What Happens During a Private Utility Locate

If you have never hired a private locator, here is what the job actually looks like from the customer's side, so you know what to expect and what we will need from you.

Before we arrive

Call 811 first. It is free, it is required, and it covers the public lines up to the meter. We locate what 811 does not — the private lines past that point. Having the 811 marks already down means we are not duplicating work you got for nothing.

When you call us, the useful things to have ready are the address of the job site, what you are digging or looking for, roughly when you need it, and the best number to reach you on the day. If you know the property has outbuildings, a well, a septic system, irrigation or anything a previous owner installed, mention it. That tells us what equipment to bring.

What we need on site

Access to the area, and access to the buildings and equipment the lines run to. A great deal of locating works by putting a signal onto a line at a known point and following it, so reaching a panel, a meter, a pump or a valve box often makes the difference between finding a line and not finding it.

Dogs secured, gates unlocked, and somewhere to park close to the work area. You do not need to be present for the whole visit, but it helps if someone can be reached by phone, because questions come up once we see the site.

How we find the lines

Two main methods, usually together.

Electromagnetic locating puts a signal onto a conductive line — metal pipe, electrical cable, tracer wire — and follows it from the surface with a receiver. It is accurate and fast when there is something conductive to work with.

Ground penetrating radar reads changes in the soil rather than following a signal, so it finds things that carry no current: PVC and clay pipe, septic tanks, concrete structures, voids. It also works through concrete, which is why it is the method for slab and floor scanning. GPR performance depends on soil — dry sandy ground reads well, heavy wet clay reads poorly — and we will tell you on site if conditions are limiting what we can see.

Non-conductive lines with no tracer wire are the hard case. Sometimes we can access the line and push a sonde through it, sometimes GPR picks it up, and sometimes the honest answer is that a line cannot be confirmed. We would rather tell you that than paint a mark we are not sure of.

What you get at the end

Marks on the ground, in the standard national colour code — red for electric, yellow for gas, orange for communications, blue for water, green for sewer, and pink where something was detected but could not be positively identified. Paint on hard surfaces, flags on soil.

Pink is worth understanding. It does not mean safe. It means we found something and could not confirm what it was. Treat pink as unknown and dig accordingly.

Marks show horizontal position, not depth. Depth can sometimes be estimated, but no locate should be treated as a depth measurement, and no locate removes the need to hand dig or vacuum excavate as you approach a marked line.

After the locate

Marks are temporary. Paint fades, flags get pulled, rain and grading move things. If your project runs on, or the site gets disturbed, call for a re-mark rather than working from marks you cannot fully see. Maintaining the marks once they are down is the excavator's responsibility.

Photograph the marks before you start. It takes two minutes and it is the cheapest record you will ever make of where your utilities are.

Timing and cost

Same day service is often available and we can usually cover most requests within two business days, though it depends on the office and the workload that week. Emergency service is available 24 hours — if you have a struck line, an active dig that has stopped, or a crew standing around, say so when you call and we will treat it accordingly.

Cost depends on the size of the site, how many utilities need locating, access and travel distance, so we quote per job rather than from a rate card. Call the office nearest you and describe the site.

Contact your nearest office

Spokane and Eastern Washington: Preston, 509-710-2621. Seattle, Tacoma and Portland: 509-954-8623. Bend and Medford: Joseph, 541-678-0629. Eugene and Roseburg: Micah, 541-780-4149. Coos Bay and the Oregon Coast: Martin, 541-315-6728.