Set-out

Set-out is the activity that translates the design drawings into physical marks on the site. The surveyor (or, on simpler jobs, the builder) pegs the building corners, establishes the temporary benchmark (TBM), transfers the finished floor level and external surface levels, and runs string lines that the trades will work to for footings, slab edges, and frame plates.

The set-out sequence on a residential build:

1. Boundary set-out: confirm the lot boundaries from the deposited plan and place reference pegs the building offsets will run from.
2. TBM: drive a steel pin in concrete or a stable peg near the slab footprint, note its reduced level, and protect it with a witness mark or barricade.
3. Building corners: peg the slab corners on the design offset lines.
4. FFL transfer: mark the finished floor level on a hub or batter board near each corner.
5. Footing and edge lines: run string lines and profiles for the footing trenches or the slab edge beams.
6. Internal grids: where the design has internal load points (column footings, masonry walls), mark those centres before the bulk concrete pour.
7. Service set-out: stormwater, sewer, electrical, gas conduit entry points to the slab marked before pour.

Why set-out errors are expensive. Every subsequent stage of the build reads from the set-out: bulk earthworks, footings, slab pour, frame, brickwork, services. An error caught at footings is cheap; the same error caught at frame stage costs a full re-set-out plus rework of the affected slab edge. An error caught after the slab pours is a structural-engineering problem, not a set-out problem.

The three most common defects.

• Out-of-square: the building reads as a quadrilateral on the drawing but a parallelogram on the slab. Always check diagonals are equal after pegging the corners.
• Wrong reference benchmark: pegs set off a TBM that was bumped or removed mid-job. Always re-confirm the TBM RL at the start of each stage.
• FFL set to slab top instead of finished floor: see FFL.

Who does the set-out. A licensed surveyor sets out boundary-sensitive projects (additions close to a boundary, infill on a tight site, anything where the council notation refers to RL). For simpler off-the-shelf builds on a generous lot, the builder commonly does the set-out from the surveyor’s contour and boundary plan. A formal as-constructed survey at slab top is the cheap insurance: it catches a set-out error before it grows.

Also known as: setting out, site set-out, marking out.

Category: Surveying / site preparation.

Related

• Site set-out and survey
• Strip footings
• Conventional reinforced slab
• Earthworks: cut and fill
• Surveyor

See also

• Reduced level (RL)
• Finished floor level (FFL)
• AHD (Australian Height Datum)

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Last updated: 2026-05-14. Verified: 2026-05-14.