Level Rod Tripod
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I have a automatic level, how do I use it to raise grade level for a slab?
I would like to raise the grade to same level as my house. I tried to follow the thoughts from manufacturer, but a little confusing. I have two rods up to 16', the tripod, and the auto level brand is cst/berger 24x up to 300ft.
You will need two people to do this, a podman and a stickman.
The podman will work the tripod & transit. The stickman will work the grade stick (the 16' one).
1. Setup the transit & tripod. Choose a spot where you can see, with the pod, all locations that you will have to mark grade with. The tripod should be located in a hard surface (i.e. asphalt or concrete) location to minimize movement.
Setup the tripod & mount the pod. Make sure that the pod is level using the bubble located on the pod. This is very important. Sight all locations that you will have to mark grade, this is also important as you will not want to move the tripod if possible.
2. Get a base reading of the finish floor of your building. To make this easy, your finish floor (FF) of the building is always 100'-0". Always. Have your stickman go to the finish floor location, and hold his stick. It must be vertical in all respects. Sight the stick through the pod. This will tell you your relative pod elevation (which is important to determine all other grade). For instance, if the stick is measuring 4.5' or 4'6" (depending on which kind of stick you got, an engineering or English measurement), you now know that the pod elevation is 104'-6" (FF elev of 100'-0" plus 4'6").
A word of warning - your pod elevation will always change everytime you move it. So to take additional shots, you must always calculate your pod elevation after you move the pod.
3. Shoot the locations of your grade that you wish to alter. For instance, if you want to raise all of your grade to 100'-0" (FF elevation), and you shoot an elevation of 8.3' on the stick, you will need to raise your grade by
Math: Pod elevation: 104.5'
Stick Shot: 8.3'
Difference: 104.5 - 8.3 = 96.2' elevation
Raise grade by: 100.0'-96.2' = 3.8'
Drive a wood survey stake & record the elevation that you shot and your cut / fill amount in feet. This will help you remember where you took the shots & how much fill you need to place.
Finally, as a construction professional, it is a very bad idea to raise outside grade to the same level as your finish floor. In the case of heavy rains / floods, there is nothing to keep the water from coming into your structure! A much better way is to slope the grade away at a minimum of 2% (or a 1/4" per foot) away from the structure, with a maximum of 5% slope (or 3/4" per foot) due to ADA.
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