When it comes to conducting a commercial land or boundary survey, it isn’t so much that the type or quality of work is any different from a residential survey. Instead, the difference lies in the fact that often times, a commercial survey can be much more intensive, and subsequently, more expensive. Why? Because these different types of properties serve different purposes.
With residential property surveys, a lot of the time we find that the homeowner simply wants to know where the four corners of the property lie. There are many things that get into the reasons why a homeowner would like to know where the lines lie on their property.
Commercial Properties
With commercial properties however, an insurance company or a bank may want the owner to have an ALTA survey conducted so that they can find out what they’re buying into. The ALTA survey, which is a nationwide uniform set of standards developed by the American Land Title Association (ALTA) and the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), is more restrictive and guarantees that your survey will be conducted with the utmost accuracy.
Instead of simply finding the four corners of a property and having that be that the ALTA survey asks how you came about them. When conducting a survey in a rural area, you have a little bit more leeway with accuracy because the topography is not always as straight and stable as it is in a city setting. However, all ALTA surveys are done to city standards, regardless of whether your property is located in a city or a rural environment.
So, although the ALTA surveys aren’t exactly different from the type of work we do on a daily basis, the work that is involved can certainly be more intense because there is more involved for commercial properties. Insurance companies and owners alike will often want to know everything about all improvements, easements, etc.; they want to know where the pavement and infrastructure is, to how many parking spaces there are and where the lights are located. In a residential survey, the quality of work is always the same, but the elements involved may be a bit simpler.
To learn more about the land surveying services that BLAZE Design Inc. performs for both commercial and residential properties, please feel free to contact us today. We’d be happy to help.