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Tuesday, June 6th, 2023
Indeed.
I'm finding that the lower echelon of the people showing up on sites don't seem to have a big enough idea of how to stay outside the site and stay relevant especially when it's multi-story and complex.
I showed up yesterday for blue tops and was ghosted. So took photos of the not ready site and logged 3.5 hours for travel to and from.
Next site is a legitimate zoo, material piles, concrete pumper and delivery trucks, moving dirt out trucking rock in, and that said, the aggregate piers guys still asking for the stakes that have been wiped out 5 times now to leave the stakes along the fence and feathers at the points.
After I left and got 45mins away, another same site super asked why I didn't tstake more..."you didnt ask, and I was told I was free to go till Monday for the pads walls and other stuff...
Makes me nervous to think we're so avaliable all the time, and not booked solid like I read about here for the rest of the year. All we do really is construction, and we still have to bid on work..
🙄
I remember all the times a contractor said "We need it now," only to come back days later to find our unused stakes.
My first 10 years in surveying was all heavy construction. Freeways, automotive test tracks, etc.
The stress due to the schedules, dollar amounts and extremely long days was probably not healty, but it paid fairly well, and the owner of my firm got pretty wealthy. I can go back today and show friends some pretty impressive stuff on Google Earth that was raw land when I got there! But construction staking is nothing more than reading plans, applying math and communicating those plans to the construction crew. You're right about the noise though, to this day I eat my lunch at 11 because all the machines would shut down at noon and I'd have a solid half hour of quiet to work in while they ate . . .
I didn't learn a damn thing toward licensure - passed my P.S. the first try but it was 100% book learning. Shame on my former employer to ignore my professional development . . . I hope no one is doing that to their baby surveyors today. With todays machine grading it's unlikely. Something about being the first one on a site in the morning and seeing the first rays of the sun filter through the ribbons of hundreds of stakes set the evening before . . .
Lzzy Hale said it best - "I don't miss you, I miss the misery."
Pretty much every large construction project I've been on had at least one call where I'm told that our stakes are wrong.
And pretty much every time they're not
I had that happen on pretty much the first staking project I did after getting out of school. Another party chief went out and checked my stuff and when he got back he was like "Yeah, those guys are idiots..." so that was a relief.
I set a couple benchmarks and 1 additional control point for some machine control on a project a week or two ago and they called today claiming something is messed up. I did this with a robot as well so unless I had a rod bust or something I'm hoping these guys are also mistaken.
Anyway, how do you handle these calls? If they're wrong do you charge them a few hours to go check things out?
Yes, If called back to a site because they "think" something is wrong and you confirm that you provided quality staking, definately charge for your time & materials to verify.
Yes, If called back to a site because they "think" something is wrong and you confirm that you provided quality staking, definately charge for your time & materials to verify.
Definitely ding them, otherwise they'll think they can yank you out there whenever they please.
And when they are right, and we did screw up, we pay the backcharge without complaining.
The project surveyors report called bolts out of tolerance by 7"
That would be a huge red flag for me; before I call out someone for being out 0.58', I'd make SURE it wasn't my bust...
That depends on amount of time and if they are an A, B, or C client.
Do you compensate them for wasted time if they caught a mistake that disrupts their schedule? Relationships are important in business.
....Because I'm not confident that I'm doing it adequately and it's dangerous, noisy,difficult,challenging and mostly because I think I suck at it.
Carry on.
The first step to greatness is knowing that you suck. Sounds like you're on the right path.
I'd say take each project one step at a time and get good at construction staking. It's a valuable skill to have in your skillset. Even if you get a nice PLS job at a firm that does *insert favorite kind* surveying some day, having the construction know-how will make you more valuable.
In construction surveying, the cliche applies: slow is smooth and smooth is fast. Maybe the super will get mad because you're slow, but nothing like what you will experience if you f*** up.
That depends on amount of time and if they are an A, B, or C client.
Do you compensate them for wasted time if they caught a mistake that disrupts their schedule. Relationships are important in business.
This. It builds a lot of relationship capital if you respond with something like this, "Hey, looks like everything is okay here, but I'm glad you called. I always want to know if something seems out of whack." And a lot of times, whoever called you out will be a bit sheepish afterward for misreading a grade rod or stake, or misinterpreting the plans, etc. Make a friend, you just might need him.
I agree with this. Unfortunately there is the possibility of some clients taking advantage and wasting a bunch of your time, but I personally would rather someone call in if they think something is wrong. I had this happen with an excavator that must have misread his rod and he was really sheepish when I came and checked the grade for him and confirmed our cut stake was right. I said it's better we check if their is any question. Next time he'll probably double check his measurement before he calls our office but if there was a charge for that visit they might be scared to ask again and maybe we do make a mistake and then concrete is poured.
In the residential construction we do with mostly experienced builders we don't get a lot of calls questioning our work. So if we do we take it seriously, just in case.
Additionally, when you show up to stake the critical needed TBC for the curb machine, and they're not even done with the compaction and certification of the Subgrade, just stake the junk, show them why they're not ready, and bill them for the time they used, and don't come back the next day because you're already scheduled elsewhere for other clients and let them know, this isn't the 90s and you're important and needed by clients that are ready and waiting.
There is nothing worse than putting 4' offsets they asked for in loose piles of excavated dirt or weeds.
Huh, I thought this was standard operating procedure. 😏
