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3 Things to Know About Utility Mapping

There is always a risk of hitting utility pipelines or wires when digging into the ground during construction. This can be incredibly dangerous and costly should an accident like this happen. That’s why it’s important to hire a professional utility mapping service to get the job done.

Moreover, having an accurate plan when mapping out where to dig is essential. This is especially true in areas where utilities like gas lines and electrical power lines can be found.

This is where utility mapping and utility mapping services come in.

Understanding Utility Mapping

To put it simply, a utility map shows you data regarding the locations and identifications of pipes and cables beneath the ground. This involves sewers, electric utilities, telephone cables, gas lines, and water mains.

This process together with topographical surveys will create a detailed map of the configuration of anything below an area with great accuracy.

Keeping You Safe

Experienced utility mapping services can be crucial to any project, infrastructure, or construction site of any kind. Safety should always be the number one priority—and the greatest contributor to it is knowledge and information.

You’ll find reliable utility mapping services in Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside, and many other places, making sure that they provide and ensure a safe environment during construction.

What’s next after the completion of the projects is one of the ultimate goals of utility mapping. Always be sure to find, contact, discuss, or even meet with professional services and their team to keep people involved in any project out of harm.

Public health and safety should also be a top priority in any project. That’s why it’s important to not be cutting corners—to choose reliable utility mapping services that can help project managers understand all the information they need to know before digging any ground.

Hitting a gas pipeline is no laughing matter. Even if there are instances where workers and civilians manage to be unharmed, accurate knowledge and data could easily ensure their safety.

Avoiding What Could Go Wrong

Everyone at a worksite has the right to health and safety, and there are many things that could go wrong when the location of utilities underneath an infrastructure is overlooked.

There is a threat of electrocution, fire, or other dangerous hazards, and failing to have quality data about the project area can multiply these dangers exponentially.

Utility work-related accidents that happened in the past and continue to happen today—like flash burns, accidentally striking an electric cable, and expensive damages to private and public utilities. These are unnecessary and readily avoidable risks that could cost money and people.

Utility Mapping Service You Can Trust

For any type of infrastructure, be sure to do research beforehand and search for a reliable service that can provide you with life and cost-saving data. This data could make the entire process easier and safer for everyone involved.

For utility mapping services our team of skilled experts in the industry can ensure you a reliable, trustworthy, and professional job.

To learn more about our services, email us at info@util-locate.com on contact us at 888-885-6228 at Util-Locate today!

6 Safety Tips to Take Note of Before Concrete Coring

Concrete core drilling is the process of creating holes or removal of concrete cylinders from structures. Among the concrete coring applications are heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) procedures, drainage, maintenance hole, and structural testing. The procedure is used for surface & concrete scanning and specific concrete removal.

Concrete cutting is a common activity across the country, especially with workers on a construction site. Frequently, the people performing this work are skilled experts who specialize in working with concrete and masonry.

However, concrete core drilling is also performed by plumbers, electricians, and other construction and renovation professionals occasionally or regularly. Regardless of who is doing the job, successful operators follow certain tips and operating guidelines to prevent injuries.

Tips for Safe Concrete Core Drilling:

It is dangerous to work in construction while handling concrete. Aside from the dangers inherent in the typical work environment of manufacturing operations, such as machine handling and safety risks—concrete work presents numerous health and safety hazards, according to a report from Formplus.

Choose the Right Drill to Use

Choosing the right concrete core drill is one of the first things you need to think about. Drills can be classified into two major categories such as handheld or rig-mounted.

Rig-mounted drills are used for drilling holes larger than three inches, whereas handheld drills work best for drilling smaller holes.

Choose the Right Drill Bit

For concrete core drills, their bit is chosen according to the hardness of the material you are doing the job onto. Diamond-tipped bits are the most common drill bit for concrete core drilling.

Metal-bonded diamond drills will work efficiently for cutting ultra-hard alumina, sapphire, precious stones, and materials with high metal content. On the other hand, nickel-bonded electroplated diamond drills will work properly for cutting softer materials such as tiles, smooth stones, glasses, and composites.

Choose the Right Stand Attachment

If you are using rig-mounted drills for your core drilling projects, rigs must be secured to a surface using anchors, bolts, or vacuum seals. Determine the right stand attachment according to the walls or surfaces you will work on.

When attaching to a vertical or highly angled surface, wall anchors work best. On the other hand, a vacuum stand works well for a flat or slightly angled surface. This type of stand relies on suction to keep them firmly in place during drilling.

To minimize the risks of accidental drill slippage, professionals frequently use additional safety chains along with their tools.

Wear Protective Gear

As with most construction services, you must wear the proper safety equipment. Among these are protective glasses, rubber boots, a mask or ventilator, and ear plugs.

The operation of a concrete cutting machine generates a lot of dust and noise, so you should use safety gear for your eyes, ears, and mouth to prevent work-related medical problems.

Eliminate Tripping and Falling Hazards

Approximately 15% of accidental deaths at industrial work sites are caused by falls, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). These accidents result in more than $12 billion in healthcare and disability costs each year for project managers in the U.S.

Take these precautions to prevent slips, trips, and falls while in service:

Never leave tools on the ground—clean them up as soon as possible.
Main walkways should be kept clear of dust, debris, and clutter.
Cover exposed cables and cords with safety tape.
Provide proper footwear for workers to reduce the risk of ill-fitting shoes.
Provide handrails and handholds in areas with poor balance.

Concrete Core Drills Service You Can Trust

If you’re using a concrete saw to create holes, don’t expect to work quickly. It may take hours to complete this process, and you should be willing to take your time in your construction project. By cutting too deep and too fast, you can damage the blade of your saw and overheat your equipment.

Before performing concrete core drilling, reach out to us for concrete scanning and other utility locating and mapping services in Southern California.

Email us at info@util-locate.com or contact us at 888-885-6228 at Util_Locate today!

What You Should Know About Pipe Inspection?

Without closed-circuit television (CCTV)/pipe inspection, it is often difficult to determine the extent of sewer pipe damage, pipe blockages, or where the pipe problem occurs.

Whenever subterranean sewer pipelines have been compromised by an intrusion, poor installation, or natural elements, having plumbing professionals inspect their integrity is a vital first step.

Therefore, if something goes wrong underground or inside a pipe that’s pretty hard to see, you will need to call sewer service companies who have all the right tools to fix anything—especially nowadays, where technology is increasingly involved in resolving issues than ever before.

What are CCTV/Pipe Inspections?

The process of employing a camera for inspection of pipes, sewer lines, or drains is known as CCTV sewer inspection.

Plumbers can utilize CCTV cameras to see the source of sewage problems without employing more invasive procedures such as dismantling walls or floors to gain access to the pipelines. In most cases, these services are more cost-effective and are considered environmentally friendly ways to pinpoint obstructions in sewers and pipes.

A CCTV camera can assist property owners in determining the cause of sewer damage, such as:

Root intrusion
Damage caused by earthquakes
Cracked pipes
Offset pipe joints
Corrosion
Deterioration caused by aging
Inadequate installation or previous repair attempts
Perforations caused by accident
Serious blockage

How Does CCTV/Pipe Inspection Work?

CCTV/Pipe inspection is a necessary maintenance procedure to avoid further damages and repairs to the pipes and drainage system. However, a major issue is that pipes, by nature, are often buried below the ground, which makes it difficult to inspect them for damage.

This procedure solves the problem by inserting a mobile CCTV camera into the pipe at its surface and then exploring the pipe length until the problem is discovered.

The CCTV sewer inspection is usually done with the latest waterproof CCTV unit. The data found by the closed-circuit television video is fed instantaneously to the CCTV technicians, which can be recorded and stored upon request. Using these cameras, they can obtain a clear picture of the conditions of your sewer pipe and detect any severe damages.

What are the Benefits of CCTV/Pipe Inspections?

The use of video equipment services during preliminary inspections is beneficial for property owners. The following are several reasons to hire an inspector who uses CCTV video during plumbing inspections:

Budget-Friendly

Homeowners dealing with damaged sewer lines can find the most affordable solution with the assistance of plumbing experts. Most of the time, it is not necessary to repair the entire underground sewer pipeline.

Through CCTV/pipe inspections, you can avoid an entire repair or replacement of your pipelines so. By locating and repairing only the damaged section, repair costs required to fix a pipe can be significantly reduced.

Environment-Friendly

Since this inspection method utilizes a remote-controlled, robotic CCTV unit to gather data, CCTV/pipe inspections do not require digging. Aside from CCTV sewer inspection being non-invasive to property structures, no damage will be done to plants, shrubs, and other natural elements as well.

Fast Detection of Issues

By using CCTV services, you can ensure that a plumbing issue will be identified quickly. CCTV cameras detect root causes of problems by inspecting the whole pipe, which reduces guesswork for plumbing professionals.

With just one inspection visit, you can get expert advice on repairing faulty pipework and plan for the repairs immediately.

Versatile

CCTV is a popular technology for pipe inspections, and it comes with many benefits. In addition to being fast, cost-effective, non-invasive, and accurate, there are many models on the market that offer a wide range of capabilities and functionality, so a CCTV system can be modified to suit any pipe inspection, even the smallest ones.

Trusted CCTV Pipe and CCTV Sewer Inspection Services for Your Needs

It’s easy to solve your underground sewer problems with Util-Locate‘s CCTV sewer and CCTV/pipe inspection services! Our team of plumbing professionals will find you the best option for your repair or restoration needs, and you could save tens of thousands of dollars.

3 Problems Professional Potholing Services Prevent

Construction workers are putting their lives in danger, according to a new study released today by the Energy Networks Association (ENA), as nearly a third or 31% fail to check for subterranean electricity wires when digging on site. These are the main reasons why utilizing ground penetrating radar is crucial for alleviating risks on the job site.

Since 2015, an average of 70 people have been critically injured each year as a result of coming into touch with subterranean power lines. Nearly half of all instances, which is 47%, occurred on public highways, construction sites, or industrial structures, putting tradesmen at significant risk of serious injury at work.

When asked if they always dig safely, 93% of construction workers and industry professionals said they do, but nearly a third or 31% said they don’t always check for subterranean electricity wires before starting work.

You’ll need professional potholing services to avoid the problems listed below.

Excavation Accidents

Excavating without causing potholes can lead to disaster in most circumstances. One of the most common issues with excavation projects is the unintended damage to utilities due to a lack of knowledge about their position and depth.

Utility lines can overlap and pass through any location underground because there are so many utility providers around. Not to add, fluctuations in temperature and soil density may cause subterranean utilities to shift location over time.

It’s like going into combat blind if you don’t do any potholing before you start digging. You could run into a utility line at any time. Without the use of the ground-penetrating radar, you may cause damage to public property as well as power outages, floods, water interruptions, and fires, depending on the type of utility you destroy and the severity of the damage.

Unexpected Expenses

Getting hurt while accidentally destroying power wires will result in a mountain of medical bills and costly repairs, all of which will add to your expenses.

Though performing potholing before an excavation project may appear to be an extra step, consider it a cost-effective method for preventing inadvertent damage and reducing work dangers. As a result, potholing will save money on future repairs and medical fees.

Legal Problems

When you destroy utility lines and harm people, you’ll not only pay additional costs, but you’ll also run afoul of the law. Everyone is forbidden from operating motorized equipment within 18 inches to 30 inches of marked utilities, according to state laws.

You’ll be excavating blindly if you don’t pothole and use ground-penetrating radar, you’ll run the chance of exceeding the tolerance zone. Potholing with vacuum excavation, on the other hand, helps you comply with this law.

Let Us Handle Your Ground Penetrating Radar Job

To avoid the concerns listed above, it’s a good idea to label any utilities in the region and use ground-penetrating radar before commencing any excavation job.

We provide potholing and utility locating services. To learn more about what we can offer, contact us at 866-638-1075 at Util-Locate today!

3 Benefits of Utility Mapping

When open-cut surveys are insufficient, great precision and understanding are necessary to detect sensitive components of electricity or gas, so avoiding any physical harm. Underground utility locating mapping is the most popular service among government agencies and PWDs.

In the areas of geophysics, environmental engineering, and infrastructure development, the relevance of utility mapping cannot be emphasized.

Crews can easily drill into a gas line or damage concrete foundations of plants and silos if the location and depth of essential subsurface infrastructure are not adequately documented, plotted, or communicated to relevant parties.

Excavating into a utility line can be costly in terms of time, money, and energy if exact detection of what is beneath is not performed. Organizations can’t rely on old maps since they provide inaccurate and incomplete information about what they’re looking for. They seek a trustworthy business to provide technology-assisted subsurface utility mapping services.

The following are three of the most significant advantages of using utility locating mapping services.

Saves You Money

A utility mapping service improves work efficiency, which saves money in the long run.

The field crew may quickly receive reliable information from a remote location thanks to centralized database access.

From locating subterranean property in need of repairs and maintenance to producing digital work orders and inventory monitoring, utility mapping services can save you time, money, and effort.

It helps to eliminate the need for developing prints, manually preparing reports, entering details, reviewing daily schedules, plotting routes on paper maps, and much more. The use of this service reduces the amount of money spent on preventative maintenance, repairs, and obligatory replacements.

Manage Your Assets Easier

The professionals on the ground may readily access information relating to maintenance, replacement, repairs, and inspection with the help of utility locating mapping, which uses properly organized geographic data of subterranean utilities.

With a location-based tracking tool, a user may precisely trace and share position data, cutting down on troubleshooting time.

Public works agencies can easily manage all assets with real-time information, which not only reduces the cost of repair and replacement services but also improves decision-making and precision in work.

Better and Prompt Decision Making

One of the most significant benefits of this service is its ability to provide exact visualization via utility mapping. It may combine regular road maps and aerial views with property information such as zoning, permitting, parks, and developments.

By narrowing in on only the components that need to be considered, staff can show essentially more valuable data for official city meetings. As a result, there is a better comprehension of the situation, which allows for quicker decision-making.

Choose a Reliable Utility Mapping Service

It is critical that those working in certain initiatives comprehend the information in order to make better decisions. Our team collaborates closely with large infrastructure and real estate development projects. This reduces the amount of time and energy spent communicating information.

It also ensures that everyone on the team is using the same tool to analyze the same real-time data, which improves understanding and productivity.

To learn more about our utility locating mapping service, contact us at 866-638-1075 at Util-Locate today!

4 Problems Professional Potholing Services Prevent

A huge portion of underground utility damages in the US are caused by failure to create potholes. It’s difficult to begin an excavation project without knowing where utility lines are. Potholing is a type of underground utility location that involves digging a small area or soft excavation to check where utilities are located.

Potholing relies on a vacuum excavator, which uses high-pressure air or water to break down soil, then vacuum the soil into a tank. To conduct thorough utility locating, a technician creates several test holes via potholing. As a result, you can determine:

Where utilities are located
How long the utility lines are
How deeply they are buried

This information is invaluable in any excavation procedure to prevent a slew of problems ranging from property damage and injury to financial and legal headaches.

Accidental Damage To Utilities

In most cases, excavating without creating potholes can lead to disasters. One of the biggest problems of excavation projects is accidental damage to utilities because builders can’t identify their location and depth.

With so many utility companies around, utility lines can overlap and run through any area underground. Not to mention, underground utilities change position over time due to changes in temperature and soil density.

Failure to conduct potholing before an excavation is similar to going into a battle blind. You can hit a utility line at any moment. Depending on the type of utility you destroy and the severity of the damage, you are not only causing damage to public property, but you may also cause power outages, floods, water interruption, and fires.

With potholing, you can identify the actual location of underground utilities. Knowing their location and depth tells you what area is safe to excavate, preventing any accidents during your project.

Working Hazard For Excavators

Another problem that comes with excavation projects is the risk of injury. Excavations are prone to accidents since they expose excavators and other workers to hazardous conditions, which may lead to injuries.

After accidentally hitting a pipe or an electric line, an excavator may get injured from the burst pipe and get electrocuted or burned from a damaged electric line. Potholing helps solve this problem as it tells you which areas to avoid in order to keep everyone safe for the duration of the project.

Additional Costs

Getting injured while accidentally damaging utility lines will result in piling medical bills and expensive repairs, which incur additional costs. Though potholing prior to an excavation project may seem like an additional step, think of potholing as a cost-efficient approach that helps prevent accidental damage and minimize work hazards. Therefore, potholing will prevent unnecessary repair and hospital bills in the future.

Legal Trouble

Not only will you incur additional costs when you damage utility lines and injure people, but you’re also bound to get in trouble with the law.

According to state laws, everyone is prohibited from using mechanized equipment within 18 to 30 inches of marked utilities. Without potholing, you’ll be excavating blindly and run the risk of breaching the allotted tolerance zone. On the other hand, potholing using vacuum excavation helps you comply with this law.

Potholing Services

Before starting any excavation project, it’s recommended to mark all utilities in the area to avoid the problems mentioned above. Consult skilled professionals from Util-Locate, a South California-based digging company that offers utility locating services. Reach out to Util-Locate today for potholing services!

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