In the construction world, there are some accidents that no one could have seen coming, but then there are many that are entirely preventable. If you are a new contractor or a property owner who occasionally takes on DIY projects, you may not be aware of some of the precautions you should take to protect your property, yourself, anyone else working on your property, and even your equipment. There are obvious precautions you can take, like wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and using harnesses when working on a roof, but there are other precautions you might not think to take because you’ve never had an issue before.
If you’ve never done any sort of excavation work before, or even if you have, but managed to get through the job without any problems, you might not think about the precautions you should take before you start excavating. “What precautions?,” you might be asking yourself. “It’s dirt. If you dig in it, what’s the worst that can happen? You hit a rock?” Unfortunately, there’s more than just rocks under the surface of the ground. If the land has any buildings on it, is near any buildings, or used to have structures on it, it’s highly likely that there are buried utility lines or other buried infrastructure on the property. That’s why it’s wise to bring in a utility locating service in Rancho Cucamonga to scan the property before you start excavating.
Utility locating is a specialty service that uses non-destructive tools, such as ground penetrating radar (GPR) antennas and receivers, to find buried lines, including electrical lines, gas lines, water and sewer pipes, and telecommunications cables. In addition, they can locate buried items like septic tanks, water wells, and any other buried items that could pose a hazard if accidentally hit.
Hitting certain things while excavating, like an irrigation line, is not that big of a deal, but hitting other utility lines, like gas lines or electrical lines, could cause major damage or injury. Don’t risk it! If you are a contractor, it is your responsibility to keep the jobsite safe, and if you are the property owner doing a DIY project, you want to keep yourself safe, as well as protect your property from expensive damage.
Bringing in a company for utility locating in Rancho Cucamonga is a smart move, and one that can prevent all types of bad things from happening! If you’re not sure where to start, look for a company near you that provides utility locating services (sometimes called GPR scanning services), such as Enhanced Scanning. They have all of the equipment necessary, as well as the trained technicians, to provide you with a thorough scan of your property. Most services will give you the results of their scan before they leave the job site by marking the ground with flags or spray paint to alert you to buried hazards, or they can provide you with a digital file, so you can have it on hand for future projects as well.
