I want to find the buried rebar stake that separates my yard from the neighbor, just at the curb of the street. How far back from the curb is the stake probably buried. I live on a cul-de-sac, if that matters. Thanks
Call your town/village/city hall and ask them. Property lines, setbacks and right-of-ways vary drastically by location and year of construction. You could be grandfathered under some old rules or subject to the latest.
Besides, there is large possibility that the stake no longer even exists and the only way to know is by looking at a recently certified survey map or getting a updated survey done.
Forgot to add that the stake, if it is there, might have been moved and its current location might not mean anything.
There is no 'rule of thumb' on this, since the curb line may or may not be your front property line. In lots of subdivisions, the lots technically run to center of platted street, and it sits on an easement. (Note that platted street and paved street often do NOT match...)
Do you have stakes, aka corner pins, for the BACK corners of the lot? A cul-de-sac complicates matters, since that usually means a pie-shaped or
5 or more sided lot. But unless your deed just says 'lot XXX of subdivision YYY, as recorded on page www of plat book ZZZ', county of whatever', it include reference angles for the side borders, from the back border. Put a string between the back pins to establish the back line, and using a protractor or compass (depending on how they wrote the deed) find the right angle, and run a tape out the indicated number of feet.Pretty useless to speculate- look at your deed. The paperwork from when you bought the place may have enough of the survey data to find the corners. Are you just curious, or planning some landscaping, or is there a neighbor dispute underway? If it is more than curiosity, a fresh (or refreshed) survey may be the best answer. If the neighbor on either or both sides will go in together with you on it, they may give a discount, since they have to work backwards to the same monument or benchmark for all of them. (Unless using that newfangled GPS stuff is legal in your area for legal surveys....)
Standard disclaimer- I am not a registered licensed surveyor, but I did do plenty of the mule work as a kid....
aem sends...
Depends on the town right of way. Mine is about 4 or 5 feet from the curb. Anyone you know have a metal detector? That may help, assuming it is still there. Is there a stake in one of the other corners? If so, you can measure from there for a good guesstimate of where to look.
There are many variables that come into play. The front stakes may be wood and rotted away, they may be iron and buried. The distance from the curb could be anything. Different methods are used in different regions and countries. In many parts of north america a standard surveyors chain of 66 feet was determined to be the width of a regular street right of way. This would mean that your property edge would be theoretically 33 feet from the centerline of the street -- providing that the street is actually centered on the right of way and that your town, state, province, country used this standard.
If a metal detector cannot locate the iron stake, then you will need a surveyor to plant new stakes. If you are building a fence, you may need some in-between wood stakes to make fence positioning easier, they would be cheap and easy for the surveyor to add at the time of locating the primary corner stakes.
Common rule for residential streets is 60' width. Some El Cheapo developers will skimp, but engineers like 15' for each traffic lane and 15' on either side to pile the snow, run the sewer lines, water and gas. Starting fron there with a $50 metal detector from Radio Shack, you may locate your survey pins. The alternative is to hire a surveyor and the usual fee is around $5-600 or so. The surveyors stakes are usually certified, for what that may be worth to you. If the neighbor is a cooperative person, you might split the cost. One reason for knowing where stakes really should be is that development lots are often sold on the basis of pretty little flags, whatever, put out by the sales people, leading to unpleasnt situations in later years, like trees in the wrong yard, misplaced driveways and the like. HTH
Joe
Is there a sidewalk? It may be that the sidewalk and any land between it and the street belong to the town, and your lot begins at the back of the sidewalk.
As others have said, if you have a survey or other documentation from when you bought the place, that might help a lot.
If you can make a pretty good guess as to where the pipe might be, its easy enough to take a spade and just cut the turf where you think it might be, poke around a little. If the pipe is there it should be close to the surface. When you're done just put the flap of turf back down. If you don't have a good guess as to where to dig, then borrow or rent a metal detector.
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