Construction Staking in Melrose, MA

No. A phone's GPS is accurate to several feet at best and isn't tied to your deed or the corner monuments, so the lines those apps draw are approximate and carry no legal weight. Survey-grade GNSS fixes a point to the centimeter against a reference network, a different instrument for a different job.

The property address and, if you have them, a copy of your deed, any prior survey, and your title commitment. Access to walk the property helps, and if there's a specific reason for the survey, a fence, a sale, a building permit, telling us up front lets us scope it right the first time.

Price tracks the work, not the lot size alone. A clean platted lot with good corners is quick; a parcel with missing monuments, conflicting deeds, heavy tree cover, or a metes-and-bounds description takes far more research and field time. We quote after we see the deed and the record, so the number is real.

A boundary survey locates and marks your property lines. An ALTA/NSPS survey is a detailed standard used for commercial real-estate deals, it adds easements, improvements, and specific 'Table A' items that lenders and title insurers require. An ALTA is more thorough and costs more because it shows far more detail.

A survey establishes where the line legally sits based on the deeds and the monuments of record, and the sealed plat is the professional opinion a court relies on. It won't force your neighbor to agree, but it replaces guesswork with a defensible, licensed determination, which is usually what resolves the dispute or supports it if it goes further.

It's a form a licensed surveyor completes documenting your building's elevation relative to the base flood elevation. You'll need one to buy or reduce flood insurance in a mapped flood zone, or to support a Letter of Map Amendment if you believe your structure was mapped into a floodplain by mistake.