Trending: Single-family Home Layout
Southern Utah Residential Contractors and Homeowners Benefit from Professional Layout
Following the emerging trends of single-family home construction is critical to our business. As a full-service civil, structural, geotechnical, and surveying firm it’s important we understand what drives our clients and adapt our services to meet your needs.
Watson Engineering Company (Watson) president Tim Watson has seen an uptick in calls from single-family contractors. They’re asking Watson to provide residential home layouts for unique lots, minimum setbacks, or challenging infill properties before site work even begins.
Custom home residential lots are often not rectangular or do not have straight front property lines and may require more time for a busy home contractor or excavator to lay out a home. “Savvy builders recognize it’s easier to have a professional land surveyor stake out the building corners at the beginning of construction,” explains Tim.
Once existing property corners are located and verified, the provided site plan can be confirmed and building corners can be staked. Construction surveying (also known as site layout surveying) is the process of taking construction drawings and marking the location of the new structure with stakes. Watson’s construction staking team utilize both survey grade GPS units and robotic total stations to accurately lay out a home on the property.
Our crews also pay careful attention to setbacks, or the distance the building is set back from a street or property line. This space is usually determined by the jurisdiction the home will be built in and zoning requirements for the residential development. Setbacks not only help create identity and a sense of place for a neighborhood, but also provide open space and privacy as well as a safe area for utilities to be located.
Hiring Watson to provide residential home layout mitigates risks for both the contractor and homeowner. If a home is built over a property line or within the setbacks, the homeowner or contractor may be required to buy the additional property or move a portion or the home so that it fits within the boundary. Tim recounts the times when the size of the home was reduced or changed to meet requirements, a lot line adjustment was required, or even a portion of the home was removed to fit within the boundary.
“When a home doesn’t fit the property, we often find that an incorrect scale was used when the site plan was prepared,” he recalls. “It’s important for our team to be engage in every step of the design process. When Watson assists during the home design and once the main floor square footage is determined, we verify the dimensions to ensure the home fits within the building setbacks.”
The architectural complexity of residential homes demands a multi-discipline approach to project design and management. “Many times, the difference in elevations of the structural foundation elements cause difficulty in the layout process,” observes Tim. “Watson solves this issue by providing the necessary points and elevations to make the construction a little easier.”
A desire to understand the challenges of our clients and continually evolve to solve them propels our everyday efforts. And when our civil engineers, surveyors, drafters, special inspectors, and geotechnical engineers can all participate in and support the design and construction process, it’s the client who benefits.