Loading current information…
Checking provider, service, and publication details.
Learning center
Plain-language guides help you understand the process, ask better questions, and separate supported facts from assumptions.
Most of these guides end at the same place: something is buried on the property and nobody marked it. That is the job private utility locating does, and the service guides explain the individual methods behind it.
Where the free one-call process stops, which lines are yours, and what that means before you dig.
A consolidated guide to 811, public and private ownership, and water, sewer, gas, electric, communications, and irrigation questions.
Read guideWhat makes a utility private, worked examples by type, the public and private comparison, 811 coverage, and how ownership is actually established.
Read guideHow buried utilities are actually found, the tools involved, and what each method can and cannot confirm.
The seven locating methods, the equipment behind them, how detectability changes by utility and material, and what marks and one-call responses actually cover.
Read guideThe role, the workflow, the equipment, the split between one-call and private locating, and the limits of what any locate can establish.
Read guideWhat radar resolves underground, where it beats electromagnetic locating, and why there is no single GPR depth.
How radar investigates the subsurface, what it can resolve on plastic, water, and sewer, how it compares with electromagnetic locating, and where it stops.
Read guideWhy no universal GPR depth exists, what soil, moisture, frequency, and target size actually do, and why penetration is not the same as detection.
Read guideTracing a lateral, finding the access point, and what actually determines how deep the pipe sits.
Seven methods for tracing a buried sewer lateral, why a cleanout and a manhole do not give you a route, and where the one-call response stops.
Read guideWhere cleanouts sit, how to tell one from an irrigation box or a water shutoff, and how a buried or absent access point is worked around.
Read guideWhy there is no standard sewer depth, what actually sets it, and the difference between design, recorded, indicated, and verified depth.
Read guideFollowing a private water service from the meter to the building, and where the records run out.
Seven methods for tracing a buried water line, what each one can and cannot confirm, and where the one-call process stops.
Read guideFinding reinforcement, conduits, and tendons inside a slab or wall before anything is drilled or cut.
The methods used to find reinforcement from the surface, the field procedure, and what a scan cannot tell you.
Read guideOne phrase, two technologies: induction against radar, and how to choose between them.
Read guidePublished rate examples, the variables behind a quote, and how to compare proposals like for like.
Published rate examples, the variables behind a provider quote, and how to compare proposals without treating any figure as a national average.
Read guide