utility locators

Honky Lips

Honky Lips

Welcome to the **** show.
Joined
May 21, 2020
Member Number
876
Messages
430
Loc
Omaha, Ne “ish”
so i have a question, when you get a property located, thats just the gas/power/water and maybe buried internet companies that come locate their stuff correct? they arent going to look for homeowner diy romex shallow trenched or someone that put their starlink on a post and laid the cable along the ground or will they find all that type of stuff?
 
Generally, it is just the public utility connections. You can pay someone to find all that stuff you hid underground, but you will have to pay them for it. Homeowners will get utilities marked all teh way to the house. Depending on the state, contractors adn other non-owners might get it all marked, or will just get a mark where it enters the property.

Utility locate laws and providers are a huge clown show. Not unusual to have to tell them how they need to do their jobs.

"If a utility exists, it will be marked. Marks are only valid until no longer visible." OK bigshot, does the lack of a mark tell me there was no utility or that the mark has been erased?:shaking:
 
The must call " miss utility" only marks the public side up to the property line. Private locators are available and they will mark all the utilities on your property as long as you can tell them what to look for.
 
From my experience in Utility World, the utility companies/their contractors will only mark to the point of connection. This may be a meter at the property line or at the house. Anything beyond the point of connection is not marked.

811/Digsafe etc, typically will mark out within 48 hours after a ticket is created, and the marks are valid for 15 business days.
 
aquad00d said:

Nebraska811: Dig Safely with Free Locate Requests

Planning to dig? Whether you're planting a tree or on the job site, get started by submitting a locate request. Call 811 or submit a ticket online.
www.ne1call.com www.ne1call.com

Nebraska 811 info, based on OP's location.
Click to expand...
yeah we call em rarely. we only dig down about 2-4" think landscape fabric depth. so no utilities will be that shallow. so im trying to find a reason to waste the time needed to schedule a locate.
 
Honky Lips said:
yeah we call em rarely. we only dig down about 2-4" think landscape fabric depth. so no utilities will be that shallow. so im trying to find a reason to waste the time needed to schedule a locate.
Click to expand...
We always call.
But they only mark on the road easement


We also always use private locators on the rest of the property but you also have to hold their hand and show them how to do their job

They will be packing up and you have to point out the conduit going down the pole and into the ground and ask if they can check it , etc .


We once were drilling wells along a road shoulder for several months , we had called 811 seven times over the months and they had never marked any utilities on this road .

We finally found a large phone line , that wasn’t marked , on any of the Seven different locates ,

And our dig permit had expired 8 hours ago.

Didn’t have to pay , since we had it located seven times previously with no utilities marked , but we had to take an 8 hour class on how to avoid utilities .
 
M92PV4U said:

Then you can pick up some side jobs.
Click to expand...

Nobody uses the Leica ****. RD8000 or nothing. :flipoff2:



I actually have one of these. It ended up in my garage after cleaning out a field office on one of my projects. I found it about a year and a half after I left that company after I had moved halfway across the country. It's mine now. :laughing:

1691199853904.png



For passive locates, I actually like it better than the radio detection stuff. But RD wins for active locating. With a good signal, this it's accurate down to the inch on depth and horizontal.


I just used it today. Cable company was here to plow in my new fiber line and they were going right on top of my well power for about 100'. Quickly confirmed that the power line was 16"+ deep all the way and they were only going like 6". :smokin:
 
Can confirm pretty much everything said so far. I’m putting in a complete new culinary water system in my mobile home park. Got all the mains in and am doing the laterals now. Gas locator shows up and sprays a couple of lines and goes to leave. I stopped him and said, I need to know where the lateral lines t off and go into each lot. He says, I can’t do that because they only put tracer wires on the mains back then. So I tell him that’s a free ticket to tear every lateral in half with me not being liable. He looks at me like I have three eyes. Gets on the phone and two hours later not only are the laterals marked. But the main somehow moved over four feet!😜
 
I spent $5k bringing in ground penetrating radar for my last project. Thankfully we had a good ex operator because we only cut one phone line that we found. Found several 250 pair lines lines and a couple of nat gas lines that would have sucked to hit. Best case with locates is you hit what you know is there.

PXL_20230331_212002067.jpg
 
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