Back Home to Hawaii...

[adias]

Hi Lee,

I’ve seen the wooden stakes with red flags and was advised to get the staking done just before building, since the stakes are temporary.

I was wondering if people tend to mark these positions off with something a little more durable, like concrete posts.

I also understand there are “pins” buried in the corners and pin-finders can locate them.

The thinking is to have the survey done way before building and not to have to resurvey when building, does this make sense or am I being difficult ;-)

Ajit

Edited by - adias on 09/15/2005 12:48:16

[David D]

Hi Ajit,

We have property in Puna near Kurtistown and I wanted to do the same to our piece of paradise. Here is what we did:
First off I knew where the survey pins were located. Second, the front of the property is along a road with a clear line of sight and at the rear, my neighbor’s land is cleared. So, the front and back needed no work. Only the east and west sides needed to be staked. And each side is 714 feet.
Looking at the TMK map of the area and the survey report on the property we able to determine that all the east/west property lines of all the parcels were parallel. We took a compass reading from a couple of different fence lines, which were the same heading.
We then took that compass heading to the corner pin, drove in a 5-foot metal sake, and took out our machetes and started to hack away. Every 100 feet we would stop, run a string from the corner pin stake (or next stake in line), take compass reading to keep the line straight and dive in a new stake. This worked really well for us, we matched up to the opposite corner pins with in a foot.
Because the land is x-cane there is a lot of scrub growth, got some 10-foot PVC pipe, tied marking tape to one end, and strapped those to metal stakes. You can really see the property line now!
This was a lot of work, but we had a good time. We felt more intimate with the land. We got to see how the land lies and we now know exactly where to have our home built. Hard work and worth the effort!

Good Luck,
David D

[adias]

Hi David,
Thanks for your informative response, very creative!

I also talked to a surveyor about this; who indicated that if the “pins” were not already there, they would place them. I guess these are the permanent markers. Once the pins can be located, the boundaries are known.

I guess in the very near future, we will simply use a GPS receiver to locate our plot boundaries.



Ajit

Edited by - adias on 09/17/2005 08:13:49

Edited by - adias on 09/17/2005 09:36:31

[Lee G]

Hi,
It's not as easy as it looks even when all 4 pins are known. We have one spaghetti lot 3 aces which comes out to 125' wide by 1140 feet long i had my front & back pins staked but I wanted to know where my sides were. I started in the front of the property and walked in a straight line about 100 feet until I hit the dense Jungle and I am talking about 100 foot ohia trees, 20 foot tall Hapu'u ferns and the thickest brush I ever seen in my life, I proceeded to hack away with my trusty machete but once in the bush you now have lost line of sight with the front stakes so you try to landmark with trees and such and I had orange marker tape and roll of string and would tie markers every 50 feet or so. This is no one day job it took me several days to hack my way to the back pins but to my surprize I was over on the next lot which had no markings on it. I swore I was walking in a straight line and retraced my path at least a dozen times it became a obsession with me and I was starting to have thoughts that our house was built on the wrong lot or half on the other lot. I finally called in a surveyor and he shot the property with a transit and hacked his way with a machete with the help of an assistant and he came up with my back pins were correct and I had nothing to woory about. Strange thing is that the true property line looks like it goes at a 30 degree angle but in all actuality it is straight line to the street, so it can be very misleading just walking it in. I used a compass but still not that accurate if you drift off 3 degrees in a thousand feet you will be way off at the end. My advise is to hire a surveyor and walk it with him and mark your sides as he shoots it. Just my experience.

Lee

[adias]

Yikes!! What have I gotten myself into??? Those small lots in Tiki Gardens are starting to look real good...;-)

Now I understand why those guys charge so much, it not for the surveying but for hacking their way into the property. Good advise Lee, tag along with the surveyor and let him do the work.


Ajit

[David D]

Lee,

You're right, you have to be very careful. We also had a pruning chain saw to take care of some of the trees. But our property is x-cane and has no old growth - all California grass, wild cane, guava (no Abezia!) and other scrub trees.
Something naturally wild would have been very difficult! As it was, the project took us 5 days to finish.

David D



Edited by - David D on 09/18/2005 09:39:59

[nanasohana]

Speaking of Tiki Gardens...after our neighbor grubbed our lots, and our neigbor showed us the
location of one pin, we messed around and found all the pins....and our lots were solid jungle...we showed up with a weed eater and thought we could clear with that and our neighbor was so nice, he didn't even laugh at us. On ours there was pipes then pins then wood stakes with orange tape...and yes we are really glad we bought two lots in tiki giving us a nice 120 x 160 lot.

[adias]

Hello…

Many thanks for everyone on the great feedback on the surveying/finding pin issues...Another question...


Are people doing Timber Frame type of construction on the Big Island? What are the issues with this type of construction in Hawaii that a builder should be concerned with? Termites, Earthquakes, Mold/Mildew, Experience etc.

http://www.loghomesillustrated.com/r5/co...y_id=30987


Ajit

Edited by - adias on 09/25/2005 06:14:38

[Hazen]

Hey Adias

My girlfriend Abby and I rent a place over on 40th and Pohaku. I guess we'll be neighbors. Come visit sometime. Just curious.... You know this area has flood problems right? After our week and a half of rain when the hurricanes passed, Pohaku road was almost impassable to my 4Runner, the road washes out somewhere near 37th....

Hope all goes well. Congratulations!\

Hazen

[adias]

Hi Hazen,

Thanks for the information. I figured something was going on in that area, since it was extra ordinarily lush. I guess we have to get an amphibious vehicle ;-)

However, there are lots of orchards and residences in that area, so my assumption is there are redeeming qualities in that area as well.

My wife and I will be on the Big Island in December, perhaps we can meet up then…

Ajit


Ajit