Land Platting Supplies & Tools
To plat a tract of land in metes and bounds bearings -- i.e. draw the land on paper the way the surveyor originally did -- you need only a few simple tools:
- Protractor or Surveyor's Compass - Remember that half-circle protractor that you used in high school trigonometry? This basic tool, found in most office and school supply stores, is an easy-to-obtain tool for land platting on the fly. If you plan to do a lot of land platting, then you may want to purchase a round surveyor's compass (also known as a land measure compass), available from specialty supply stores.
- Ruler - Again, easily found in office supply stores. The only requirement is that it is marked in millimeters.
- Graph Paper - Used only to keep your compass aligned perfectly north-south, the size and type of graph paper is really not important. Patricia Law Hatcher, an expert in land platting, recommends "engineering paper," with four to five equally-weighted lines per inch.
- Pencil & Eraser - Wood pencil, or mechanical pencil - it's your choice. Just make sure it's sharp!
- Calculator - Doesn't need to be fancy. Just simple multiplication and division. Pencil and paper will work too - just takes longer. As you can see, the basic tools required for land platting can all be found at a local office supply store or discount mass merchandiser. So, next time you're on the road and run across a new deed, you don't have to wait until you get home to plat it out on paper.
Land Platting Step-by-Step
- Transcribe or make a copy of the deed, including the full legal land description.
- Highlight the calls - lines and corners. Land platting experts Patricia Law Hatcher and Mary McCampbell Bell suggest to their students that they underline the lines (including distance, direction, and adjoining owners), circle the corners (including neighbors), and use a wavy line for meanders.
- Create a chart or list of the calls for easy reference as you play, including only the pertinent information or facts. Check off each line or corner on the photocopy as you work to help prevent errors.
- If you plan to overlay your plat onto a modern day USGS quadrangle map, then convert all distances to USGS scale and include them on your chart. If your deed description uses poles, rods, or perches, then divide each distance by 4.8 for an easy conversion.
- Draw a solid dot on your graph paper to indicate your starting point. Next to it write down the description of the corner (e.g. Beginning at a white oak in Michael King's line). This will help you remember that this was your starting point, as well as including the markers which will help you possibly match it up with adjoining plats.
- Place the center of your protractor on top of the dot, making sure that it is aligned with the grid on your graph paper and that north is on top. If you're using a semi-circular protractor, orient it so that the circular side faces toward the east or west direction of the call (e.g. for the line S32E - align your protractor with the circular side facing east).
