04-04-2006, 01:14 PM
Hi Rob,
We had a similar situation last year. This is what we did:
We knew the location of the survey markers for each corner. There was no clear line-of-sight along the long sides of the property, which is 701’. Also, from looking at the TKM map of our area, we could see that the property lines ran parallel to our neighbors. And some of those neighbors had cleared & fenced their property. We wanted to stake the property line & didn’t want to pay for someone to do the work. Plus if you do this yourself, you really get an intimate feel with the land.
We bought a compass that is designed to take a reading (shoot an azimuth). We bought one at Wal-Mart for less than $10.00. We also bought some metal stakes, a roll of string, a mallet, and a roll of marking tape.
We took a compass reading along the fence line of two different parallel fences to make sure the readings were the same (they were) and then went to the survey marker on our property, started to make a trail along the same compass reading. We drove a stake at the survey marker & ran the string up the trail, set the string along the compass reading, then set the second stake. (We were able to go 100’ for the first stake after the survey marker. Some of the following stakes were shorter that 100’, but we never went beyond 100’ to set the next one)
By the time we made it to the other end, we were off line from the opposite survey marker by less than two feet. For clearing the land, that is an acceptable tolerance. Once the land is cleared, putting up a fence along the proper property line won’t be a problem.
For the compass, stakes, string, mallet, and marking tape we spent less than $50.00.
Now this is just MY opinion, but I don’t think those GPS readers are accurate enough in dense foliage to track a property line. +/-10 feet is a long distance. If you are just walking around & want to know your general location, GPS is great. It’s all a matter of determining the level of acceptable accuracy.
Good Luck!
David D
Edited by - David D on 04/04/2006 17:23:53
We had a similar situation last year. This is what we did:
We knew the location of the survey markers for each corner. There was no clear line-of-sight along the long sides of the property, which is 701’. Also, from looking at the TKM map of our area, we could see that the property lines ran parallel to our neighbors. And some of those neighbors had cleared & fenced their property. We wanted to stake the property line & didn’t want to pay for someone to do the work. Plus if you do this yourself, you really get an intimate feel with the land.
We bought a compass that is designed to take a reading (shoot an azimuth). We bought one at Wal-Mart for less than $10.00. We also bought some metal stakes, a roll of string, a mallet, and a roll of marking tape.
We took a compass reading along the fence line of two different parallel fences to make sure the readings were the same (they were) and then went to the survey marker on our property, started to make a trail along the same compass reading. We drove a stake at the survey marker & ran the string up the trail, set the string along the compass reading, then set the second stake. (We were able to go 100’ for the first stake after the survey marker. Some of the following stakes were shorter that 100’, but we never went beyond 100’ to set the next one)
By the time we made it to the other end, we were off line from the opposite survey marker by less than two feet. For clearing the land, that is an acceptable tolerance. Once the land is cleared, putting up a fence along the proper property line won’t be a problem.
For the compass, stakes, string, mallet, and marking tape we spent less than $50.00.
Now this is just MY opinion, but I don’t think those GPS readers are accurate enough in dense foliage to track a property line. +/-10 feet is a long distance. If you are just walking around & want to know your general location, GPS is great. It’s all a matter of determining the level of acceptable accuracy.
Good Luck!
David D
Edited by - David D on 04/04/2006 17:23:53