Land Surveyors in The Bronx, NY

The Only Borough on the Mainland

That fact does more work than it sounds like it should. The Bronx is attached to the continent, and it inherits continental geology - the Fordham gneiss ridge runs through it, rock sits near the surface across the northwest, and the ground genuinely moves. Riverdale, Spuyten Duyvil and Fieldston drop steeply toward the Hudson. Nothing in Manhattan below Washington Heights or anywhere in Brooklyn presents that problem at the same scale.

Grade Is a First-Order Question Here

On a sloping Riverdale lot the topography decides more than the lot lines do. Where a driveway can physically go, whether a cellar entry is possible, what retaining structure the ground requires and how much rock has to come out are all answered by the grades, and they have to be answered before an architect draws anything. That is why topographic survey work is a larger share of what we do in the Bronx than in any other borough except Yonkers immediately north of it.

Two Housing Markets in One County

The south and central Bronx is dense attached and multifamily stock with the same alteration history as Brooklyn's. The northwest and northeast - Riverdale, Country Club, City Island - is detached houses on irregular parcels with real side yards, which produces boundary questions that simply do not arise on an attached rowhouse. City Island is different again, and the southern waterfront carries mapped flood exposure.

What Gets Ordered Here

topographic survey and boundary survey on the sloping detached side, title survey across the residential market, as-built survey on the heavily altered multifamily stock, and elevation certificate along the mapped waterfront. Larger redevelopment sites bring ALTA/NSPS survey, construction stakeout and occasionally subdivision survey where a parcel is being reconfigured.

The Bronx Survey FAQs