Drone mapping gave me a rude awakening on a job site

I had this big commercial site outside Phoenix, a 4 acre parking lot expansion. I always used my old tape measure and laser distance finder, figured drones were just for fancy marketing videos. The GC basically forced me to use their drone survey, said it was in the contract. Turns out my manual measurements were off by about 14 inches on the north boundary, would have poured concrete in the wrong spot. Has anyone else had a piece of tech make them feel completely old school?

2 comments

2 Comments

finleyl553d ago

My old GPS unit once had me digging a footer two feet into a neighbor's property because the coordinates were from 2005 or something. The guy came out waving his deed and yelling about his rose bushes. Took a full day of re-measuring with a string line and a compass to figure out where I actually was. Had to pay for new rose bushes too. Ever had a tool lead you that far off track?

willow_martin3d ago

My buddy John had a laser level that was off by about 3 degrees, didn't notice until he'd already hung a whole kitchen of cabinets. The countertop guy showed up, put his level on, and just stood there staring at the wall for a solid minute before he said anything. Turns out the laser had gotten knocked around in the truck and the calibration was totally shot. They had to take every single cabinet down, shim them all up, and rehang the whole thing. John still gets twitchy around levels, won't even let anyone borrow his tools anymore.