Water & Utility Line Locating

Before you set fence posts, plant a tree, pour a patio, build a shop or let anyone put a bucket in the ground, you need to know where your private lines run. The statewide one-call service marks public utilities up to the meter or the property line, but it does not mark the private water line from the meter to your house, the line to your shop, your irrigation main, your septic components or your buried drains. Those are yours, and on most Kitsap properties nobody has a drawing of them.

We trace and mark them. With a pipe and cable locator we follow metallic lines and tracer wire directly, and for plastic lines without tracer wire we use a combination of acoustic methods, sondes pushed through accessible pipe, and old-fashioned detective work from the meter, the point of entry and the shutoffs. We paint the route, flag it, and give you a simple sketch with distances from fixed points so the information survives after the paint fades.

Locating is also the first step of every leak detection and every excavation we do, so we do a lot of it. If you're planning a project, or you've bought a property and want to know what's under it, call (206) 354-9906.

When you need utility line locating

• A fence, deck, patio, shop or addition going in
• Trees or large shrubs being planted
• A new property with no drawings of the buried lines
• A contractor who needs the private water line marked before digging
• An old irrigation or drain system nobody can find

How the job goes

1. Gather the fixed points. Meter, point of entry, shutoffs, valve boxes, outlets, septic lids.
2. Trace. Pipe and cable locator on metallic lines and tracer wire; acoustic and sonde methods on plastic.
3. Mark. Paint and flags along the route, with depth estimates where we can get them.
4. Document. A simple sketch with distances from fixed points so you have it after the paint is gone.

Equipment and materials

• Pipe and cable locator
• Sondes and push rods
• Acoustic ground microphone
• Marking paint and flags

What shapes the scope

Every property is different, and these are the things that decide whether a job is a quick morning or a full day. We'll tell you which it is before we start.

• Number of lines and length of the routes
• Whether the lines are metallic or have tracer wire
• Access to meters, shutoffs and valve boxes