Private Utility Locating in California

Private locating is quoted per job rather than off a published rate. Across California the number moves with how much ground has to be swept, how many utilities are in play, whether the lines are metallic or plastic, how far a crew travels to reach the site, and whether you need surface marks only or a drawing and GPS data as well. We do not set locating company pricing, so instead of publishing a figure we hand the job to the companies that would do it: describe your site once through Utility Hotline and companies covering that part of California send you their own quotes to compare.

Yes, and place that ticket first. DigAlert (Southern CA) / USA North 811 is free, is required by law before excavation in most jurisdictions, and notifies the member facility owners so they can mark the public lines they own, which generally ends at the meter, the pedestal, or the right-of-way. California requires 2 working days notice; strict environmental regulations apply. Private locating never replaces it. It covers the other half of the site: the lines past the meter, the runs a previous owner installed, and the services that appear on no drawing at all.

The private side of a property: water, gas, electrical, sewer, fiber and irrigation lines running past the meter, along with abandoned and unrecorded runs nobody holds a map for. How they are found depends on what they are made of. Electromagnetic tracing follows metal pipe, cable, and tracer wire. Ground penetrating radar picks up plastic, clay tile, and concrete duct that carry no signal. Acoustic work handles pressurized water. A sonde or camera follows a sewer or septic lateral. Vacuum potholing exposes the line so its depth is measured rather than estimated, and utility mapping or a subsurface utility engineering survey turns any of it into a drawing an engineer can design from.

Each locating company sets its own schedule and we do not set it for them. A person reviews your request and sends it to companies that cover the area, and each one replies with its own timing and a quote. Put your dig date, the site address, and whether the work sits on a live job into the request, so the companies that reply already know what they would be committing to.

Companies working through Utility Hotline cover cities across California, spanning the West, with the deepest coverage around the larger metros and crews that travel for rural, agricultural, and multi-site work. Choose your city below, or describe the job site and we send your request to the companies that actually work that ground instead of leaving you to call around the state.