FAQs

Whenever a contractor or even homeowner begins to dig into the ground, they run the risk of striking service pipes and wires. Not only this can be costly if they are accidentally severed or damaged, the result can be dangerous. Gas pipes can explode and electrical power lines may cause fires or electrocution. Even though water may not be as dangerous, a sudden release of water could cause trenches to collapse and sinkholes begin to form underground causing injury.

A service locator visits the job-site prior to the start of a project and locates the placement and approximate depth of each type of service pipeline and wires within the scope-of-work areas. With this information, the workers safely and knowingly go about their business having a visual sense of the underground infrastructure.

Service Locate provides such a service using state-of-the-art non-invasive metallic pipe and cable detection equipment, coupled with, the knowledge and experience to operate the equipment in determining a complete underground pipeline assessment.

Anytime you are preparing to dig, be certain to contact Service Locate to do the job. Such a service is necessary before doing any kind of digging, regardless of how small the project.Underground service lines are not always where they appear to be in the line-of-sight, so using the expertise of Service Locate is essential.

By hiring a professional, not only do you know the location of buried pipelines and cables but also estimated depth-readings can be provided with a maximum of 97 percent for metallic pipelines and cables as deep as 13 feet. This information allows you to proceed with your project with proper insight of the buried service lines at hand.

The best time to contact Service Locate is long-before you begin to dig and or designing. Depending on the scope-of-work, it is essential to know the locations and placements of the underground service lines during the early planning stages. Being educated with this information will allow for the proper placement of structures, pillars, foundations, fence-posts, trees and other fixed-items for installation. At times service lines will need to be relocated do to the design of the project.

A Service Locate technician will help project planners determine where these lines need to be moved so they will not pose a problem in the “design” stage as well as the “shovel” stage when most critical.

Unlike the simple handheld detectors used to trace a wire, the electromagnetic pipe and cable line locator, used by a professional Service Locate technician, allows adjustment to a variety of radio frequencies proved necessary to locate metallic service lines in resistive as well as conductive soils. The Service Locate technician has the knowledge and experience to determine when radio frequencies need to be intermittently changed to improve the location of a pipe or cable line. From this determination of the technician proves his or her “competence” which in-turn brings “confidence” to the information gathered and the work completed.