Take a Deep Dive into Topographic Surveys

“Serving the Greater Atlanta and Chattanooga Area and everything in between”

Understanding Land Before You Build on It

Flat paper drawings don’t show you what land actually does. They can’t capture slopes, drainage patterns, elevation changes, or the way water moves across a site after a storm.

That’s what topographic surveys document – the shape and character of land in three dimensions.

Before you design a building, plan a road, engineer drainage systems, or lay out a development, you need to know the existing terrain. North Georgia gives us plenty of terrain to document.

Ridge lines, creek valleys, steep hillsides, and everything in between. Understanding that terrain before you start designing saves money and prevents expensive mistakes.

What We’re Measuring

A topographic survey maps elevation changes across a property. We establish a network of elevation points – dozens or hundreds depending on property size and complexity – and connect them to show how the land rises and falls.

This data gets presented as contour lines on a drawing, with each line representing a specific elevation.

Contours let engineers and architects see the land’s shape at a glance. Tight contours mean steep slopes.

Widely spaced contours mean gradual grades. The way contours bend around features shows ridges and valleys. All of this matters when you’re planning what to build and where to build it.

We also locate existing features: trees (sometimes every tree, sometimes just specimen trees), utility lines, drainage structures, paving, buildings, rock outcrops, wetlands, streams, ponds.

Anything that affects design or that might need to be protected or removed.

Why Terrain Matters for Design

Architects need topographic surveys to site buildings efficiently. A house that sits naturally on existing grades costs less to build than one that requires extensive cut and fill to create level building pads.

Understanding slopes also affects foundation design, basement feasibility, and access points.

Civil engineers need topographic data to design grading and drainage. Water flows downhill – obvious but critical.

Capturing runoff, directing it away from structures, and managing stormwater requires detailed knowledge of existing elevations and slopes.

Get the grading wrong and you create flooding, erosion, or drainage onto neighboring properties.

Site engineers use topographic surveys to calculate cut and fill volumes. Moving dirt is expensive. Balancing cut and fill – using dirt from high spots to fill low spots – minimizes trucking costs and keeps material on site.

That only works if you know exactly how much dirt you have where and how much you need elsewhere.

Road and utility designers need elevations to plan routes that work with terrain instead of fighting it.

A road that follows natural contours costs less to build and maintain than one that requires constant cuts and fills to maintain grade.

The Cost of Skipping This Step

We’ve seen projects where developers skipped the topographic survey to save a few thousand dollars on front-end costs.

Then they got into design and discovered their plans didn’t work with the actual terrain.

Buildings had to be relocated. Driveways ended up too steep for emergency vehicles. Parking lots required retaining walls that weren’t budgeted.

Drainage became a nightmare of pipes, swales, and detention ponds that ate up usable land.

Redesign costs money. Changing plans after you’ve already invested in preliminary engineering means paying for that work twice.

If you’ve already started permitting, changes require new applications and more time.

If you’ve already broken ground, changes require expensive field modifications and rework.

One project we worked on had a grading plan designed from inadequate survey data. The contractor started moving dirt and quickly realized the volumes were wrong.

They needed 3,000 cubic yards more fill than estimated.

That’s roughly 300 truckloads of dirt at $35 per yard delivered. The project lost $100,000 on a problem that a proper topographic survey would have prevented.

Another project designed a stormwater management system based on assumed grades rather than surveyed elevations.

The system didn’t work – water pooled in the wrong places and the detention pond overflowed during moderate rain.

Fixing it required new pipes, additional grading, and a bigger detention area. Cost to fix: $75,000. Cost of the topographic survey they skipped: $4,500.

North Georgia Terrain Challenges

North Georgia isn’t flat. We work on mountainsides, in creek valleys, along ridge lines, and across terrain that drops or rises 50 feet in a hundred feet of distance.

This terrain creates challenges and opportunities.

Steep slopes require special attention to erosion control, foundation design, and access.

They also create constraints on where you can build and how much of your property is usable.

A 10-acre parcel might only have 3 acres suitable for development once you account for slopes too steep for construction or protected by stream buffers.

Red clay soil doesn’t help. It erodes easily when disturbed, creating sedimentation problems and environmental compliance issues.

Grading plans need to account for clay’s characteristics – how it drains (poorly), how it compacts (requires proper moisture content), and how it erodes (aggressively if not controlled).

Streams and wetlands appear on North Georgia properties frequently. They’re protected by state and federal regulations that restrict how close you can build and what you can do with land in buffer zones.

Knowing where they are before you design prevents conflicts with environmental agencies.

Rock outcrops are common in the mountains. They’re beautiful but problematic when they’re right where you want to build. Blasting rock is expensive – typically $100-150 per cubic yard.

A topographic survey that locates rock outcrops early gives designers a chance to work around them rather than through them.

What Level of Detail Do You Need?

Topographic surveys come in different levels of detail depending on what you’re planning. A simple site evaluation might need 5-foot contours (each contour line represents a 5-foot elevation change).

Detailed grading and drainage design typically needs 2-foot or 1-foot contours. Precision work like ADA-compliant parking or athletic fields might need spot elevations every few feet.

More detail costs more but prevents problems.

Spending an extra $2,000 to get 1-foot contours instead of 5-foot contours can save $50,000 in grading mistakes during construction.

The math favors accuracy when real money is at stake. Tree surveys add cost but matter for certain projects.

Some jurisdictions require tree protection plans that identify specimen trees and calculate replacement requirements for trees you remove.

Some buyers want every tree located so landscape architects can work around existing growth.

Some properties have heritage trees or protected species that carry legal weight.

How We Collect Topographic Data

We use GPS and robotic total stations to collect elevation data. We’re shooting thousands of points across the property – more points on complex terrain, fewer on simple sites.

Each point captures x, y, and z coordinates – location in two dimensions plus elevation.

For larger projects or heavily wooded sites, we sometimes use aerial LIDAR to collect dense elevation data efficiently.

LIDAR works through gaps in tree canopy better than traditional aerial photography, and it provides millions of elevation points across large areas. It costs more but delivers data faster on big sites.

All of this data feeds into CAD software that generates contour lines, creates three-dimensional models, and produces drawings engineers and architects can use directly in their design software.

They can import our survey data, overlay proposed improvements, and see immediately how their design interacts with existing terrain.

Working with Engineers and Architects

Topographic surveys serve as the foundation for all design work. Architects use them to site buildings. Civil engineers use them for grading, drainage, and utility design.

Landscape architects use them to plan site amenities and landscaping. Environmental consultants use them to identify wetlands and protected areas.

We coordinate with design teams to make sure they get data in the format they need.

Some want AutoCAD files. Some want PDFs. Some want 3D modeling data they can import into advanced design software.

We can deliver all of these because the underlying survey data is the same – it’s just formatted differently for different uses.

If issues come up during design – questions about elevations in specific areas, requests for additional detail in certain spots, needs for updated information after site clearing – we can return to the field and collect supplemental data.

It’s easier to add detail while design is ongoing than to realize after construction starts that you needed more information.

Timing and Scheduling

Order topographic surveys early in your project timeline. Design work can’t start until you have accurate terrain data. Permitting often requires stamped topographic surveys as part of the application package.

Construction can’t bid accurately without grading plans based on real elevations.

Most topographic surveys take 1-2 weeks for fieldwork and processing, depending on property size and complexity.

A simple 2-acre lot might be done in a week. A 50-acre development site with heavy vegetation might take three weeks. Rush service is available for tight timelines but costs more.

Weather affects topographic surveys less than boundary surveys, but dense vegetation can slow fieldwork and heavy leaf cover in summer can make it harder to see terrain features.

Fall and winter often work better for topographic surveys in wooded areas – you can see more ground and collect cleaner data.

Combining Topographic and Boundary Surveys

Many projects need both boundary and topographic information. We combine them into a single survey that shows property lines, easements, and encumbrances along with terrain, elevations, and existing features.

This gives design teams complete site information in one document.

Combining surveys costs less than ordering them separately because we’re on site once instead of twice, and the research and setup work serves both purposes.

It also eliminates coordination issues that can arise when different surveyors provide boundary and topographic data that don’t quite line up.

What You’ll Receive

You’ll get a sealed drawing showing property boundaries, contour lines at specified intervals, spot elevations at key locations, and all existing features we located. The drawing includes our surveyor’s stamp and signature certifying that the information is accurate based on fieldwork and measurements we conducted.

You’ll also get digital data – typically CAD files in formats design professionals can use directly.

This data lets engineers and architects work with your property in three dimensions, testing design alternatives and seeing how proposed improvements interact with existing terrain.

Some clients also want 3D surface models or visualizations that make terrain easier to understand for people who don’t read contour maps regularly.

We can provide these when needed for presentations, approvals, or stakeholder communications.

Cost Factors

Topographic survey costs depend on property size, terrain complexity, vegetation density, level of detail required, and features that need to be located.

A simple 1-acre site with light vegetation might cost $2,500. A complex 20-acre site with steep terrain, heavy woods, and detailed requirements might cost $15,000.

Required level of detail affects cost significantly. One-foot contours cost more than five-foot contours because we’re collecting more data points and processing more information.

Complete tree surveys cost more than specimen tree surveys because we’re locating hundreds of trees instead of dozens.

Access matters. Properties we can access easily cost less than properties requiring hiking equipment to reach remote areas or properties where vegetation is so dense we’re cutting paths to collect data.

Long-Term Value

The topographic survey you get before development serves you throughout the project lifecycle. During design, it’s the foundation all planning builds on. During permitting, it’s documentation agencies require.

During construction, it’s the baseline contractors check their work against.

After construction, the survey becomes your as-built documentation – a record of what existed before you built.

This matters for future modifications, expansions, or property sales. It also matters if drainage or erosion problems develop later and you need to understand how water flowed before development.

Why Accuracy Matters

Topographic surveys need to be accurate because design decisions based on survey data have real consequences.

An elevation that’s off by two feet can make a drainage system flow backward.

A contour line that’s misplaced can put a building in a flood zone or violate setback requirements.

We use professional-grade equipment and follow established procedures to ensure accuracy. Our surveys are stamped by licensed surveyors who stand behind the data.

When your engineer designs based on our survey, they can trust that the terrain information is correct.

That accuracy protects you from costly mistakes, design delays, and construction problems that arise when site conditions don’t match assumptions. It’s not the place to cut corners or take risks.

The Land Surveying Company provides topographic surveys for residential, commercial, and development projects throughout Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. We’ve surveyed mountain sites, creek valleys, and everything in between across North Georgia.

For more information regarding boundary surveys and other surveying services offered by
The Land Surveying Company, please call us at 706-237-8319
or request a quote through our online quote form.

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We are a land surveying firm in Georgia dedicated to fast and friendly service in Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. We service residential, commercial and industrial surveys.