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Mapstead

Safety and accuracy

Mapping safety and accuracy limits

Mapstead maps are practical reference documentation. Read this before you rely on a mapped location for anything consequential.

Mapstead is not a land survey

Mapstead does not produce survey-grade positions and does not provide official property lines or parcel boundaries. Anything involving boundaries, easements, encroachments, setbacks, permitting, or legal disputes requires a licensed land surveyor. County parcel records and a survey are the authoritative sources, not an app.

Mapstead is not a utility locate service

Mapstead cannot detect anything buried. You can record the location of a line you already know about, but that record is your estimate, not a locate.

Never dig based on a Mapstead location. In the United States, contact 811 before any excavation. A free professional locate is required before digging, augering, driving posts, or trenching, no matter how confident you are about where the line runs.

GPS accuracy varies

  • Device hardware and antenna quality differ significantly between phones.
  • Tree cover, buildings, terrain, and weather all degrade accuracy.
  • A point captured while standing at a feature can still be several metres off, and repeat captures of the same spot will not match exactly.
  • Manually placed points are only as accurate as the basemap imagery they were placed against.

Record how confident you are

The most useful habit in property mapping is noting the source of a location: verified in person, estimated from memory, or taken from a permit or diagram. Two photos — one wide, one close — do more for future you than a decimal place of precision.

Work safely while mapping

  • Do not enter confined spaces, septic tanks, wells, or crawlspaces to map them.
  • Do not open electrical enclosures you are not qualified to open.
  • Keep away from livestock, unstable ground, water hazards, and machinery.
  • Watch your footing rather than your screen, and take a phone charger on acreage.
  • Tell someone where you are going if you are mapping a large or remote property.

When to call a professional

  • Before any excavation: a professional utility locate, every time.
  • Boundary or easement questions: a licensed land surveyor.
  • Septic, well, gas, or electrical system work: a licensed trade.
  • Insurance, permitting, or legal documentation: the relevant qualified professional.