Topographic Surveys in Orinda, CA

Orinda gave its name to the Orinda Formation — the weak siltstone and claystone that underlies much of the East Bay hills and hosts many of the region's slow-moving landslides. That geology shapes how the City of Orinda reviews hillside projects: additions, ADUs, pools, and retaining walls on sloping lots typically require a topographic survey and, frequently, a geotechnical report built on it. We prepare the base map both consultants work from — 1-foot contours, spot elevations at grade breaks and structures, driveway profiles, drainage features, and existing walls — delivered as DWG/DXF files your architect and geotech can use without redrafting.

Orinda's lots are large, winding, and often cut into slopes by mid-century subdivision grading, which means the cut slopes and fill pads behind many homes are precisely the features a designer needs mapped well. Our Trimble terrestrial laser scanner captures millions of survey-grade points in one visit — the entire slope face, every wall, every grade break — where a conventional crew would shoot a few hundred points and interpolate the rest. On wooded lots we filter vegetation from the point cloud to produce a bare-earth terrain model, so oak canopy and understory don't leave holes in your contours. One mobilization covers the site; the point cloud is archived, so when the engineer asks for another section line months later, we cut it from data rather than driving back out.

Records of survey and corner records for Orinda projects are filed with the Contra Costa County Recorder and reviewed by the County Surveyor. When a project near a property line also needs boundary resolution — common on Orinda's irregular semi-rural parcels — we combine boundary and topographic work into a single scope so setbacks and contours land on the same map.