Tag Archives: potholing

When Should I Hire a Potholing Contractor?

Potholing has become a popular service that is used as a preliminary measure in many residential and commercial construction projects. If you want to minimize any risks and unwanted expenses during a construction or renovation project, you will do well to hire a dependable hydrovac or vacuum truck service for the job and detect all your underground utility lines as soon as possible.

potholing

How Potholing Works

Potholing is an essential service that can save construction experts and contractors a lot of trouble in the long run. The process of potholing is used to figure out where certain underground utility lines might be located and to determine where foundations can safely be laid, additional utility lines can be placed, or old utility systems have to be removed from.

In most instances, potholing uses either vacuum or hydro excavation methods to achieve its goal. Potholing experts bring in a vacuum truck or a hydrovac truck and use it to create small holes into the pavement or soil, as required, to find and identify utility lines such as water mains, gas pipes and TV and internet cables that might have been driven underneath your property.

Through the use of potholing, you can ensure that only minimal damage to the infrastructure is done, which can easily be fixed. The holes created during the process are relatively small and deep enough to detect where the utility lines go. If excavation in the area is not needed, the holes can easily be filled up with soil and sealed off without causing further issues.

Why Potholing Services Might Be Needed

Potholing is first of all required to solve problems that would otherwise require costly and damaging drilling procedures. Rather than digging a large hole using conventional excavation systems – or worse, shovels – you can minimize the damage to the soil and the environment by simply using a hydrovac service or a vacuum truck. Moreover, through the use of these tools, you can also prevent damage to surrounding trees and bushes which may have extended their root systems to the areas where you have to dig.

Potholing is primarily utilized during construction projects to determine where it’s safe to excavate and where the project needs to be modified to account for various underground utilities. For instance, it’s possible that some utility lines were not documented, and that they might run not far underneath the area where you want to dig to build a new foundation for a future commercial building. Starting to dig without accounting for the underground utility lines can be a costly and dangerous risk. The damage done to the utility lines will have to be paid for, and if the damaged pipes carry natural gas, it can be extremely dangerous for you and the workers you hire.

Potholing services use minimal damage to the ground on your property to safely detect any utility lines, establish the layout of the lines and pipes underneath your property and adjust the plans for your new constructions accordingly. Time and money can be saved, and in some cases severe injuries and property damage can be averted. All you need to do is call in your local experts to bring a hydrovac or vacuum truck and get the job done as soon as possible.