Why do I need a land surveyor?

The Leica Total Station

The last lecture of the week and indeed this 2nd term was with Land Surveyor Ian Humby. He has developed his practice to specialise in surveying things us garden designers crave on a survey. Not just levels and trees and so on (topographical survey) but house doors and windows, guttering, roof lines and even the facia (Measured building surveys).

Speaking at rate he guided us through 'why' to think about shelling out for a land surveyor in the first place and some of his examples were pretty shocking (one had approx 8-10m 'missed' on both sides of the 'already surveyed' garden another had buildings positioned quite differently). Although he did finish that section showing a survey by another garden designer that was almost perfect (!) to show it is not impossible for us to do well.

There were idiot proof ways for us to make our surveying better (equilateral triangle math and bean sticks rule!) and a revision of some of the finer points of using a Dumpy level and the popular zip level.

His own surveyor kit, a Leica Total Station, was most impressive although the price tag clearly makes it for professionals only!

Apparently a Dumpy level (150x cheaper than surveyor kit!) is perfectly acceptable but you should consider yourself reasonable at math - which I do, so I am off to source one this weekend but will be longing for the Total Station in reality.

Building begins

We had our first set of lectures on the nitty gritty of building and plans for contractors. Led by the John Heather, who is also Dad of the principal!. We went methodically through site survey requirements and level taking and recording. It reminds me again that this business is likely to be as much about good and clear communication with all parties as it is about good design. It also reinforces how much we will rely on good contractors to implement.

In the afternoon we headed off for the picturesque village in which the house for our second design project is located. Levels was the order of the day and after splitting into small groups we went through the main types of level measuring kit. A theodolite & rod (traditional level, a laser level and zip level. We all of course thoroughly agreed that the zip level was by far the best option for a level should we buy one (£750 smackers!)

Taking the site survey in a small group was good fun and much more organised. I was impressed with the neat and accurate drawings of my team mates and am resolved to practice making mine better before the course is up. Having only one set of figures was not ideal but we're learning, project 3 will no doubt be perfect!

It took about an hour and a half to get the first set of rudimentary 3D models done in Sketch Up. Getting faster all the time

From My Pictures