Every great project starts with a great blueprint. Of course, that’s just the beginning—you need to take what’s on the blueprint and turn it into reality. Construction staking is one of the initial processes in carrying out your plans accurately.
But what exactly is construction staking, how is it performed and why is it important for a construction project? Here’s some information from our civil engineers in Idaho to help you understand this essential process.
The construction staking process
Construction staking is the process of mapping out the plans for a new building or improvement on the construction site. This process is vital for helping transition from the conceptual blueprint phase of a project to preparing for the actual construction work. The idea is to help project managers better figure out if they’ll need to make any adjustments to resolve issues that arise as they start to physically map out the project. This will help save time and money in the project as it moves forward.
The actual process of construction staking is just as it sounds—teams stick stakes into the ground to map out where improvements will be built. They will match up with the blueprints for the projects as accurately as possible.
Any time a surveyor comes in to complete construction staking, the project team will create copies of all approved plans. With these plans, the surveying team lays out the stakes to the exact locations and dimensions of planned improvements. These stakes can represent both inner and outer walls of a building, as well as drainage and storm flow and features such as curbs, driveways and walkways.
Different forms of construction staking
The actual stakes used in the construction staking process can be used in different ways depending on which elements of the project they are meant to represent. Every element of the project must be properly accounted for within the project plan so the surveyor will be able to determine how to represent those elements on the job site.
Just as the stakes can be used in different ways, there are different types of construction staking you might use, depending on the type of work being performed at the job site and the current status of your project.
Rough grade staking, for example, is used to map out improvements on the site in relation to its final elevation grade. This process is most frequently used for understanding rough locations and elevations of building outlines, parking lots and roads.
Site layout staking is the other most common type of construction staking, and is much more detailed and comprehensive. This type of staking involves mapping out the vertical and horizontal locations of specific improvements. The team then shifts to construction work after the layout staking is complete.
This should give you a general overview of how construction staking works in most projects. For more information about construction staking, we encourage you to reach out to our team of civil engineers in Idaho at Mason & Associates today.