Services

A boundary survey typically describes the type of survey performed for a tract that is not located in a platted subdivision (such as rural acreage) and will include a metes and bounds description.  This type of survey generally includes the following categories:

• Standard Land Survey - Location, on the ground, of the boundary lines for a tract, and determination of area (acreage).  Improvements and/or easements are usually not located in this type of survey.
  
• Land Title Survey - Location, on the ground, of the boundary lines for a tract; determination of area (acreage); location of improvements and/or easements.
  
• Locative Survey - Location, on the ground, of the boundary lines for a tract; determination of area (acreage); location of existing improvements and/or easements; location of proposed improvements and/or easements

 An ALTA (American Land Title Association) survey is a boundary survey that shows improvements, easements, and optionally includes one or more of (but is not limited to): (1) flood zone classification; (2) zoning; (3) building square footage; (4) building height; (5) parking lots; (6) signs/billboards; (7) swimming pools; (8) landscaping; (9) striping, number and type of parking areas; (10) location of utilities; (11) railroad tracks and spurs; (12) manholes and/or inlets; (13) wires, cables, and/or poles on or within 10 feet of the subject property; (14) evidence of current earth moving work, building construction and/or additions; (15) proposed changes in street right-of-way lines; (16) wetland areas. 

A topographic survey determines the configurations, relief, or elevations of a tract of land.  This survey is not intended to serve as a boundary survey, though some boundaries may be shown.

 A lot survey is a type of boundary survey that is specifically for a tract in a platted subdivision. 

The survey will include the lot and block number, subdivision name and recording information, lot dimensions, easements, improvements, setback lines, and if requested, floodplain delineation. 

 A construction survey consists of measurements made prior to, and/or while construction is in progress, for the purpose of controlling elevation, horizontal position, improvement dimensions and layout. 

This type of survey might include setting grade stakes for fill or excavation, locating easements, staking building corners, offsets or piers, and staking locations and/or offsets for concrete to be poured (e.g., for parking lots). 

 A subdivision survey is boundary survey of a tract that is intended to be subdivided (into lots and blocks) and platted (according to local city and/or county requirements). 

In addition to performing the boundary survey the preliminary plat will show proposed lot locations, improvement setback lines, easement locations, streets, and may include contour lines (topographic rendering). 

After the plat is approved by all interested parties  the corners of all lots, streets, and easements will be monumented. 

 A partition survey is a boundary survey on a tract that will be divided into two or more parcels that will each be described by metes and bounds.  

A partition of real property might be needed when the owner desires to sell a portion of his property or when two or more people inherit a tract and wish to divide it. 

 An investigative survey may be performed at a site to determine the positions of natural terrain features and/or man-made objects that might be relevant to an accident, protrusion of a facility, time and motion studies, natural disaster, or for substantiation of facts or theories in respect to litigation or planning. 

This is not a boundary survey but some boundaries might be shown or defined. 

 An easement survey may be done to locate and describe existing easements or to define the location of a proposed easement.  

Depending on the scope of the project some or all of the boundaries of the subservient estate (property the easement crosses) may need to be surveyed. 

These surveys may include (but are not limited to) electrical service or transmission lines, pipelines (oil, natural gas, water, etc), roadways or access routes, or flowage easements (for waterways).

A licensed state land surveyor is licensed to perform surveys on land in which the State of Texas or the Public School Fund has an interest, or to perform surveys for filing in the General Land Office.  This includes vacancies (unsurveyed and unsold public school land which: (a) is not in conflict with land previously sold, granted or awarded; (b) is not listed in the records of the GLO as public school land; (c) is not, on the commencement date of the vacancy application (i) the subject of an earlier subsisting application; (ii) the subject of a prior application dismissed with prejudice; (iii) the subject of pending litigation regarding state ownership or possession; (iv) the subject of a vacancy application that has been finally adjudicated by the courts or the commissioner), excess acreage (acreage above the amount called for in the original or patented field notes on file in the GLO), locating the lines of original land grants (and preparing corrected field notes on an original land grant), as well as coastal boundary surveys.

These functions were originally, and may still be, performed by the elected county surveyor in his or her county, though there are very few county surveyors remaining (and in many counties the office has been abolished entirely) in Texas.  While the county surveyor is limited to his county to perform this type of work, the LSLS has jurisdiction in the entire state.  There are currently fewer than 70 LSLS's in Texas and our firm is the only one in this area to offer this type of service.