Survey markers with the AT Pro

[togamac]

I had a request from a friend to help find survey markers, I.E. rebar pounded into ground with a yellow plastic cap on top, so that they could put up a fence.

I said OK, then went into my back yard with the AT Pro to try to locate one at the corner of my property. I have good idea where it is.

Well, easier said than done. I'm getting deep iron tones all over the yard and if I didn't have an idea of where my marker was located, I doubt that I'd have found it.

I was in Pro Zero, sensitivity 3 notches down,

Any suggestions to make it easier would be appreciated!

 

[mudpuppy]

Thats tough! Unless maybe you drop power to half and high fly that coil 6" high to not pick up all the small iron?? Or do a sample test on a piece of bar so you might recognize the sound? Even a long big iron bar pounded straight down will not hit as hard as scrap laying flat though...since that rebar is only 1/2 dia or so...could be tough...let us know how it works out, my dad has asked me to do the same thing for him, and I've avoided it all summer!
Mud

 

[togamac]

Well, finding the survey markers was a bust but I did manage to bank a lot of good will. Turns out after looking for two hours that survey markers were never put in on this lot. I did find a lot of nails though! LOL.
The ones that were put in by the surveyor in this neighborhood, which is about 20 years old, were capped with pieces of cast iron about 6"x6" square. No doubt about it when you hit one of those.

 

[jim tn]

Ha, ha! A fellow church member that knew I had a detector that had recently bought a, new to him, house asked if I would help him locate sprinkler heads. He was told about where each was located. Like you, I spent two + hours searching for them and never found a one. A couple of months later he told me he had found out that that last owner had had them removed and was going to re-install a new system. Which, he never did. Yeah, right! HH jim tn

 

[Boothbay]

I just did a hunt for one and the owner had a good idea where it was. It was buried 4" down and rang a screaming 83 to 85 on the AT Pro in pro mode. It was rebar.

 

[ajaj]

Such markers will not ring up like iron; you know, the iron grunt. If they are 4" inches or less, they will scream..at about a VDI 45-65. Really, your ears may "hurt". If you don't get that, you may not have found them.

aj

 

[upnorth]

I tried to find property line markers for a guy once, what a gong show, there was wayyyy to much iron junk around. The main issue was that condo's were built on the property and construction refuse was everywhere, above and below.

 

[John-Edmonton]

They are hit and miss. The ones in front of the property may had been inadvertently removed to to neighborhood upgrades-ie sidewalks replacements. I have been lucky to have found a couple, however, like everyone else, some remained a mystery?

 

[ND Digger]

Don't mean to put a damper on this, but as a Registered Land Surveyor, I would advise you to be careful about finding property monuments for friends or someone else. I have seen a lot of costly errors by property owners thinking they found the correct monuments and built fences, sheds etc., on their neighbors property. You might find a piece of pipe or rebar, but without having a plat or a surveyor's certificate of the property and an accurate way of measuring between the monuments, you are just guessing that you found the actual monument. How do you think your friend would feel if the iron you found and that he based his improvements on was not the property monument and it ended up costing him hundreds or thousands of dollars to correct? Plus, it would cost him the original survey expense.

 

[togamac]

Thanks for that viewpoint ND Digger. The next time, if there is one, will come with a disclaimer!