California Surveyors Forums

PLEASE DONT DO IT!

My daughter bought a house in Hayward. I go out in the street and open a monument well. The BC must have an 1/8" thick paint on it, what the hell??? In a monument well, why?

I set a mag nail with a brass washer in a drill hole in a concrete walk (my LS). My boss grabs a can of paint and coats it with paint??? So I'm down there annoyedly wiping paint off of my washer with a rag.

What is this unreasonable obsession with paint?

I know what you mean. Like finding the busted up Buck knife next to the crack pipe in the middle of the Coast mountains of Central California sitting two feet from the found pipe as shown on the 5yr old record of survey map by known reputable company, and the top of the pipe is splattered with gobs of paint. Yes. I know what you are talking about.

Evidence suggests that teenage "kids fort" is ruled out. County Bus Stop 200 feet southeasterly along PL may explain weird findings 200 + feet away.

I think when we start out we like to lift our leg and leave our mark, but over the years realize it does not really do much good, other than act as a form of glorified graffiti. I paint only when I think it is necessary, and not just every single time I use a control point.

I set stainless steel washers with my mag nails so if the street asphalt is that newer, black type, the paint is really not necessary. Sometimes with that older, light gray street I will paint them up, but even then it is not that often. I think the paint is more of a public nuisance than a help for myself for the most part.

Also, I find that the stainless steel washers are great in dark monument wells for placing over the punch on a disk, so it is not necessary to paint them to see them through the eye plummet on the tribrach.

Most of the time folks do things for a reason. Sometime latter, the need for a certain action may not be readily apparent,,, so paint away....

I have found the two things that will always get you in trouble in a neighborhood, is Paint and Cutting Brush. I tell my guys to use white paint sparingly and don't cut anything that doesn’t need to be cut when working in a neighborhood. Florence pink paint should be used on construction sites and when many people need to be aware of a survey mark. Typically if you are setting a property corner your client will know the general area and will be able to find a little white paint or white flagging. I’ve got many more calls about paint than I have about a survey. My 2 cents, Jp

I switched to white for street painting as well. I had someone go a little nutty on orange paint on an asphalt curb once and despite the infrequency of someone getting so off-kilter about this, I prefer not to spend 10 minutes of field time having a conversation about inane stuff like that. I painted over the mark with black paint to get the person to go away.

I find out in those large, hilly, tree-covered sites, I must use a pink to dot my shots despite the ugliness because there is no way I will remember what I have shot. I just make sure not to tag a tree directly on its bark, which some people do. Putting a dot on the ground will at least tend to go away quicker.

Has anyone ever used Marking Chalk? I think its chalk in a can and only last 2-3 weeks, I believe Krylon makes it. I for one only use pink paint because its the only paint Ive found to fade quicker. I have found white paint to last for years and I never paint the tags.

I have also found that pink paint fades faster than white paint.

Proud7191 wrote: Florence pink paint should be used on construction sites and when many people need to be aware of a survey mark.

I like to keep my control on construction sites on the QT. I place decoy control baskets and paint out so that when the superintendent tells the steel guy to pile that 10 tons of steel over by that paint, nothing really gets wiped out.

I had some idiot come by while surveying our street and he painted every tree, water valve, gas valve etc with bright pink florescent paint. No reason, he just thought that was the right thing to do. I can see painting a spot on the dirt or in the grass next to the shot so you know where you've been. I learned to paint every shot but I stopped doing it after getting a couple of complaints. Vandalizing people's private property is asinine. Using the chalk type of paint is a good idea. And try to paint the dirt or the grass, not somebody's property.

Gary Schenk wrote:I like to keep my control on construction sites on the QT. I place decoy control baskets and paint out so that when the superintendent tells the steel guy to pile that 10 tons of steel over by that paint, nothing really gets wiped out.

When I was doing construction I came up with the idea of burying a 3 or 4 foot length of 4" PVC pipe vertically next to the control point. It looks like somebody has stubbed up a storm drain line and the brick layers and electricians will generally steer clear of it.

^^ I like that!

White paint in a monument well is a trick to lighten up the well, so you can see the disc.

What are you saying by "The BC must have an 1/8" thick paint on it"? Are you talking about the Back of Curb, or Begin Curve? Please clarify what is painted, since I do not understand your riddle.

Thanks.

PLS7393 wrote:White paint in a monument well is a trick to lighten up the well, so you can see the disc.

What are you saying by "The BC must have an 1/8" thick paint on it"? Are you talking about the Back of Curb, or Begin Curve? Please clarify what is painted, since I do not understand your riddle.

Thanks.

BC = Brasscap, if I understand him correctly.

I've started using white chalk, seems to work pretty well, though it goes on a little bit messier than the paint.

BC=brass cap

I highly recommend valve paint markers like this one:

http://www.baselineequipment.com/home/b ... fgod-K4AHA

I use blue and white ones. White is good for the punch of a brass disk in a handhole, and for marking on asphalt. Blue is good for marking your stuff on a concrete curb.

I use yellow keel sometimes. It will fade quick, but at least it will be there for the day. I paint CPs with orange triangles if I know I'm coming back again and I want my rod men to find these points quickly.

Awww BC = Brass Cap, must be a southern CA term, lol
Up north, we call them Brass Disc, heheheeee.

I think of a cap as something smaller diameter, that goes on rebar, but then I hate thinking cause it makes my head hurt, lol.

I've mostly called them Brass Caps.

The Record of Survey maps I'm following in Mendocino County calls them Brass Caps.

Disk is probably a better term, though.

I think of a disk as something set in concrete, and a cap as something set on top of a pipe or rod.

Rebars are capped, iron pipes are plugged, well monuments have disks.

Opinions WILL vary!



(But I'm right)

I have found in well mons; hollow IP, tagged IP, steel rod, hex bar, alum disc in conc, brass disk in conc, and other misc items.

The worst mons I ever saw was my cousin's lot in Penn Valley, rebar with a tag wire tied to them, only the ones where the wire had not rusted away.

Plastic caps after a brush fire.

Disk - must be a Bay area term. ;-)

I typically have used "cap", as in SET 1" G.I.P. W/ 2" B.C. MKD "LS 7275 2014"

G.I.P. = Galvanized Iron Pipe.

As I recall, the BLM calls them disks, or sometimes tablets. But in the several parts of the country I've worked in, most others say "brass cap".


As to the matter of paint on the cap (or disk), I've used the coating the inside of the mon box sleeve with white paint trick several times. If I get paint on the cap, I wipe it off. I sometimes deliberately get paint on the cap and then wipe it off in order to leave paint only in the stamped lettering and the cross or dimple intended to mark the precise location of the corner in order to more easily read the markings on a cap that is otherwise illegible due to poor lighting conditions. But I too am irritated when some dipship globs a coat of some thick paint on the cap or tag, thus making it illegible.

Painting monument caps. Really?
Can I honestly refer my attorney clients to this forum?