Five Ways to Avoid Damaging Underground Utility Lines

Before digging is begun on a property, it is important to know where the utility, water, and sewer lines are located. Otherwise, these services could be disrupted not only for your building or home, but for those within your immediate radius. Here are a few ways to avoid accidentally digging up utility or water lines.

Call the Utility Companies

The most accurate way to find the locations of gas, electric, and cable lines is to contact the utility companies who own them. If you know who those companies are, place a call to them and tell them there is going to be digging done on your property and you need to know where the lines are. They can do an assessment of your property and provide you with a map of the underground infrastructure, so you know where the lines they installed are laid out.

Ask for Mark-up Service

Utility companies may also offer a mark-up service when you need to know where utility lines are buried on your residential or commercial property. Their engineers will go out to your property, find the utility lines and then place markers where they are located. This will help landscapers or construction workers know there are utility lines there so they can avoid them.

Call a Dig Service

In the United Kingdom, there are services which will determine where utility lines are for contractors, home builders, fencing companies, and many other professionals. If the landowner doesn’t know where the utility lines are, they can call and have such a service determine the location of the lines before work is begun on the landowner’s project. This will prevent accidentally cutting into lines and risking the safety of employees, as well as disrupting the services of other homes and businesses in the area.

Hire Excavation Services

Businesses who need to excavate dirt to repair or replace a water line, install a fence, or plant trees can hire suction or vacuum excavation to prevent accidents involving utility lines. The excavator removes materials from holes in the ground, which reduces the chance of utility lines being cut by more than half. High quality vacuum excavators will cut the material to be removed, such as soil, and it will be suctioned, or vacuumed, out of the hole.

Contact the Conveyancer

The conveyancer for the property on which the building or landscaping project will be done will have information about the underground infrastructure placed by utility companies. If their information doesn’t have the specifics of where lines are placed, then they will know which utility companies should be contacted to obtain that information. Before hiring companies for your project, whether it is on residential or commercial property, contact the conveyancer to see if they have the information you need.

Accidentally damaging utility lines not only puts workers’ safety at risk, but can also mean delays for the project and extra costs due to those delays. By using one or more of the above methods to locate utility, cable, and water lines, accidents can be avoided and the project can be completed on time.