I'm totally in this crowd right here Mr. Vertin. I've been using it in D.C. for the last couple years. I did implore some practice using it as . Just as an example, the first couple months I was doing it, I would hit every measurement and then come back and see how I needed to align the measuring tool in order to most accurately measure the building.
Then I could move onto a comparable and have a pretty darn good number. I really like it. A lot of the assessment sites around here have excellent measuring tools as well. I'm only a 19-20 year vet of the biz, but I didn't think about a day that I could go onto a BFE county's GIS site and be able to measure a chicken coup, a barn, outbuildings (to even have a GIS map to be honest with zoning overlays, flood overlays.) Never even thought of seeing that.
Thank you Al Gore. Thank you fine sir.
I understand the joke about Al Gore. In briefity, it is funny and I am not a super fan.... but Gore's contributions to internet history has nothing to do with engineering or programming. Instead, Gore introduced the legislation that would move what we now call the internet from its academic roots to a commercial enterprise. Than is a fact. With that said, in the sense of full disclosure I did plop down a couple bucks to see Inconvenient Truth. However, I also have to says I watch Bill O'Really almost every night (and find him entertaining). But I honestly love John Stossel.
The point is I like to keep an open mind to others views. Instead of living in an echo chamber. My mother use to always say "try to understand things from all points of view it will keep you young". I never knew what she meant till I got older.
With that said there are two things I love to talk about in appraisals and this list is not in order. One is measurements and the other is data verification. I would love to invite Brain Weaver into this informal discussion because he wrote an article on measurements that I thought had questionable issues. However, when he wrote it I was having a good year and had no time to respond.
I think he wrote the article after a 30 to 50 respond string on the forum. Not sure now. Somethings I would agree with, especially on the commercial side if you are 20 to 30 percent off-now days, that is not right (maybe 10-years ago or so I would have argued that point is wrong intently). I have found sky view measuring keys on buildings over 5,000 to 10,000 square feet fairly accurate today (maybe 5 percent difference but I will address this later). Actually the larger the building the more accurate these keys become.
However, I really got into the accuracy of measurements from this forum. Residential people or those who come for this side of the business are almost religious about the subject (I believe it is a battered child syndrome but they call it good training).
However, on the commercial side not so much (and I have a pedigree of mentors who would reveal any in Chicago). There is a difference between measuring a 2,500 square foot house compared to a 300,000 square foot warehouse.
I got into this so much I bought laser measuring equipment, tapes and measuring wheels. While there are hand rolling tape measuring wheels I believe them no more accurate than a ground rolling wheel. I have tested this. Both have problem with measuring accurately due to terrain thrown off by rocks, sticks and other stuff or building material issues.
The laser measurement devices are only good up to a 100 or so feet. After that if you move your hand slightly measurements change 5 or 10 feet depending on the distance. So my argument has always been and always will be that at a plat of survey or building plan on the commercial side is more accurate then measurements.
I am not a registered surveyor. It is my simple opinion many do not understand the limitations of the tools within this size ranges when considering hand measuring. Thank God we now have sky view tools.
