Survey plans, explained
A survey plan carries a great deal in very little ink, and almost none of it is labelled for someone reading their first one. These sheets are drawn the way a drafter would draw them — and every line, symbol, note and block on them will tell you what it is when you hover or tap it.
Boundary Survey Plan of Lot 7
24 Maple Street, Sampleford, Massachusetts
Every part of a boundary survey sheet, in the place a drafter would put it — title block, legend, notes, certification, north arrow and scale — with each one explained as you hover it.
28 parts explained Topographic surveyTopographic Survey
18 Orchard Lane, Sampleford, Massachusetts
What the ground does, drawn as lines of equal height. Contours, spot elevations, a benchmark and a drainage swale — and why the lines bunch together where the hill is steep.
17 parts explained Mortgage inspectionMortgage Inspection Plan
9 Birch Road, Sampleford, Massachusetts
The cheapest plan a homeowner is ever handed, and the one most often mistaken for a survey. This sheet is mostly a careful account of what it does not do — which is the part worth reading.
15 parts explained SubdivisionDefinitive Subdivision Plan
Cedar Hollow, Sampleford, Massachusetts
One parcel becoming four lots and a new street. Every line on this sheet creates something that did not exist last week — and each new lot has to earn its existence against the zoning table in the corner.
19 parts explainedThese are teaching drawings of fictional parcels, with blank licence numbers and a seal reading NO. 00000. None of them is a recordable document or a surveyor's certification.