Provider guide and directory
Private Utility Locating Services
Private utility locating is the investigation of underground lines that the operators responding to a one-call ticket do not mark — site lighting circuits, irrigation, private water and sewer, propane, data and security cabling, and distribution running between buildings. A locator works from records, site evidence, and the one-call response, then traces what can be traced with electromagnetic equipment, searches for the rest with radar, and recommends physical exposure where a position has to be certain. Notify 811 as the law where you are digging requires; a private scope covers what that response leaves behind. It reduces uncertainty rather than eliminating it, and no responsible provider guarantees that every buried feature has been found.
What private utility locating identifies
The scope is defined by ownership, not by the fence line. A private locate targets the facilities that no responding operator claimed: the ones a property owner, business, facility, association, or institution installed and still maintains. On most sites that means anything built after the service came in — the feed to a shop building, the loop that lights a parking lot, the irrigation main, the fiber run between two structures.
Whether a specific line qualifies is an ownership question with a site-specific answer. What are private utilities works through how that boundary is actually established from agreements, easements, records, and the operator's own statement of what it maintains, and why a meter is not a national dividing line.
Residential properties
Irrigation and sprinkler runs, septic and well lines, pool equipment, invisible pet fences, propane from a tank, and power or water to a detached garage or shed.
Commercial and retail sites
Parking-lot and pathway lighting circuits, sign power, gate and pump feeds, private storm drainage, irrigation, and communications between buildings.
Campus and institutional sites
Facility-owned electric, water, sewer, steam, chilled water, and data distribution, often installed across several decades of construction.
Industrial facilities
Process piping, private electrical distribution, control and instrumentation cabling, and site sewer that can extend well past any operator demarcation.
Private utilities, utility-owned lines, and what 811 covers
The one-call process is a notification system. The center collects the details of the planned dig and passes them to participating facility operators, and each operator then decides whether its own facilities may be affected and responds under the rules that apply to that ticket. What comes back reflects those operators' facilities and responsibilities — not a survey of everything buried on the property.
That is why privately owned lines are commonly left unmarked: the operators that received the ticket did not install them, do not maintain them, and hold no records of them. Several state centers say so plainly, and the wording differs by jurisdiction rather than following one national rule. It is equally wrong to assume the response never reaches past a meter. Read what actually came back, then treat the gap as the private scope.
| Question | Operator-owned facility | Privately owned facility |
|---|---|---|
| Who installed it | The facility operator serving the area, to its own standards | The property owner or a contractor working for the site |
| Who holds records | Operator GIS, plats, and facility records | Site as-builts where they exist, frequently incomplete or superseded |
| One-call response | Usually marked where the operator is a participating member | Commonly outside the responding operators' locating responsibility |
| Who pays to locate it | The operator, as part of its response to the ticket | The property owner or the excavating contractor |
| Who to ask when unsure | The operator, about the specific ticket and demarcation | The owner, the site records, and a private locator for what remains |
Methods used on a private locate
There is no single instrument that finds everything, which is why a scope worth paying for names more than one. A locator normally begins with the paperwork and the visible site — the ticket response, drawings, meters, valve boxes, pedestals, cleanouts, and building entries — because that is what tells the equipment where to look and what to expect.
For what each technique detects and where it stops, how to locate underground utilities covers the methods in detail. The practical point for a buyer is that the methods are complementary: a provider offering only one of them is offering a narrower answer than the site probably needs.
Electromagnetic locating
A signal applied to a conductive line or an intact tracer wire and followed from the surface. Efficient and precise where there is something to energize, and unavailable where there is not.
Ground penetrating radar
A search for subsurface contrasts, useful for nonmetallic pipe, unrecorded features, and disturbed trench backfill. Performance depends on soil, moisture, depth, and target size rather than on the utility's material alone.
Sonde and camera tracing
A transmitter pushed through an accessible pipe and tracked from the surface, which is often the only way to follow a nonmetallic sewer or drain line.
Mapping and physical verification
Recorded positions, GIS or CAD deliverables, and exposure at a test hole where design or excavation needs a measured position rather than an interpreted one.
When to hire a private utility locator
The trigger is a gap between what the one-call response covered and what the site is known or suspected to contain. That gap is widest on developed property: an empty field with one incoming service rarely needs a private scope, while a twenty-year-old commercial site with three rounds of tenant improvements almost always does.
Timing matters as much as the decision. Marks are temporary, and a locate performed weeks before the work may need refreshing; a locate performed after mobilization has already priced in the standby time. Book it once the dig limits are settled and before equipment is on site.
Before excavation on developed property
Trenching, grading, footings, fencing, landscaping, and utility installation where private lines may cross the work area.
Before drilling, coring, or driving anything down
Bollards, signposts, anchors, geotechnical borings, and directional drilling entry and exit points, where a small footprint carries a full-depth risk.
Property owners planning site work
Additions, pools, driveways, septic and irrigation work, where the owner is the only party who holds any record of what was installed.
Contractors bidding or executing on unfamiliar sites
Where the plans are incomplete, contradict the ground, or predate a renovation nobody documented.
What changes the price of a private locate
Providers price this work in several different structures, so two quotes can be hard to compare until the assumptions behind them are on the table. The variables below are the ones that actually move a number; ask each provider which of them their figure already includes.
Find Locators does not set, quote, or collect provider pricing. Private utility locating cost collects published rate examples from providers' own pages, with the pricing structures explained, so a quote can be read against something rather than accepted blind.
Search area and target count
The size of the ground to be covered and how many distinct systems are in scope, not the length of the trench alone.
Methods required
A conductive trace on an accessible line is quicker than a radar grid over an area with no records and no access points.
Site access and conditions
Parked vehicles, vegetation, pavement, active operations, traffic control, and after-hours or weekend work all add time.
Deliverables
Paint and flags cost less than recorded positions, a mapped drawing, or a written report with limitations stated.
What a private locate cannot promise
Every method on this page produces interpreted evidence. Electromagnetic locating follows a signal, not a pipe; radar records a contrast, not a labelled utility; a sonde reports where the transmitter is, within the equipment's own stated tolerance. A competent locate narrows uncertainty substantially. It does not convert the subsurface into a known quantity, and a provider who says otherwise is describing something that does not exist.
The absence of a mark is the point most often misread. It can mean the area is clear, or that a line was present and produced no usable response — unenergizable, too small, too deep, or masked by the ground it sits in. Treat an unmarked area as unresolved rather than as confirmed empty, and keep excavating by the safe-digging practices that apply regardless of what any locate found.
Depth is an estimate
An indicated depth is calculated by the instrument and carries its own tolerance. Only exposure measures a depth.
Identity is inferred
A response rarely states what the utility is, who owns it, or whether it is still in service. Records and site evidence carry that.
Abandoned lines behave badly
A dead line has nothing to energize and may be indistinguishable from a live one where radar does resolve it.
A locate is not a notification
Hiring a private locator does not satisfy any excavation-notification requirement. The one-call process still applies.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
What is private utility locating?
The investigation and marking of underground utilities that are owned by the property or facility rather than by the operators that respond to a one-call ticket — site lighting, irrigation, private water and sewer, propane, data and security cabling, and distribution between buildings. It is performed by a company the property owner or contractor hires directly.
Does 811 locate private utilities?
Often not, and the answer depends on ownership, operator membership, and the rules in that state. Several one-call centers state plainly that privately owned lines are not part of an 811 request and must be located at the owner's expense. What none of them supports is a universal rule in either direction — read the response for your ticket, then scope the private work around what it did not cover. 811 vs. private utility locating sets out what each process is responsible for.
Do I still need to call 811 if I hire a private locator?
Yes. A private locate is additional work, not a substitute: it satisfies no excavation-notification requirement anywhere. Notify as the law where you are digging requires, then use a private scope for the facilities that response does not reach.
Can a private locator find gas, water, or sewer lines on my property?
Often, with method depending on the line. A private gas or propane run and a metallic water service can usually be traced electromagnetically; a plastic water line with no tracer wire may need radar, and a sewer lateral is commonly traced with a sonde through an accessible cleanout. Water line locating and sewer line locating cover each of those in detail. None of them is guaranteed on every site.
How accurate is a private utility locate?
There is no single accuracy figure, because it depends on the method, the utility, the ground, and the operator. Horizontal position from a good conductive trace is generally more dependable than depth, and every indicated depth carries the instrument's own tolerance. Where a measured position is required — a design conflict, a tight clearance — the answer is physical exposure at a test hole rather than a better instrument.
What should I have ready before the locator arrives?
The one-call ticket and what came back on it, any site plans or as-builts, whatever the owner or long-serving staff remember about past work, the excavation limits marked on the ground, access arrangements, and a clear statement of which systems matter and what deliverable you need — field marks, a drawing, or recorded positions.
Technical references
Technical definitions and limitations on this page were checked against these primary government resources.
Provider discovery
Find private utility locating providers
Compare companies whose profiles record private utility locating capability, then confirm that the methods, coverage, and deliverables they offer match the site in front of you.
Capabilities to confirm
- More than one detection method — conductive tracing plus radar, at minimum
- Sonde or camera capability where nonmetallic sewer or drain lines are in scope
- Experience with the site type: residential, commercial, campus, or industrial
- The deliverable you need, whether field marks, recorded positions, or a drawing
- A stated process for inconclusive areas and what they recommend when a line will not respond
1st Call Utility Locating is a Northern California private utility locating company specializing in identifying and documenting underground infrastructure before excavation, drilling, coring, construction, and other site work begins.
AcuMark Utility Locating, LLC provides professional underground utility locating services for contractors, utility companies, engineers, property owners, and other organizations that need accurate information about subsurface infrastructure.
American Leak Detection
ListedAmerican Leak Detection of New York provides specialized leak detection and diagnostic services for residential, commercial, and municipal properties throughout the greater New York City area, including Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, and surrounding communities. The company focuses on locating concealed water leaks and other plumbing problems while minimizing unnecessary demolition or disruption to the property.
Center Line Locating
ListedCenter Line Locating is a woman-owned utility locating and underground infrastructure services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The company provides public and private utility locating, utility mapping, hydro excavation and soft-dig services, CCTV pipe inspections, jetting and flushing, continuity testing, underground system cleaning, and trenchless point repairs. Its services help contractors, engineers, developers, municipalities, and property owners identify and verify buried infrastructure before excavation, construction, design, or maintenance work begins. Center Line Locating serves projects throughout North Carolina and South Carolina, with additional project-based work across the Southeast, emphasizing accurate field data, utility verification, detailed documentation, and damage prevention.
Core Dynamics GPR
ListedCore Dynamics GPR Inc. is a California-based subsurface investigation and damage-prevention company specializing in ground-penetrating radar (GPR), private utility locating, concrete scanning, and GPS mapping. The company works with contractors, property owners, engineers, and construction teams that need to identify hidden utilities or structural elements before excavation, drilling, coring, saw cutting, or other potentially destructive work begins.
Northern Lights Locating & Inspection, Inc. provides underground utility locating, mapping, inspection, and damage-prevention services for contractors, utility companies, municipalities, property owners, and construction teams. Based in Indiana, the company supports projects where accurate identification of buried infrastructure is critical before excavation, paving, grading, drilling, or other site work begins.
Quark Scan Inc.
ListedQuark Scan Inc. is a New Jersey-based subsurface investigation company specializing in underground utility locating, concrete scanning, ground-penetrating radar (GPR), underground storage tank locating, and geophysical surveys. The company primarily supports construction, engineering, environmental, and commercial projects where accurate information about buried or embedded infrastructure is needed before excavation, drilling, coring, saw cutting, or other site work begins.
RHD Utility Locating
ListedRHD Services is a Georgia-based subsurface utility investigation company providing professional utility locating and site investigation services throughout the southeastern United States.
StrataTrace LLC
ListedStrataTrace LLC is a New Jersey utility locating and subsurface documentation company that helps contractors, property owners, and project teams identify buried infrastructure before excavation or construction begins. The company specializes in private utility locating, electromagnetic detection, excavation safety support, and as-built utility mapping, with an emphasis on finding privately owned lines that may fall outside the scope of standard 811 mark-outs.
United Locating Services
ListedSparus is a nationwide utility and infrastructure services organization that supports electric, gas, water, industrial, and other mission-critical infrastructure operators. The company provides a combination of field services, technical expertise, program management, and infrastructure products designed to help clients maintain existing systems, complete capital improvements, meet regulatory requirements, and reduce operational risk.
Related locating services
Electromagnetic utility locating
The conductive tracing method most private locates start from, and where it runs out.
GPR utility locating
Radar for nonmetallic and unrecorded lines, with the ground conditions that limit it.
Utility mapping
Turn a located private network into GPS, GIS, or CAD deliverables that outlast paint.
Utility potholing and daylighting
Physical exposure at a test hole where an interpreted position is not enough.
Helpful next steps
What are private utilities?
Review customer-owned and site utility examples without assuming a universal ownership boundary.
811 vs. private utility locating
Review why the applicable one-call process and a private locating scope can cover different facilities.
How to locate underground utilities
Compare records, electromagnetic locating, tracer wire, sondes, radar, and physical verification.
Private utility locating cost factors
Understand how scope, access, methods, and deliverables shape a provider quote.
Find private utility locators
Search the directory by location and confirmed capability.
Compare provider capabilities
Find a private utility locating company
Describe the property, the one-call response you already have, the systems you suspect are private, site access, the excavation limits, and the deliverable the project needs.