I'm sure this is an obvious question for some, but I really have no clue.

its your client's responsiblity to provide you with a plat of survey.

Vado Retro, Are you saying I need a survey now? Regardless of who's responsibility it is to get the survey.

Get a survey, its always worth the money.

Be sure they include utility information, adjacent property owner information, major trees/tree groupings, fences, existing structures, water edges, etc.

If you can approximately locate the house on the site, have them do 1 foot contours in that area. Two foot contours are probably sufficient otherwise.

If the project involves a septic system, get the surveyor or a civil engineer to do it. As an architect, you would spend a lot of time trying to figure it out, and its not very fun.

will you be drawing cds later?

i'm saying if you need a survey the client should pay for it. maybe they already have one.

Spark, that’s great thanks.

I will be responsibility for cds if we get there.

what namesake and spark said...

and when you get to the point of cds/permit set...don't rely on any other survey besides the one that was produced by a licensed civil engineer/surveyor hired by the client

A Topo survey is cheap information, which will help you from breaking yourself as long as you have a good handle on reading a survey and are able to do grading with any kind of skill. Remember...all water is to flow away from the building, so don't build in a hole... If it is large site have them do a topo of the area you need not the whole site.

The Survey guys can purchase information and download it into their computer for topo information on larger parcel quick and easy....say $1,000.00. It is is a tighter survey with Topo, figure around $2,000.

snooker, are you saying the survey guys have access to some topographical information which they can purchase and download on their computers.

You can probably get some preliminary information on the web. I am working on a project a ways north of that (Benzie County) and I found a website that gave me USGS information at a 1 meter per pixel scale. Not anything I'd want to use for anything final, but a starting point to work from.

Meow,

I tried to send a direct reply, but your e-mail handler bounced it.

The site I was looking at is called Topozone (topozone.com).

meow -

the surveyor should be drawing the survey by hand from the information they gather at the site. most will incorporate some kinds of gis information, but that shouldn't be the limit of what they do.

depending on the site and local regulations, you may need them to locate all specimen trees (trees larger than 8"). also, get them or someone else to do a soil sample/geotechnical report for the area where you think you want to locate the building. this will give you a much better sense of how your foundation design will need to work.

Yep, Survey information is available in this format. I have used it on larger parcels 70 acres...that is large by southern new england standards.

As a landscape architecture student/intern working at a surveying/engineering firm [which happens to also have a few planners and landscape architects] in Michigan, you should really get a site survey. Firms like us really need the work!

And I hate to get preachy, but I hope you've at least been to the site and walked it with the client. Seen the views and site with your own eyes. It drives me crazy when this process is divorced from the site itself. It's unprofessional.

But anyway, to answer your question, unless the county or township or village/town/city has done its own surveying work, you won't find information online to suit your needs at the scale you need. Actually, the only way you'll have that info is if the site has been professionally surveyed. And even if that's the case, it may need to be updated. In that vein, you must also be very very very wary of GIS information. Topography is produced using aerialphotos most of the time for things like your typical USGS topo-quad. Most GIS topodata is based on these maps or similar sources and provide a completely FALSE sense of accuracy. I've worked on a project recently where photogrammetric topo was used to establish the base map and get a handle on the site layout, but the portion of the site where our surveyors actually shot lines and found the actual topo lines was quite different.

I don't disagree with driftwood.

Using online information such as Topozone is adequate for getting an initial sense of the site, and for preliminary planning, but it won't substitute for a proper survey of the site.

I've walked the property for the project I'm working on a couple of times. The owners have a pretty good sense of where they want to build within the larger site, and we've flagged an area to have it surveyed in more detail. They are contacting surveyors for estimates now.

Having walked the site, there are characteristics that are noticably different from the online topo information. It's good for general information, but I certainly wouldn't rely on that alone.

also, i would contact the local building dept. because in michiganistan the local building officials seem to each have their own rules. so, it is a good idea to meet them.

This is also true (though I don't think of this as exclusive to Michiganistan).

My MIL/client talked to the local official while up visiting the area last week to discuss putting in the road they want to put in (their parcel is potentially sub-dividable, so they want to build their driveway to private road specifications in case they later decide that they do want to subdivide it).

The local official was pretty helpful, and the requirements for this are not terribly burdensome. We'll see how it all works out, but for now it seems to be going well.

thanks for all the comments driftwood, vado retro, cornellbox