A job in Phoenix made me rethink my whole approach to site prep

We were laying a foundation for a new strip mall and the ground was way more uneven than the survey showed. Had to bring in a laser level and re-grade the whole area, which set us back two full days. Anyone else run into bad survey data costing them time?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_rivera881mo ago

Weeks?! That's insane.

miles9461mo ago

Man, I gotta be honest, that sounds like a normal Tuesday. Two days for a re-grade from bad survey info is actually pretty good in my book. I've seen jobs where the topo was so off we had to redesign the whole stormwater system on the fly. That cost weeks, not days. Sometimes you just eat the time and move on.

oscar_ellis23d agoMost Upvoted

Figure out how much of this is just a lack of standards for survey data. I've seen three different firms hand over "finished" topo that had a 0.5 foot error on the benchmark. That's not an oh well moment, that's a straight up screw up. If surveys were held to the same accuracy as concrete placement, half these re-grades would vanish. People treat a topo like a suggestion instead of a contract. Until the whole industry starts treating survey data like a legal document, you're gonna keep eating those weeks.