Visiting the Wierd & Wonderful

Surveying is a very unique career in terms of the places you end up visiting & Surveying, so below is a list of some of the more unusual/unique places I've been, can you suggest anymore;

Sorry to the assistant on this one!

1) Port Lympne Zoo inside the Lion enclosure (they'd moved the Lions into their smaller side pen).  Still kept me on edge during the work just in case!  As you can see they still showed a lot of interest so the pogo remained at arms length - it is only wire after all!!!

2) Port Lympne Zoo inside the Rhino enclosure.


3) Central wicket at The Oval - setting out the boundary, a little add on to the main survey of the site.  How could we say no to that little request outside of the original spec for the work.


4) Aldwych Station (at night with failing torch!), now a disused station used for training everyone one from Surveyors with a new track trolley to the police armed response units, and some big budget films (I believe 007 in Die Another Day (although not 100%), and Sliding Doors).  It was under the guise of work, wandering off the end of the platforms to try out the then new Leica track trolley.

5) Roof Walk at Lincoln Cathedral, as a little bonus due to the work done for the on going spire monitoring.

6) Chelsea FC Training ground - yes those specs in the distance were the first team, and that is all they ever become just random people in the distance despite the hope of a misplaced football needing returning!!  - OK the picture is not of the training ground, but I was working close to the main stadium recently so this pic will have to do.

7) Camden Town Coroners Office - what was in the black bag?

8) Charing Crematorium - with behind the scenes tour, which was surprisingly interesting even if a little morbid.

There are many other locations I have been that most people in the general public don't have access to such as wandering down the runways of Heathrow & Stansted airports in the middle of the night (I was supposed to be there), inside the Tower of London carrying out a measured building survey, or walking along the tracks at the Eurotunnel terminal at Cheriton, even walking over the arches at Dover harbour - you know the ones at the ferry on ramps right at the waters edge.  They get very windy at the top!

Everyone has their stories, and in 13 years I have accumulated a fair few across five different Survey firms.  I'm sure the bigger the company the more obscure/prestigious the jobs - do you have anywhere different work has taken you?

For more information on the services R L Surveys offer please visit our website, or follow us through the wonders of social media Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIN.

The surveying fraternity

In the last 13 years I have worked for a wide variety of Surveying firms and departments, however it is only in the past 18 months that I have realised how many Surveying firms exist and the level of interaction between them.

Many years ago I noted that a lot of surveys were being lost to small independent firms with low overheads and a fast turn around.  At that time I floated an idea to my then boss about setting up a firm to handle this growing demand which worked as a separate entity to the main firm, but still within the same operating standards.  The idea being to keep the work virtually in house, but not stuck under the same umbrella for overheads/insurance/management.  We'd keep clients happy by doing the work, and keep the work away from the smaller firms - a good principle but it wasn't seen as a viable option at the time because of the insurance & QA hurdles, and working a balance between the two areas of the business.

Well here we are now as a small firm with low overheads, fast turn around times, and a good quality product but without the net of the larger firm should times get slack.  However there are many firms out there willing to pass on any excess work load, and this act can also be reciprocated.  I'd love to go through and list them, but lets face it that would be like cutting off my nose to spite my face!

The challenge now will be to maintain that close fraternity of firms whilst balancing our own needs as a company to grow.  The companies we work with closely are spread across the UK so in essence there is little competition between them, but perhaps in time as each of these companies develops we might find ourselves in the position to create a much more formal agreement to enable the larger group of firms to tender for larger jobs as one, and then split the rewards.  But for now we shall all soldier on through the wind & rain alone to reach our goals.

For more information on the services R L Surveys can offer please visit our website at www.rlsurveys.co.uk, or for a more relaxed view we can be found on Facebook, or Twitter.  We are also on LinkedIn, and this is an area we are looking to develop going into 2013.

A new development on the blog is a reaction bar at the bottom of each blog just to keep us on our toes to see what areas people are interested in for future wonderings.