Call before you dig
If you plan on making any changes to your yard that require holes or trenches to be dug, you’ll need to know where the utilities are so you don’t accidentally strike a line that supplies electricity, phone or cable, or a pipe that supplies water or gas. Even hand digging can cause damage – more than 25% of damage is from homeowners.
Take note if you plan on doing any special projects, such as the following:
• Decks & patios
• Trees or shrubs
• Swing sets
• Signs
• Fountains
• Tents
• Fences
• Mailbox posts
• Room additions
• Gardens
• Swimming pool
• Landscaping
When you contact MISS DIG 811, the public facility companies are notified to mark the location of their underground lines. Public facilities are marked for free by facility company representatives known as locators. The locators paint lines and/or place flags to mark the approximate location of underground public lines. Those painted lines usually run from the main facility to the meter on your house.
Not everything gets marked when you call. Private facility lines are NOT marked. The unmarked private lines usually run from the house to any other building or object with service in your yard, such as a garage or lamp post. A private locator may be hired to mark them. And often, water and sewer lines are only marked in the right-of-way, not all the way to the meter on the house.
To place a DIG notice visit the
Miss Dig website.