Land surveyors
An as-built survey records what was actually constructed - footprints, floor and pad elevations, walls, paving and utilities - and draws it against the property lines and the approved plans. On new projects it is used for pad and foundation checks, final close-out and utility record drawings. On older properties it answers a different question: where decades of additions, enclosed patios and converted garages sit relative to the lot lines and setbacks. It measures location; whether a given structure was permitted is answered by the city's permit records, not by the survey.
An as-built survey measures what actually exists on a site - building footprints, pads, finished floors, walls, paving, utilities - and draws it against the property lines and the approved plans. The difference between the two is usually small and harmless. When it is not, the as-built is the document that shows it, before a certificate of occupancy, a sale or a refinance forces the question.
On new work the survey is often requested at specific points: a pad elevation check before framing, a foundation location check once forms are set, and a final survey when the project closes out. Underground utilities are best picked up while trenches are still open, since a sewer or storm line recorded after backfill is only as accurate as the notes someone kept. Public agencies commonly require record drawings for anything built in the right-of-way, and lenders on commercial projects in Carson and Long Beach may want an updated drawing before releasing the final draw.
Plenty of older houses in Lakewood, Los Alamitos and Long Beach have been extended over the years - a family room at the back, an enclosed patio, a converted garage. Buyers and owners often want to know where those additions sit relative to the lot lines and the setbacks. The survey answers the location question. Whether a given addition was permitted is a separate question, answered by the city's permit records.
The 1933 Long Beach earthquake on the Newport-Inglewood fault shaped the building stock here: many older commercial and masonry buildings downtown and in Signal Hill and San Pedro were repaired, retrofitted or partly rebuilt over the following decades. An existing-conditions survey gives an architect or engineer a measured base before a remodel or retrofit rather than trusting drawings that may not reflect all of that history.
An as-built closes the loop on construction staking. In a flood zone the same measurements often feed a finished-construction elevation certificate, and a new backyard unit built after an ADU site survey can be documented the same way.
How long does it take? Depends on the size of the site and what needs to be located. A single-family lot is usually one visit; utility as-builts are best done while trenches are open.
These are usually asked for on the same transaction:
Offset, grade and utility stakes set from boundary control and benchmarks, so the building lands where the plans put it.
Learn More →The FEMA form that records how your building sits against the base flood elevation - used for flood insurance and map amendment requests.
Learn More →Lot lines, existing buildings, setbacks, easements, utilities and grades - the measured base an ADU site plan is drawn on.
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