Preserving property corner pin during grading

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
There's a chunk of my side yard I'm planning to have cleared and graded. In this same area there are 2 neighboring lots that meet mine at a T. All 3 neighbors are on good terms, collegial etc and in agreement about clearing the area. To date nobody has cared about where the corner is but I want to be sure we don't lose it. Did some searching, measuring and digging and I found the corner pin (which, from the 60s, is just a metal spike about 4" under the current grade.

There's a pretty good chance that during the clearing and grading that pin will get disturbed.
What's the best thing to do to prevent losing its location?
I'm thinking maybe plot 2 lines at 90 degrees intersecting at the pin, each going 10-20 ft away and place 2 stakes in each, so that later we can go back and project back where the exact location is and re-set the pin.
 
stakes. x an y axis, shazam. sounds like an awesome method to me

my first thought was drive a piece of short rebar sub a few feet down with a rod. metal detector can always relocate to reinsert the pin
 
Yep. I do the pull two measurements method anytime I bury any kind of lines. My grandad started doing it at our place 50yrs ago and those maps sure help locating busted waterlines, especially when the water runs through the ground and pops up away from the break.
 
awheelterd said:
Yep. I do the pull two measurements method anytime I bury any kind of lines. My grandad started doing it at our place 50yrs ago and those maps sure help locating busted waterlines, especially when the water runs through the ground and pops up away from the break.
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Psh, whatever man. It's easy to find a line underground, especially if you generally know where it was.

































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jeepinmatt said:
Drive it further into the ground.
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The ground will likely end up higher there, but only after being graded first.
So it needs to be levetated 20' in the air for an hour, then dropped back down 1' higher than it was previously.
 
@RatLabGuy are you all collectively paying for this grading work? Seems weird to do that much work in on the actual line. I'd stop just short of the line so all the water from my lot ran neatly onto my neighbors 😂
 
awheelterd said:
@RatLabGuy are you all collectively paying for this grading work? Seems weird to do that much work in on the actual line. I'd stop just short of the line so all the water from my lot ran neatly onto my neighbors 😂
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I'm paying for it, 95% of the work will be in my yard. It will - may - just spill over by a couple feet.
And trust me, I'm going to keep the current scheme of my yard being higher and it running into both of theirs. :laughing:
 
I would worry about the change in elevation as far as the triangulation goes. Apparently it has to be within a very tight tolerance (1/4” 1000’ IIRC from the thread I started). I say dig it up and have a surveyor replace it. Or don’t have them replace and it have a notarized letter from all 3 interested parties that it will be restaked on the next survey. I worry about a tiff between you and the neighbor down the road. “Ratlabguy dug it up and purposely placed it back wrong”

Also when I put my fence posts in there were two stakes and one of them was in the ground at an angle. Making driving it deeper moving it to the side by a significant (based on above tolerance) distance.
 
Futbalfantic said:
I would worry about the change in elevation as far as the triangulation goes. Apparently it has to be within a very tight tolerance (1/4” 1000’ IIRC from the thread I started). I say dig it up and have a surveyor replace it. Or don’t have them replace and it have a notarized letter from all 3 interested parties that it will be restaked on the next survey. I worry about a tiff between you and the neighbor down the road. “Ratlabguy dug it up and purposely placed it back wrong”

Also when I put my fence posts in there were two stakes and one of them was in the ground at an angle. Making driving it deeper moving it to the side by a significant (based on above tolerance) distance.
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If I do the X-Y method above to create cross hairs for the current location, why would any change in elevation make any difference at all?
Plus this will not be a huge change in ground height. A foot at most. Likely inches.
 
Futbalfantic said:
I would worry about the change in elevation as far as the triangulation goes. Apparently it has to be within a very tight tolerance (1/4” 1000’ IIRC from the thread I started). I say dig it up and have a surveyor replace it. Or don’t have them replace and it have a notarized letter from all 3 interested parties that it will be restaked on the next survey. I worry about a tiff between you and the neighbor down the road. “Ratlabguy dug it up and purposely placed it back wrong”

Also when I put my fence posts in there were two stakes and one of them was in the ground at an angle. Making driving it deeper moving it to the side by a significant (based on above tolerance) distance.
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Do not dig it up. You cannot legally remove a property corner.

Just leave it, flag it up and if it gets put 20" under fill that's fine. Make a note and tell the surve folks if you have one.
 
Monkeynono said:
Do not dig it up. You cannot legally remove a property corner.

Just leave it, flag it up and if it gets put 20" under fill that's fine. Make a note and tell the surve folks if you have one.
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So how do you handle one getting accidentally moved in the course of normal land clearing? I mean, accidents happen. I want to be prepared for dealing with said accident.
My neighbor had his septic fields replaced when they bought the house. Soon after, we were out there looking for corners, and it was clear the contractor went way too far and the whole area where one pin in supposed to be had been dug up. Nowhere to be found. Oops. I want to avoid a similar situation.
Its in an area where there are a lot of tree roots and brush and stuff that will all have to be dug out, so its going to be hard for it to not be disturbed using any kind of grading equipment. I don't WANT to move it but it might happen. It's only illegal if you "willfully" move it.

Luckily, locating the spot its supposed to be is pretty easy because its a T where mine in the long side, so its in between two others (front and back pin) and any movement in my favor would be obvious.
 
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Y’all are over thinking it. Just drive it in the ground a little further and do what you need to do. When done, use a metal detector to find it again.

The intersection exists even without the pin in the ground. A surveyor can help find it in the future IF you ever need to find it and set a pin again.
 
Atla said:
I'll be danged... I must have missed one during my childhood of uprooting those flagged pipes and using them to beat weeds down in the woods with.
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After the neighbors and I spent a saturday with the metal detector and beer finding all the pins, I bought a set of orange-capped spikes to put over them at ground level just so we'd know for next time it mattered.
Yesterday I was out at the one corner scratching my head, "Where'd that thing go?"
Neighbor's son is a rather, er, active 8 year old and has several buddies running around the yard. Neighbor looks at him "Hey Tyler have to you seen an orange thing in the ground over here?" "No..." "You sure?" "Um.. nooo..." "You really didn't do anything with it?" "uuummmm... " [looks away]
We're 98% sure he took it.
 
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