Reconfiguration:

A subdivision is any reconfiguration of property lines. Subdivisions can be used to move property lines between adjacent land owners to allow room to build a garage, shed, driveway, etc. Sometimes property lines need to be modified to rectify encroachments or for set back adherence. What ever the issue may be the proposed new lines will need to be approved by the planning department/commission for your area or community. Many items are looked at when the planning department reviews the tentative subdivision plan. Here are some of the items they will be looking at.

• Lot area
• Front yard set backs
• Side and rear yard
• Slope of the ground
• Impact on neighbours

Lot Creation:

A surveyors real property report is either a written report, or a plan that displays any encroachments, easements, right of-ways, and improvements that exist on your land in relation to the properties boundaries.

Often times the boundary lines surrounding a persons property are unclear, which can lead to possible encroachments on setbacks, or neighboring land. A boundary retracement by one of our licensed New Brunswick Land Surveyors protects your investment. Issues with property lines often arise due to inaccurate descriptions of properties. Often times properties can overlap, creating 'unresolved areas'. A New Brunswick Land Surveyor will generally read descriptions for the properties involved. The surveyor will look at the registration dates to determine which property came first and from what parent parcel. This information is assessed, along with evidence on the ground, in order for the land surveyor to make an opinion on the boundaries.

Boundary Retracements:

Boundary retracements typically includes finding or replacing survey monuments at the corners of the property, and marking the lines between the corners. It is not a requirement to have the lines marked or the corners placed. We recommended having all corners and lines marked. Having the property boundaries marked by blazing the trees and placing legal survey markers at the corners make the property lines clear to all property owners. A plan showing the retraced property lines is also not necessary, but is highly recommended and it is beneficial to be registered at Service New Brunswick. In some cases our clients only require a portion of their property be surveyed. Typically we can only mark a portion of the parcel. This keeps the costs of the survey lower than surveying the complete parcel.

A New Brunswick Land Surveyor will gather all available documentation concerning the property being surveyed, along with documents dealing with adjacent properties. The surveyor will assess all of the available documents to determine the approximate location of the property. This information will be used by our field crews, in order to help find evidence on the ground. The location of the evidence that is found will be tied to the New Brunswick grid system. This is a requirement set by The Association of New Brunswick Land Surveyors. Having coordinate values on the corners of the property help surveyors in the future to determine the location of your property.

The field crew will find all evidence available on the ground. Location of the evidence is done with either GNSS(GPS), a total station or the combination of both. Our field crews are equipped with metal locators to find buried fences, survey pins, old pipes and bars. Using the documents available the crew can navigate to the approximate location of the corner, allowing them to concentrate a search for evidence in an area where the boundary corner should be. The crew can sweep the area with the metal locator and dig when a signal is detected. Measurements will then be made with the survey equipment to accurately determine the coordinates of the evidence. Members of the field crew will look for evidence that can not be located with the metal locator. They will be looking for old blazes on trees, rock walls, wooden posts, old ditches and road beds. On most boundary retracements the field crew will walk the perimeter of the property and often enter adjoining properties to locate evidence. Once the field crew completes the initial pickup, they will return to the office and process the data. The data is compared with deeds, descriptions, plans and other surveys. An assessment is made by the land surveyor and they will calculate the position of the boundaries in the location based on their opinion of the evidence. The surveyor uses the Hierarchy of Evidence to determine the location of the boundaries.

Hierarchy of Evidence

• evidence of natural boundaries
• evidence of original monuments
• evidence of possession that can reasonably be related back to the time of the original survey
• measurements quoted by the original Land Surveyor on his plan or in his field notes

Once the boundary locations are determined by the Land Surveyor, and if required by the client, the field crew will return to the site to mark the property lines and corners. In some cases the client may only wish to have a portion of the property surveyed and marked. The crew will cut the property line and blaze trees, if it is in a wooded area. If it is not in a wooded area the field crew may place wooden stakes along the property boundary. Boundary corners are marked with survey markers if the corner marker is missing, destroyed or in poor condition.

Boundary Resolutions:

A boundary between properties is an invisible line where property holders rights either begin or end. This invisible boundary is always in the location where it was placed initially. When the boundary was created, the location is held fixed at that location. As time moves forward the marks begin to disappear and the owners will typically push their boundaries. The ownership of the properties may also change. As time goes on the boundary may become unclear and the property owners may not be able to find their property lines. When a property owner requires a survey of their land they will hire a Land Surveyor. The Land Surveyor will complete all work required to determine the location of the property line. This location is, in the opinion of the Land Surveyor, in the location of the boundary when it was created. In some cases there could be descrepancies with the location of the boundary. It could be in conflict with another survey, or a description of an adjoining parcel. In these cases the boundary needs to be resolved. There are several ways to resolve a boundary.

Ways to resolve a boundary

• Conventional Boundary Agreement
• Agreement with land transfers
• Boundary Confirmation
• Court

Topographic Surveys:

A topographic survey is a survey of the natural and man-made features on a parcel of land. DeSaulniers Surveys Inc using the latest in GPS / GNSS technologies to make accurate measurements that determine the horizontal locations and vertical elevations at predefined intervals, grade changes, above ground features, and existing structures. The survey is generally used for graphically depicting the surface of a particular parcel of land, any man-made features and elevation changes.

Volumetric Surveys:

A volumetric Survey is used to determine the volume of material between two surfaces. It is used to determine how much material is stored in a stock pile or how much material must be removed or placed to modify a natural surface to a designed surface.

In order for us to calculate accurate volumes between two surfaces we generally need to survey the surface prior to any ground disturbance of the material that needs to be accounted for. Normally a 3 dimensional survey is completed on the original surface and then the volume is calculated by comparing this original surface to either a design surface or a surface determined by another survey of the same area after the work has been completed.

Layouts and as-builts are done using our robotic total station.