Form Board Survey

A Form Board Survey documents the horizontal location and specified elevations of foundation forms before concrete is placed so the project team can compare them with the approved plans, property lines, setbacks, easements, and other controlling requirements included in the scope. Municipalities, lenders, owners, inspectors, or project teams may require one depending on the jurisdiction and type of construction. Identifying a placement concern before the pour is generally less disruptive than correcting it after concrete has been placed.

The requirement usually comes from the permit conditions, plan notes, or inspection checklist for a specific project, and what one city asks for will not match the next. A lender or owner may also require the documentation independently of the city. If it is not clear whether one is needed, Eagle can review the project documents with the contractor or project manager and confirm what has to be submitted. When one is required, the request should reach us as soon as the formwork is up, so the field visit can be scheduled ahead of the concrete.

Construction Staking puts the design in the ground: the crew calculates and marks the lines, offsets, grades, and points the contractor builds from. A Form Board Survey runs in the other direction. The forms are already in place, and the crew measures where they actually sit so the project team can compare the built layout against the approved design. Many projects use both, and the survey control established for staking can usually serve the Form Board Survey as well.

Not necessarily. Terms like foundation survey, slab survey, and form survey are used differently from one market to the next and are not standardized, so the reliable way to scope the work is by when it happens. A Form Board Survey happens while the forms are still in place. Documentation of a completed foundation after the concrete has cured is an As-Built Survey. Eagle confirms which one a project needs before the work is quoted.

It can, when those items are part of the agreed scope. The survey can document the proposed finished-floor elevation shown on the plans along with any other elevation values the project team specifies, and on sites with floodplain-related construction conditions that documentation is often requested before the pour. A Form Board Survey and a FEMA Elevation Certificate are not the same document. When a certificate is what the project requires, Eagle prepares that as a separate deliverable on the applicable FEMA form, and the two are sometimes ordered on the same building.

Pricing depends on the site, the foundation, the elevation information requested, and where the survey has to fall in the construction schedule, so the fastest path is to send the plan set, the reviewing city, and the pour date with the request. Eagle reviews the project and returns a proposal. Eagle Surveying performs form board surveys for commercial and residential construction throughout Texas, with crews working out of Denton and Waco.