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Tall batter boards

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EmmCeeDee

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
Last week we put up batter boards for a house. The site has about a 9' drop off front to rear so the ones on the back side were much taller than the ones in front. We actually got up on a 8' ladder to drive them and braced the heck put of 'em

This got me thinking; how would one handle a site with more extreme elevation changes? A change of more than 20' would not be unusual in some mountain lots. Maybe a series of staggered batter boards?
 
#2 ·
Batter boards, like in batter boards for stringing/laying out a foundation, right?

Typically setting grade for footings and form height on uneven sites, we've used bench marks (not totally correct term, but that's what they got called) on the batter boards that indicate, from this mark on the cross member, grade is x feet & inches down. Keeping the batter boards low to the ground. Then using a transit, optical or laser to establish the grade is correct.

Back in the day before yesterday, a few 'old school' guys I worked with we'd pull a level off the mark on a batter board. Measure down and establish a new set of batter boards in the footing trench for the form height. As an example.
 
#4 ·
Right? Wild stuff.....

Ideally they have to have engineers and surveyors. Determine and verify positions and heights as the project goes along. Lots 'o' money riding on those projects, not to mention municipal oversight and requirements.
 
#5 ·
Try this. While one guy holds the dummy end of a steel tape, the other guy climbs a ladder on the down slope and places the string of a plumb bob against the correct measurement. It might take a third guy to mark the spot on the ground. A twenty penny nail pounded at the spot and a little paint on the nail head and you're good to go. Now you can plumb or level up. A little sketchy for the guy on the ladder since both hands are kind of occupied, but it works.
 
Discussion starter · #7 · (Edited)
TNM said:
Try this. While one guy holds the dummy end of a steel tape, the other guy climbs a ladder on the down slope and places the string of a plumb bob against the correct measurement. It might take a third guy to mark the spot on the ground. A twenty penny nail pounded at the spot and a little paint on the nail head and you're good to go. Now you can plumb or level up. A little sketchy for the guy on the ladder since both hands are kind of occupied, but it works.
Click to expand...
Another couple of feet higher and we would have had to use this approach. As it was the batter board was about 8' in the air out back, at grade in front. We plumbed and drove short uprights, attached 10' extensions and had a guy on a ladder and a laser to level the crosspeice. We got a transit to shoot the angles and ended within 1/8" of square over 60' Lucky or good, either way I was pretty stoked.
 
#10 · (Edited)
A long shot but how about keep batterboards low and finding the angle or the rise&run of the string line. Then use ratio proportion to find the correct position perpendicular to your two parallel lines that are running up the hill/cliff?
It depends on the size and precision needed for what you are building.
But what do I know, I'm just an apprentice.
 
#11 ·
Grade rods extend some distance (elevation). We use a rotary laser at upslope elevation, work our way down each bench setting a new benchmark (receiver on the grade rod). Its all about doing it incrementally... step down, record the new number, add it to the previous. Drop down another step, keep doing the numbers. Move the laser when you need to, to keep the rod at a reasonable height.

Again, its all about doing it incrementally.
 
#13 ·
Assuming a few things;

1 - You have a good transit.

2 - You are dealing with a basic rectangular shape.

3 - You have a clean line of site from a top corner down past one of the lower corners.

4 - You can set your transit up over one of the top corners using the plumb bob tied to the bottom of it.

With the top line set and running parallel to the "front" of the building and the corner marked on the string. (I like to crimp a small piece of tie wire on the taunt string) Set up the transit over that mark.

Swing the transit around and angle it down to sight the far end of the string. Then lock the transit there. Move the angle finder to 0 degrees.

Unlock the transit and swing it back over the drop in grade to 90 degrees and lock it again. Swing down to sight the lower batter board and have your helper tap a nail in at your cross hair.

Move the transit out of the way and pull a taunt line from that nail, over the the top line and make a mark on one of the vertical stakes for the upper batter board. Use a level to set that batter board at the needed elevation and tie off the line where it crosses over the crimped wire.

Now you have a square building corner to work from.

In the event that you can easily shoot the elevation of the two batter boards, you can do a basic rafter length calculation to find the bottom corner. Measure and crimp another piece of wire and you have another corner.

So many site condition variables will change your method but the basics are there.

Not too many guys use a transit anymore. And many that do think they have one but it is really just a builder's level and it lacks some of the features needed to do this.
 
#14 ·
here, most contractors hire civil to come in and gps corners in, we dig the hole, civil comes back and gps's the footing corners in down in the hole itself...works pretty slick.
 
Discussion starter · #15 · (Edited)
We set all our own corners with a real transit, like Gus but we generally work on pretty flat sites too.

We've got one coming up with about a 20' drop cross slope, (and about 60 truck loads of dirt to cut) where we will have to work down. Looks to be a learning experience. Thanks for the pointers!
 
#17 ·
Texas Wax said:
Batter boards, like in batter boards for stringing/laying out a foundation, right?

Typically setting grade for footings and form height on uneven sites, we've used bench marks (not totally correct term, but that's what they got called) on the batter boards that indicate, from this mark on the cross member, grade is x feet & inches down. Keeping the batter boards low to the ground. Then using a transit, optical or laser to establish the grade is correct.

Back in the day before yesterday, a few 'old school' guys I worked with we'd pull a level off the mark on a batter board. Measure down and establish a new set of batter boards in the footing trench for the form height. As an example.
Click to expand...
Thats the ticket
;)
 
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