California Surveyors Forums

Sacramento County is moving toward including the cost of monumentation in the Improvement Security (66499) for Final Maps. Line items would be added to the engineer’s estimate or by separate submittal from the surveyor to determine the Performance Bond (66499.1) amount.

What do you charge – or have seen charged – for monument wells? Front corners in concrete? Rear corners in dirt? Is there a break point for quantity; 10 v. 100? We want to verify what is a reasonable cost estimate based on current actual costs.

The other component of this inquiry is to provide monumentation cost information to the local BIA (Building Industry Association). This information would assist discussions on the value of centerline, front, and rear monuments.

If you are not comfortable providing values to the questions above on the Forum, you can email me at scarpaj@saccounty.net.

Thank you,
Jon Scarpa

I did a construction staking job in the City of Glendale a few years ago and they gave the contractor the option of setting well monuments or having their regular guy do it for $1200 each. I told him to take their offer. I couldn't do it for that price. You might check with them.

At one time there was a monument bond required for final monumentation of $1000 plus $150 per monument where I used to work, but that was two decades ago. Monuments consisted of spikes and washers or 2" iron pipes, not well monuments. Adjust for inflation.

this is a complex situation that often gets poorly handled. Good luck!
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When does your agency typically pull the trigger and hire a surveyor to fully monument and document?
Costs/Bonds should be calculated as if:
today you file a map,
then tomorrow the developer, surveyor, firm, etc. no longer exist.
what would it cost for someone that has no access to original work points, or calcs. to come in and fully monument that development, at current rates?
What is Your cost and time line to access those funds?

There is a company in the Bay Area that will build well monuments. The costs go down according to the number you are having built at one time, however the last single monument I had installed ran around $2,900, not counting the survey costs.

You might check with the City of Oakland, I think they use a number of $5,000 to reset monuments.

Peter Ehlert wrote:this is a complex situation that often gets poorly handled. Good luck!
===
When does your agency typically pull the trigger and hire a surveyor to fully monument and document?
Costs/Bonds should be calculated as if:
today you file a map,
then tomorrow the developer, surveyor, firm, etc. no longer exist.
what would it cost for someone that has no access to original work points, or calcs. to come in and fully monument that development, at current rates?
What is Your cost and time line to access those funds?

Good points. Also take into account that if the agency has to pull the bond to complete the work, they need to pay prevailing wage. That makes it a lot more expensive. Calculate your estimate based on that to ensure there will be adequate funding to install the monuments if the developer walks. Remember, these bonds protect you, the future lot owners, and future surveyors who depend on those monuments being set. Don't let the developer talk you into skimping on your estimate just because he may have already paid you or because you have already set some of the monuments. Those monuments often get disturbed during construction and there needs to be enough money in the bond to replace those too.

One of the bigger variables for me is the level of traffic control necessary to do the work. Most often I work with a Class A contractor and we can do a bunch of them at once. There are quite a few variables, especially if they're going in as part of new road/subdivision construction. They can be done quite cost effectively if coordinated correctly during construction. They can be quite expensive if done in busy traffic situations.

My company once worked for a bonding company setting the final monuments for subdivisions that had gone bankrupt, including the surveyor. What a learning experience. Front curb tags set on the radial bearing (opposed to the side lines produced). Center lines mons that did not fit together for feet and the topper was many of the houses were occupied with new owners and occupation lines constructed to the erroneously set mons. I don't think the book has been written yet to deal with those problems. Glad I was just an employee at the time and not the one in responsible charge. Sure opened my eyes to the shoddy surveying work that was being performed by others at the time. Jp

The last time I used a well monument contractor was in 2013. There were about 25 monuments to be built, and the contractor charged $630 per. Bump for inflation and markup, say $900 per. The cost to set the monument location straddlers and tie in the point after construction, about $400 per. So roughly $1300 each for the actual monumentation costs (some with be more, some less, depending on spacing and visibility). But you're dealing with a subdivision in which the surveyor of record flaked out for some reason, so your could be looking at a few grand additional to figure out how to put the subdivision together and file a Record of Survey documenting what you did.

LOL $1300 to $5000. Anybody got a dart board?