Who would set out site?

[Big Jimbo]

@SteamyTea Will you still do me a Dirty Donna, if i am ever down your way ?

[SteamyTea]

4 minutes ago, Big Jimbo said:

@SteamyTea Will you still do me a Dirty Donna, if i am ever down your way ?

Donna Donna still got no knickers on er.

(I can't look at Christmas reindeers without saying that out load when children are about)

[SimonD]

1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

That maybe the issue (haha) - technician, not an engineer.

 

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

Chartered Engineers are what are really needed.

 

1 hour ago, JohnMo said:

had zero idea how to manage drawing revisions.

 

1 hour ago, SteamyTea said:

The problems usually arises 'on the shop floor', not in the drawing/engineering office.

 

Engineers not needed at all. 😉

 

A long long time ago in what feels like a galaxy far far away,  I used to run document control for projects building anything from oil rigs and oil refineries to pharmaceutical plants all over the world. The engineers used to come crawling to us to ensure the right drawing versions were in the right place and the right time, especially when we got to construction drawings and sub-contract tender and issue. Nowadays, unless you've got good prior experience, some companies like the one I worked for ask for a Masters in Library Science for senior roles doing this.

[SimonD]

On 16/03/2026 at 19:16, flanagaj said:

Would you still check even though it was set out with a total station?

 

In case it helps you to feel better, we had a full topographical and lazer scan of the existing building to provide base dwg files as most of this was staying in place, then had a measurement survey by an architectural technician and again by an architect. I had to admit I thought we had it covered until a Polish brick layer kindly informed me that the back of the existing house was 120mm longer than the front. Cue a run to the phone to stop production of the curved glulam beams all ordered at the same length. In the end the glulam company did a fantastic job of manufacturing 3 different length curved beams for the main structure. The only pain for me was laying the metal standing seam roof onto a not square roof and hiding that it's not quite square! As lesson learned in not demolishing and starting again, but I do wish professionals could measure properly 🙄

[SteamyTea]

2 minutes ago, SimonD said:

but I do wish professionals could measure properly

Maybe @craig can shed some light on this, he has people out measuring I think.

[JohnMo]

My guy (arranged by our ground workers) came with drawings loaded into his computer, tied into GPS, then using another bit, just picked the points of one by one, even told me exactly how much higher the site was to the plan. Marked out the foundations, once foundations were done, can and marked out for the blocks. Spent an hour or so at site in total. Technology working.

 

Check measured it all and couldn't find an issue and foundations are pretty complex, compared to anything else I've seen.

[ToughButterCup]

13 hours ago, SimonD said:

....

some companies like the one I worked for ask for a Masters in Library Science for senior roles doing this.

 

Now thats both interesting and reassuring.

[craig]

14 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Maybe @craig can shed some light on this, he has people out measuring I think.

 

Ya think? 

My last project (Passive House), was a ****ing nightmare. Every opening was in the region of 5mm to 30mm out in height/width (100mm inner block, 120mm xps, 100mm compacfoam, 30mm cavity, 100mm outer block). So every opening was a shambles, the cavity which was 30mm, was if you were lucky 30mm at the bottom, and up to 60mm at the top. Most openings the cavity ranged from 10mm to 70mm at the bottom. 

 

Measure? Are you joking? Build? are you joking? It's very, very rare things are spot on and folk wonder why the tolerances on things are big.

 

A Passive House care home I worked on with a very large developer. The building was in the wrong position by 20mm, throwing out all the brick work for the facade, all the floor levels were wrong (5 stories), resulting in mat wells at all doors. I wish I had a magic wand.

 

A "Grand Designs The Street" project, resulted in the window having to be adjusted (on air) because the kit tolerances were maxed out and coupled window frames were maxed out, meaning the 20mm tolerances in width we had for the opening no longer existed and the units were now too big.

Edited 10 hours ago by craig

[Oz07]

12 hours ago, JohnMo said:

My guy (arranged by our ground workers) came with drawings loaded into his computer, tied into GPS, then using another bit, just picked the points of one by one, even told me exactly how much higher the site was to the plan. Marked out the foundations, once foundations were done, can and marked out for the blocks. Spent an hour or so at site in total. Technology working.

 

Check measured it all and couldn't find an issue and foundations are pretty complex, compared to anything else I've seen.

They are good. What did he charge per visit? Do you have to have 3 visits including initial topo of site?

[JohnMo]

5 hours ago, Oz07 said:

They are good. What did he charge per visit? Do you have to have 3 visits including initial topo of site?

Architect did the topo as part of the initial planning. Cost me nothing for the GPS mark out, the ground workers included in the costs they quoted me, GPS is part of the base scope. 

[Oz07]

2 hours ago, JohnMo said:

Architect did the topo as part of the initial planning. Cost me nothing for the GPS mark out, the ground workers included in the costs they quoted me, GPS is part of the base scope. 

There's no such thing as a free lunch you're always paying someone to do it. I get your point though if groundworkers quoted you a package with it included. 

 

Every time ive built ive got away with an os map on the planning and heights being marked on elevations. Never needed a topo upto now so have always marked out with lines and profiles. I accept its probably not cost effective on a more complex layout though. Particularly if there's other paid work you could be doing. I suppose like all self build its a trade off of time for£

[SteamyTea]

@saveasteading and other interested parties

 

  

On 17/03/2026 at 17:59, SteamyTea said:

Somewhere at home, in my vast library of mathematic's books

 

 

Here is part of it, no tape measure needed ( @Pocster ).