Need Help Complete Site Survey Form?

[The SignChef]

I've been searching for a Complete Site Survey Form - a form that is all-inclusive.

I'm envisioning a form that would include some type of checklist to provide all pertinent information about existing outdoor signage, as well as information about the building itself, for a new sign installation.

The information would be used to inform local permitting offices with the information they require about existing outdoor signs, before issuing new sign permits.

Since some of the remote locations may allow a new main identification sign out by the road, it would be preferable if the Site Survey Form included a checklist pertaining to roadside signs.

If you have such a form, in any form, would you be willing to share?

Thanks in advance!
Tim

 

[kcollinsdesign]

For most of us, every job is different. Different locations have different permit requirements. Different clients have different information requirements (especially national and corporate accounts). Different types of signs require different design, engineering and installation details. I have filled out 6 page forms for certain national sign forwarding companies. Some jurisdictions require legal lot description, aeronautic studies, written permissions from landlords, stamped engineering drawings, shop drawings with installation details (down to the screws used), and various licensing, bonding, and insurance requirements. A "one size fits all" form seems practically unrealistic.

What we do is gather all the information we can from the client and local planning and zoning and inspection departments, then come up with a checklist for the survey team to use out in the field. To be sure, we add as a line item on our estimates and invoices survey costs and permit secural fees (in our market, minimum $85, usually more). We do not mark up the actual permit cost (it is hard to defend both a mark up and survey and secural fees).

When I first started, most people just used common sense. I would go to the permit office, catch up on the latest gossip, and the inspector would write out a permit which I would pay for and take with me on the spot. The assumption was that we were professional, and any code violations would be our liability. The inspectors were just recording the work; it was up to us to make sure we did it right. It is much, much more complicated today.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I would post it but I just ripped it off from another sign company... Just go through your emails and find a good one

 

[bannertime]

Have you looked at The Sign Expert's forms. We purchased their set and did some alterations for a few different types of jobs.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Unless I went a did the survey myself, I was always stuck with installers' results. Even when you gave 'em a damned form, they leave 70% of what you needed off.

 

[Hero Signs]

I have a pretty badass set that covers pole signs to cabinet, what equipment, what materials, I would like to share but the time out in on it was intensive and I could use $40 per. Hey mods maybe we can do a profit share on this and sell lots of them????