A homeowner's guide to understanding survey maps, boundary markers, and legal property descriptions.
A property survey is a detailed scaled drawing that shows the exact boundaries, dimensions, and physical features of your lot. Whether you received one at closing or need to get a new one, understanding what the survey shows is essential for fence projects, building additions, resolving boundary disputes, and simply knowing what you own.
The challenge is that surveys are drawn by professionals for professionals. They are full of bearings, abbreviations, symbols, and legal descriptions that can look like a foreign language to most homeowners. This guide breaks down every important element so you can read your survey with confidence and know exactly where your property begins and ends.
Once you understand the basics, you will be able to identify your property corners, understand easement restrictions, confirm that your structures meet setback requirements, and have productive conversations with surveyors, contractors, and neighbors.
A property survey is a legal document prepared by a licensed professional land surveyor. It establishes the precise boundaries of a parcel of land based on deed descriptions, recorded plat maps, and physical evidence found in the field. The finished product is a scaled drawing — often called a plat or survey map — that shows the shape and dimensions of your lot.
Why you need one. Without a survey, you are guessing where your property lines fall. Fences, driveways, sheds, and landscaping are frequently built in the wrong location because homeowners assumed a certain line was the boundary. A survey eliminates the guesswork and gives you legally defensible proof of your boundaries.
What it includes. A typical residential survey shows boundary lines with bearings and distances, the location and type of survey markers at each corner, easements and rights-of-way, setback lines, the location of structures on the property, and a legal description that ties the parcel to the public land records.
Title block. The bottom or side of the survey will have a title block with the surveyor's name, license number, date of the survey, the scale of the drawing, the legal description or parcel number, and a certification statement. The surveyor's stamp and signature make it a legal document.
Boundary lines. The solid lines around the perimeter of your survey represent the legal boundaries of your property. Each line segment connects two corner points and is labeled with a bearing (direction) and distance (length). These lines define the shape and size of your lot.
Iron rebar and pins. The most common boundary marker is an iron rebar or pin — typically a half-inch or five-eighths-inch diameter iron rod driven into the ground at each property corner. Newer pins have a plastic or aluminum cap stamped with the surveyor's license number. Over time, these can be buried under soil, mulch, or sod.
Iron pipes. Older surveys often used iron pipes as markers. These are larger in diameter and sometimes easier to locate. After decades in the ground, they may be rusty and partially crushed but are still valid markers.
Concrete monuments. Used for major reference points such as subdivision corners and government survey section corners. These are buried concrete blocks or cylinders, sometimes topped with a brass or aluminum disk. They serve as control points that surveyors use to reference individual lot corners.
Found vs. set. On your survey, markers are noted as "found" (FD or FND) or "set." Found means the surveyor located an existing marker from a previous survey. Set means the surveyor placed a new marker. If a corner could not be physically marked — for example, if it falls in the middle of a paved road — the surveyor will note a reference point instead.
Every boundary line on a survey is described by two values: a bearing (direction) and a distance (length). Together they tell you exactly where each side of your property goes.
Bearings explained. A bearing like N 45 degrees 30 minutes 15 seconds E means: start facing North, then rotate 45 degrees, 30 minutes, and 15 seconds toward the East. Bearings always begin with N (north) or S (south) and end with E (east) or W (west). The angle tells you how far to rotate from the starting direction. Think of it as a compass direction broken down into very precise increments.
Degrees, minutes, seconds. Surveyors use a base-60 system to express angles precisely. There are 60 minutes in a degree and 60 seconds in a minute. So 45 degrees 30 minutes is the same as 45.5 degrees. This level of precision matters when even a fraction of a degree over a long distance can shift the endpoint by several feet.
Distances. Distances are given in feet and hundredths of feet (decimal feet), not feet and inches. So 150.25 feet means 150 feet and 3 inches. Some older surveys use chains and links as the unit of measurement — one chain equals 66 feet, and one link equals 0.66 feet.
Point of Beginning (POB). The survey description starts at a specific corner called the Point of Beginning and traces the boundary in order, from corner to corner, until it returns to the starting point. Each call — a bearing and distance — takes you from one corner to the next. If you follow every call in sequence, you end up exactly where you started.
Curves. Not all boundary lines are straight. Where your property follows a curved road, cul-de-sac, or irregular natural boundary, the survey describes the curve with a radius, arc length, chord bearing, and chord distance. These are common along street frontages.
Easements. An easement gives someone else the legal right to use a portion of your property for a specific purpose. Utility easements are the most common — they allow the electric, gas, water, sewer, or cable company to access their lines. Drainage easements allow stormwater to flow across your land. Easements appear on the survey as dashed lines or shaded areas, typically along the edges of the property or running across it.
Setbacks. Setbacks define how close to the property line you can build permanent structures. Front, side, and rear setbacks are established by your local zoning code. On the survey, they are usually shown as dashed lines inside the property boundary, creating a buildable area in the center of the lot. You cannot build a house, garage, or addition within the setback area without obtaining a variance from your local zoning board.
Rights-of-way. A right-of-way is a type of easement that provides a path for travel or access. The road in front of your house likely has a right-of-way that extends beyond the paved surface. Your neighbor may have a right-of-way across your property to reach a landlocked parcel. Understanding rights-of-way is critical before building fences or structures near the front of your lot.
Encroachments. An ALTA survey identifies encroachments — any structure, fence, driveway, or improvement that crosses a property line. A neighbor's shed partially on your land or your fence extending beyond your boundary are both encroachments. These can create serious issues during property sales and may need to be resolved before closing.
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Boundary survey. The most common type for homeowners. A boundary survey identifies the corners and lines of your property by measuring from established reference points. The surveyor locates or sets physical markers at each corner and produces a drawing showing the shape, dimensions, and area of the lot. This is the survey you need for fence installation, boundary questions, or confirming your lot size.
ALTA/NSPS survey. A comprehensive survey required for most commercial real estate transactions and some residential purchases. ALTA surveys follow a standardized set of requirements established by the American Land Title Association. They include everything in a boundary survey plus the precise location of all buildings, easements, rights-of-way, encroachments, utilities, access points, and flood zone designations. These surveys are the most detailed and most expensive.
Topographic survey. Maps the elevation, contours, and physical features of the land rather than the legal boundaries. A topographic survey shows hills, valleys, slopes, trees, drainage patterns, and the elevation at specific points across the property. It is used for construction planning, drainage design, site grading, and landscape architecture. If you are planning a major grading project, a topographic survey is your starting point.
Mortgage or location survey. A simplified survey that shows the building location relative to the property lines. It confirms that structures are within the lot and meet setback requirements. Less detailed and less expensive than a full boundary survey, this type is often required by lenders at closing.
Subdivision survey. Created when a large parcel is divided into smaller lots. The surveyor establishes lot lines, streets, easements, and common areas, then produces a recorded plat map that becomes the legal basis for all individual lot surveys within the development.
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