Every deed describes a walk.
“Thence N 27°09′45″ E, 500.51 feet, to a found ¾″ iron pin…”
The deed was written a century before the GIS. We take that walk with a total
station and a magnetic locator, and we bring back steel the next surveyor can find.
Fieldwork is a search, not a scan
A boundary survey begins at the recorder's office and ends in the ground. Between those two places is a crew of two, a one-second total station, a magnetic locator, a probe and a spade — and however long the alder scrub decides to take. The traverse below is real work product: Lot 4, closed this September. Every corner was searched for before it was measured to.
| Course | Bearing | Dist ft | Lat N | Dep E | Corner monument |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Σ perimeter | |||||
FOUNDmonuments are circles on the plat; SET corners are squares. Line AB was staked for a fence at 10 × 45.50 ft + 45.51 ft = 500.51 ft — ten offset stakes plus the closing interval, offset 10 ft south so the fence crew doesn't bury them.
The older document wins
Research is not paperwork before the work — it is the work. Lot 4 carries five documents in its chain, and they do not perfectly agree. That is normal. The rules that rank them were settled a century ago: a 1911 stone outranks a 1947 pin, which outranks a 1988 recalculated line, which outranks the county GIS by however much the GIS is wrong this decade.
Prosser's 1988 plat calls B–C S 80°40′00″ E. Held between the found concrete R.M. and the rebar he set, we measured S 80°42′12″ E. The monuments were held; nobody moved a corner. The difference lives in the precision line, not in the ground.
Fees you can check line by line
Day rates and unit prices, published. The invoice at right is Lot 4 as it actually billed — every line a quantity you can multiply.
| Item | Unit | Rate |
|---|
Lot 4's five traverse stations bill inside the field day, not at $85 each — you pay for the searching, not for corners that answer on the first try.
Most Kettle Rift lots survey between $2,100 and $3,400. Wetland edges and deed conflicts are what push past it.
“The county map put our north corner forty feet into the scrub. Mr. Vane came back with the 1911 stone's coordinates, a photograph, and the patience to explain both.”
What a survey will not do
It will not make neighbors agree
We locate boundary evidence and report it plainly. Where two deeds disagree, the fix is a signed agreement or a courtroom — and both take longer than steel.
It will not outvote a fence
Sixty years of accepted fence line can legally own a boundary — the doctrine of acquiescence. Fresh mathematics is not always the senior evidence, and we will tell you when it isn't.
It will not be instant
Records take days to pull and corners take longer to find. A same-day boundary is a guess wearing a vest. We do not sell guesses.