cant stop watching this man.. Hes great.. I love it..

[@nealneals6515]

Thanks for providing the info, great job in deep diving and explaining.

[@michaelroberson2546]

Welcome back to Arizona!!! June/July is likely not the most welcoming weather to visit, but things gotta be built. Stay safe and hydrated my friend.

[@pangsbricks8412]

Fantastic video! Always ready to see what you show next! Thank you for your awesome content!

[@keelerdr]

Great content as always...looking forward to the mini series!

[@4tatonka]

great vid - -- wonderful information for a layman like me. You guys rock! Thanks

[@aaronr3637]

Looking forward to the series!

[@sterlingsilver5937]

Thank you! I think this video will help me and I seek to grow in the construction industry.

[@danbarrett6113]

Just more great never talked about information. Thanks

[@martylts]

Fabulous video hoping to do a similar project in the future

[@ActiveAtom]

I have a whisker out front of my house they are installing sewage lines and I wondered what those are. Thank you for the video I know also know what some of the writing on the those stacks are telling the contractors.

[@gentbar7296]

so glad added this series... greetings from glendale

[@priceb713]

Loving the storage videos already! Give us lots instead of just a few!!!

[@faustesq5854]

Superb work. Thanks for sharing.

[@1320fastback]

They just surveyed my job for curbs and intersections to be poured. There must of been 30 stakes I had to navigate with 57' trusses hanging off my forklift. After two days I did not hit ONE! This morning the concrete company showed up to start setting curb forms and plowed 4 of them down just driving into the job.

[@bogilbert6265]

Every video you guys post is great this will be fun to watch but get it done ASAP, we have a home to build. Just playin love the content!!

[@will87463]

Great info as always. Also, if you want to sound official, the stakes are called lath! Looking forward to the spec house series!

[@russellthomas9249]

lath is 4 foot stake is 2 foot

[@OldBrownDog]

Same with planting trees and bushes it's good to be able to walk around them and still be on your property

[@frostcb2]

I’m a Carpender and I set up survey for excavators and I use a linker survey rod. It’s great for getting compound slopes and it really easy once you have your laser set up. That Rod you also use tenths.

[@russellthomas9249]

if you need to cut a slope at 1 1/2 to one down 25 feet to your toe of slope , I guess you have a LONG rod.

[@johnhunter273]

Great information! Thanks for sharing!

[@montiraruba2831]

I stumbled across this video. Great video. I am looking forward to following the next videos. I subscribed.

[@smartgorilla]

Great work. I wish I was out all day. Better than being stuck at my desk.

[@marcogaray-chavez6512]

this man is helping me become a real man

[@travisjicorcoran5870]

Had a surveyor in a week ago - first time I've ever employed one. Had him drive both pins and offset pins, then had an excavator pull some boulders from various places on my farm and drop them right atop the pins...then had surveyor come back (yesterday!) and use offset pins to locate and create final pins atop the boulders. Next step: rent a mini excavator to build a stone wall between the boulders that mark the inflection points in the zig zagging property lines. The whole process has been fascinating...and, yes each step looked IDENTICAL to the bits in this video. Excellent as always, thanks!

[@andrewalexander9492]

Hmm, sounds like you're placing half of your boulders on your neighbor's property. Do you have an agreement with your neighbors to do that?

[@travisjicorcoran5870]

Andrew Alexander yes. Also, I believe that most New England states have laws re traditional style boundary walls. Finally, I'm in farm country, so no one gets upset when rocks take up 100 square feet of a 50 acre farm. 😉

[@prestonboling1427]

Amazing video. You and wranglerstar are my favorite channels

[@rwkayser]

Initially I guessed you were in your old stomping ground of Las Vegas.. Then, thought Palm Springs? But, alas... you were in Mesa. You do get around Obi Wan Scotty. Thanks again for the quick and educational brief.

[@63256325N]

I talked with an older fellow years ago that used to lay out state highways. He constantly struggled with teenagers running over his grade stakes with their cars, so to combat that he'd balance a small rock on the stakes thus taking out the windshields of said offenders. Don't know just how true the story was but sitting around the fire swilling beer it made for a good laugh. Thanks for the videos and hope to see more of the Arizona project.

[@russellthomas9249]

if kids ran over my grage stakes L would pound a 12-inch piece of rebar next to my stake and look for a guy changing a tire

[@SchmackyJoel]

We do our offset symbols a little differently at my survey company in Kansas, but otherwise it's all just about the same. Also, 0.75' is 9 inches, so going 9 inches off of F +0.72 will put you 3 eighths of an inch too high. Hundredths to eighths is close, but I recommend counting from quarters of a foot. I mean, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75 are respectively 3, 6, and 9 inches then go up or down from there based on the hundredths shown on the survey stake.

[@leerhill]

SchmackyJoel you wouldn’t happen to work for the survey company in the burgundy Chevy trucks??

[@franciscojavier4670]

That’s what I was going to said

[@kimberlygregory111]

agreed

[@pais4957]

Happen to work for kaw Valley Engineering?

[@paveldimov8971]

@@jabaristevens388 I actually think he's right and it will be 3/8 high..

[@davidskeeterskeeter1835]

Take care fella,,your a top top man,,all my respect all the way from England, 👍👍👍👌🇬🇧

[@TheEarthwinders]

It might be helpful to revisit this issue when there are actually some cuts and fills taking place, so that we can look at the stakes and see the work that's been done, and the correlation between the two.

[@ia7277]

Very well done

[@patrickhance7348]

Marker's are very important goodwan nate.pat from Belgium 🔨👊

[@CHIEFDIG]

Thank you 👍

[@casycasy5199]

you did it again great video

[@tko6196]

Man, I miss this kind of teaching.

[@frostcb2]

Very important to follow the survey is the foundation for all the other trades that are coming in. Carpender’s build America

[@thevikingcarpenter6721]

Great video also real nice hammer you have there.

[@tradedossier]

Great information!

[@hugozavala33]

great info! tnx!

[@joeholmberg250]

Very interesting information.

[@justaguy427]

Welcome to Arizona!

[@JerichoRally]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@kengamble8595]

"Going" to get hot !? This must have been made a few months ago, I live here and it was 110 today! 😊 Thanks for sharing and take care. 👍

[@nothere7198]

But it's a dry heat ;-) (I'm guessing he shot the video a bit ago ?)

[@kengamble8595]

Essential Craftsman I'm closer to Yuma, so we're a few degrees warmer most of the time. At least the nights are still cool, for a short time anyway ! 😊

[@hunter3583]

every one likes to say "but it's a dry heat" they obviously haven't been here july through september it's nothing like the midwest but 110 with 60-80% humidity during the monsoons is hell

[@jasonmohning1708]

hunter3583 - Gotta love that feeling of being in a pressure cooker while being pelted by palo verde beetles July- September. Regarding a dry heat, I like responding with "So is the surface of the sun."

[@jackielinde7568]

July and August are the hot months of the year. June is "just warming up" month. ;) Yah 120 Deg F Temps (~49 Deg C for you non-US People.)

[@johnleven8907]

Although I've come across quite a bunch of you good folks throughout my life, I've never set foot in the US. Still so, the American way of doing most anything has always sounded like the most sensible way of doing things to me. How you guys got stuck with the Imperial measuring system, however, is beyond me.

[@RealLuckless]

A worse mistake than being a little off side from a property line that you can make as a contractor: Getting started on the entirely wrong lot... One of my father's friends hired a contractor in New Brunswick more than a decade ago to put up a pre-fab cabin kit for him. Customer comes back from being out of the country to go to their new vacation home, and find it was accidentally built on the wrong side of the road in a new lake front sub division. Needless to say there were some awkward conversations on how to fix things.

[@user-qe4mg6gi1d]

Lol, I can imagine how hot the conservations must’ve been.

[@jaxturner7288]

RealLuckless Jesus, you’d think with permits and inspectors, someone would of noticed even if the contractor was an idiot, anybody coming to the job site address could of easily figured out its the wrong side of a road. Kind of fishy tale honestly.

[@OtherTheDave]

Jax Turner It happens from time to time. Google “house demolished by mistake” some time when you’re bored.

[@RealLuckless]

Jax Turner the problem was apparently due to a mix up between the company that subdivided the large property and built the road, and the provincial governments address scheme. Guy's property was one of the lots in the middle of the road (in a very rural area. No idea if any inspection was really needed or done there. I'm rather vague on cabin regs back there at this point.) The guys who had the road built and parcelled up the land numbered the lots the opposite from the provincial standard at the time. This was corrected before the contractors came along, but not before the new land owner was told the old numbering scheme for his address... Contractors come along, "get help" from the guys who sold the property and failed to notice the missmatch, and two weeks later the lot has been thinned of trees and a spiffy new cabin is standing there on the wrong side of the road... Lots of back and forth eventually ended in the owner of the cabins property deciding they liked it, then paid the contractor to build a replacement cabin on the correct lot in exchange. And I assume everyone said sorry to each other an excessive amount, because this is Canada and we're weird like that.

[@JerryWick]

Wow, just Wow. No other words lol

[@hugozavala33]

great info! thank you

[@ricdenali4213]

Very interesting video.

[@katdeskinner]

After reviewing your video on the markings of the stake, he said it was a 5 foot offset to the face of the wall. But everything is referenced from the street side so that would be the face from the street. Then you would subtract 8 inches to the back of the wall which would be closer to the stake.

[@shawnbixby1]

Great content thanks!

[@otherstuffbybob]

Thanks for the info

[@lint2023]

So very interesting. I'll never look at a construction site the same. I might even wander through trying to interpret the language and possibly get run off because I'm there! Great stuff. I'm in PHX. Would love to see the project but I don't expect the location to be disclosed.

[@russellthomas9249]

to see it done correct and fast find a union job

[@arkansas1336]

Great explanation, 'spot on!' ….13

[@stevehansen5389]

When I saw those palms in the background my first thought was "South Oregon." When a block wall is built with one face on the property line does the footing extend into the neighbor's property?

[@ringerson4x4]

Here in my town in southern Maine we have minimum setbacks from property lines, 50ft from front and sides and 75ft from the back. Our lot sizes are probably considerably larger than what you are dealing with in Arizona, 2.5 acres is minimum here so I had to get a variance from my town to build on my 2.37 acre parcel. Our setbacks make it pretty hard to build on someone else's property, but it still happens, usually when a land owner doesn't hire a surveyor.

[@russellthomas9249]

if you build and don't know where your property corners are you are an idoit

[@repairdrive]

Man I love this stuff 😊😊😊

[@ozzy2753]

Must be awesome

[@mxcollin95]

Interesting! 👍

[@treverroberts3751]

Good video thanks sir

[@thoi412]

I wish this video existed 7 years ago... A trick I learned while flagging proposed gas lines, if the ground if too hard/frozen for your flag's wire to slide in, lay your flag on the ground so that an inch or so if the end of the wire is where you want the flag to end up. Then, using a dull large flat-head screwdriver and a mallet, pound the flag in striking the wire where you want the flag to stick up at. Do this enough times and your screwdriver will develop a divit in the center that helps with repeatability. Sincerely a former gas company engineer

[@masteryoda8829]

Smart advice

[@aBrotherMark]

Scott, seeing you seem to be make a bit more videos now if you don't mind me asking how is your mother? Praying for all of you. : )

[@ibarbarian0]

When I was a little kid those stakes made great swords. Adult me wants to smack kids that were like me growing up.

[@nothere7198]

Thumbs up for shared guilt... EN GARDE ! :-)

[@rstewardson4164]

Many years ago my family moved into a housing tract still being developed. A surveyor working there called me over, took out a piece of lath and tied several pieces of surveying tape to it, giving it to me. Saying ‘that was for me and all those in the ground were his’.

[@jonhare392]

When the 5 freeway was being built in my backyard my brother and cousins and I took out stakes and pounded them back in about ten feet off and lower. My Grandfather was a paving general superintendent and used to take us grandkids out to the job on Friday during the summer to ride the Barber Greene pavers and rollers. We knew that if you threw away the stake it was easily replaced. So when you pass the La Costa exit and hit a dip you'll know we were little assholes. If grandpa had found out he would have killed us.

[@hea-libertyhawk3418]

Jon Hare - ok … now that was funny!!!!

[@andrewvigil3313]

Jon hare, if you used to play around the 52 that would explain a lot

[@integritysurveyingltd1833]

great channel

[@matthewhall5571]

Last time I was this early, I had to survey it myself with a laser measure!

[@jaxturner7288]

Matthew Hall you surveyed with a laser level? Impressive

[@aserta]

Did you set the bubble right?

[@trunkshvac3339]

Looking forward to seeing progress fellas! May have missed a video somewhere but what exactly is going up in AZ? Be well and to good guys.

[@grinddaily2582]

So smart I'm jealous

[@grumpus1403]

Ok, I’ve been enjoying your channel for some time now and I’ve got to wonder about your reasoning on the suspenders? I know if I’m looking for the “first sergeant” on a job site and I see the guy with the suspenders, chances are I’ve found him. Appreciate your channel. Yours and “See Jane Drill” are my favorites.

[@operationhotshotinc.6887]

Looking forward to move videos

[@beauwebb1143]

I was doing a farm survey. Papers said monument was a cut X in rock. We found a three pound rock with an X. Survey from a hundred years ago.

[@davidwaytwolong5369]

thanks awesome

[@steveg5576]

Hope you will explain how the equip operator gets to the desired grade. Today I saw a vert bar attached to the bucket of a D10 I guess it was ? Then there is the small site level the operator uses ? How does all this work ? I took a 1 day surveying class mostly about transit level use and cut / fill. Any insight on the rest would be great.

[@SuperAWaC]

don't forget easements! utility companies (although more usually their subcontractors) will more than happily wreck anything they need to in order to get at their stuff, at your expense.

[@andyjohnson4641]

Pretty good video! Some of that is regional standards, but as a surveyor that’s staked out hundreds of buildings and uncounted miles of curb and road, I had no trouble following. And yes 9 inches is 0.75’. Just divide by 12. Surveyors use feet and decimals (to the 1/100 of a foot). Architects use fractions of an inch. Now that’s confusing!

[@russellthomas9249]

so do operating engineers (union)

[@ErikVonderscheer]

@@russellthomas9249union surveyors are in the operating engineers.

[@tacocat8867]

In most states, that corner on the fence cross beam is illegal, at the very least, no conforming to local statutes defined by minimum technical standards of monumentation. It should have been off set along the property line.

[@sb2261]

Yeah my thought as well. Do an O/S.

[@jamesedwards1528]

Now that's all good things I did not know

[@jeezusjr]

Neat! How about your tools? Did you drive the truck from Oregon to AZ? Can't imagine how much that would cost in fuel!

[@fleastomper]

Scott - Out of curiosity, how does contractor licensing work when you jump from Oregon to Arizona? I would assume that either you or Nate would have to have a license for any commercial work you do, but I am wondering if either Arizona has a reciprocation agreement for contractors or if, in the case of Nate's property, a license is needed at all? In the area of Texas where I live a property owner can get away with doing some work on their property without getting a licensed contractor/plumber/electrician, as long as they are doing the work personally. Although, given the scale of the project you are discussing, I don't think this job would quite meet those requirements. Also, when building retaining walls in Oregon or Arizona, what height requirement triggers the necessity of getting an engineer's design and stamp of approval. In my area anything over four feet must be an engineered wall - although given homeowners insurance here doesn't cover damage from retaining wall failures, we went ahead and got ours signed off on anyway.

[@gentbar7296]

good take out in cali thats all we deal with.

[@covenantcontracting3815]

Years ago before I was self employed a contractor I worked for built a cabin on a parcel of land that didn't belong to the customer. The parcels in question were very remote and all of the surrounding terrain looked the same. So the owner instructed where to build it and it was built. Later (several months) the rightful owner of the parcel shows up to see a beautiful cabin sitting on his property. The customer mistaked the neighbors parcel as his own. They eventually just traded parcels and the customer paid all the fees for the paperwork. It could have ended up worse. Fast forward a couple years and the same contractor built a new house on another parcel to find out that part of it was on the neighbors property. Fortunately the brother of the customer owned that parcel. So they made some kind of deal. From witnessing these mistakes I always pull county records on every project I build and verify myself that we are on the correct piece of land and have achieved proper offsets from property lines!

[@Enispecialist]

Wished there was some time lapse of you staking the property. Just watching a pro working is almost as interesting as the info sometimes.

[@paulkelly1702]

Well, hello Scott from Buckeye! 110 today - hotter will come :)

[@badger31738]

When a surveyor places wooden stakes between corners of property. Do they place the underground markers between corners also?

[@reymurguia9798]

Right onn

[@totensiebush]

While .01' is close to 1/8", it's off by enough that it can matter in some cases. As the largest example: if you use it for .99', you get 12.375" = 1.031', approximately half an inch from the proper measurement. Not a whole lot, but certainly something. For every 25 hundreths, knock off 1 and then use 1/8".

[@russellthomas9249]

just buy an engineer's folding ruler, find your inches then turn it over

[@rogerbosman2126]

"The conversion is really easy" lmao

[@nothere7198]

It's not too bad really, multiply by .12 (12 inches in a foot) for inches. Decimal inches of course ;-) Then if your tape isn't in decimal inches, convert to 1/8ths by... yeah, ok, so, look, it's close enough ! Go dig over there ! lol

[@kimberlygregory111]

tell that to the operaters

[@Tyler-mm9cj]

So are those nails set at design grade with whiskers when the existing ground is already pretty close to existing grade? I know with some of the stakes I've seen the nail was set at existing grade so that the crews would have a clear datum to apply the cut or fill to. This was typically during rough grading.

[@highplainsdriftertv]

Whats the name of the song you used in the end of your video here...You always have some cool tunes in your videos

[@georgebrow3002]

I prefer ribbons over whiskers the operator will know by color the exact cut .I put a paint mark on the dozer blade 1 ft mark and 2 ft and it's fast.

[@Izrun]

We recently had termites in the middle of house eating the hardwood floors. Long story short, we found out that apparently someone had left a plumbing survey stake in when they poured the concrete, then broke it out at the surface and patched over it. Eventually, 20 years later, their thin patch cracked and termites traveled up the survey stake and started eating my floors. The stake was deep enough and there is so much moisture in the ground (I live in Florida) that it made a perfect environment for them. Their own private elevator. So people, make sure to remove your stakes!

[@brianpearl7504]

Poetic, every time he talks

[@mikepettengill2706]

Great video as always! I grew up in Mesa. Lived on Pasadena Ave. West of Mesa Dr. South of Broadway. Where is this project located?

[@burnhamaj]

Mike Pettengill East Mesa by the 202.

[@scruffy6151]

Thank you Scott always good information.