In recent years, the 811 utility locating service has done a great job of increasing awareness about locating buried utilities prior to any sort of excavation or digging. Their “Call Before You Dig” campaign has likely helped many homeowners and business owners avoid costly damage to buried utilities, as well as injury to those doing the excavating or digging. This free service is widely used by proactive homeowners and business owners who understand its importance.
But sometimes, calling 811 and having the various utility companies send out their representatives to locate buried utility lines isn’t enough. This is because public utility lines often aren’t the only things located beneath the ground near a home or commercial building. There are also what are known as “private utilities” on many properties. The 811 service won’t help you with locating private utilities, so you are on your own to locate them so you can safely proceed with any projects that involve digging or excavation.
Private utilities can vary from property to property. On a residential property, they could include things like septic systems, a gas line that runs to a barbeque, pool heater, or firepit, utility lines that go to outbuildings, or irrigation lines. If the property gets its water from a well, those water lines will also be considered private utilities. On a commercial property, private utilities could include electrical lines that power parking lot lighting, landscape lighting, or security cameras, certain telecommunications cables, and more.
All of the utilities mentioned above would not be the responsibility of 811 to locate. The property owner (or in many cases, the contractor they hire) would be responsible for bringing in a service that specializes in locating private utility lines underground. While 811 is a free service, a private utility locator will cost you some money. However, this is not an expense you should forgo just to save a few dollars. Hitting a buried utility could cause damage that could be expensive to repair and could also bring a construction project to a standstill. In the worst-case scenario, hitting a buried utility could cause injury—or even death—to anyone in the immediate area. In other words, spending money on a private utility locating service could actually save you money (and a lot of heartache) in the long run.
A professional private utility locator like Enhanced Scanning, which serves San Diego and Riverside Counties and the surrounding areas, will respond promptly and use the best tools available to locate any buried hazards. They may even find things that the public utility locators missed! Look for a company that takes a multi-tool approach to underground utility locating, because there isn’t a single tool that can find everything buried underground. A common technology that underground utility locators will use is ground penetrating radar, but other scanning tools, such as electromagnetic frequency transmitters, magnetometers, and pulse wave generators, may also be used to provide a complete picture of what is located beneath the ground’s surface.
