Avoiding Utilities in Yard Not Always So Easy

It's not always so easy to know where not to dig when installing a fence, shed, digging trenches for exterior lighting, or holes for shrubs. Let's begin with a little fable, and then you'll understand.

A Story About Not Missing Utilities

Let's imagine that a certain person who writes about home renovation for a leading portal owned by the New York Times decides to install a fence. He takes the proper precautions of calling the local utility companies and having them identify lines within the yard. An inspector comes and marks potential problem areas with those neat little upside-down spraycans. This certain person, thinking he's covered, begins to dig postholes. By the sixth posthole, he severs an electrical line. Fortunately, it's a low voltage landscape lighting line, but he's learned his lesson. Now let's back up.

Missing Utilities the Right Way

They're not kidding, those gas companies and electric companies, when they caution you to call before digging. When I had fiber optic internet installed, our yard became a veritable rainbow. We had a healthy number of the following colors:

• White - Proposed excavation
• Pink - Survey markings
• Red - Electric
• Yellow - Gas, oil, steam
• Orange - Communications, alarms
• Blue - Potable water
• Purple - Reclaimed water, irrigation
• Green - Sewer

Who Do You Call?

In a perfect world, there would be one nationwide number you could call to order marking services. Instead, it's a patchwork. In some areas there are aggregated services similar to the nationwide one--but on a smaller scale. One of the largest, Miss Utility, serves Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, DC. This service is free. Then there's a company with a name that sounds promisingly important: Call Before You Dig. Turns out they only serve Connecticut.

North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia each have their own state-specific numbers to call (see our external link to Dominion Power). So you can see the pattern here.

If you can't find a one-size-fits-all phone number, use the above color-coded guide to remind you of who you must call. Your city should be able to give you a run-down of utility providers, as well.

So What's My Problem?

But I had already had my yard marked. What happened? I forgot that there are plenty of other buried services that are not really utilities, and which the locators will not find (keep in mind, too, that locating is an imperfect science). Things like: irrigation pipes, landscape lighting, conduit or cable feeding exterior lights, electric cable for outside spas and pools. The list is endless. Simplest rule of thumb is to think about what you have outside that requires power or water.