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Before anyone digs, trenches, drills or drives a post, it is worth knowing what is down there. We trace and mark buried water, sewer and irrigation lines on your property, including the private lines a free 811 mark-out does not cover, which is most of what people actually hit.
This is the single most useful thing on this page, and it is the thing most people get wrong. California 811 — DigAlert — is free, it is the law before you excavate, and it is not a survey of your property.
| Line | Marked by 811? |
|---|---|
| The public water main in the street | Yes |
| The utility service line up to your meter | Yes |
| The gas service line up to your meter | Yes |
| Electric, telecom and cable in the public right of way | Yes |
| Your water line from the meter to the house | No — private |
| Your sewer lateral | No — private |
| Irrigation and sprinkler lines | No — private |
| Pool plumbing and equipment lines | No — private |
| Power to a detached garage, shed or gate | No — private |
There is also the quieter case: you have just bought the house and nobody can tell you where anything runs. A locate with photographs is a document you keep.
| Line | Locatable? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Metal water line | Yes | Direct connection, traced from the surface |
| Plastic water line | Yes | Sonde, or by tracing an accessible run |
| Sewer lateral | Yes | Camera with a transmitting head |
| Cast iron or clay drain | Yes | Camera and sonde |
| Irrigation mains | Usually | Depends on material and access to a valve |
| Individual sprinkler laterals | Sometimes | Small, shallow, often unmarked |
| A capped line with no access at either end | Often not | Nothing to introduce a signal into |
The last row is the honest limit. If a line is sealed at both ends with no cleanout, no valve and no metal in it, there may be no way to trace it without exposing it, and we would rather tell you that at the quoting stage than after taking your money.
Set that against the cost of a strike. Hitting a sewer lateral with a trencher means an emergency repair, an excavation you did not plan, and a contractor standing idle while it is sorted out. Locating first is one of the few genuinely cheap decisions in construction.
Everything we price is on the pricing page.
Most people find this page because they are about to dig. But the same equipment does something else worth knowing about: it turns a repair from a search into a job at one point.
| Without locating | With locating |
|---|---|
| Exploratory trench along the suspected route | One hole at the marked point |
| Landscaping disturbed the length of the run | Landscaping disturbed at one spot |
| Depth unknown until the machine finds out | Depth known before anyone starts |
| Quote is a range because the work is unknown | Quote is firm because the job is defined |
| Restoration cost is whatever it turns out to be | Restoration is a known area |
On a buried water or sewer line the restoration is frequently larger than the plumbing. That is the whole argument for locating first: it does not make the pipe cheaper, it makes everything on top of the pipe cheaper. The same logic runs through finding an underground leak.
Colour convention is standard across the industry, and it is worth knowing what is on your lawn before somebody starts a machine.
| Colour | What it marks |
|---|---|
| Blue | Potable water |
| Green | Sewer and drain |
| Purple | Reclaimed water and irrigation |
| Yellow | Gas, oil, steam |
| Red | Electric |
| Orange | Telecom, cable, fibre |
| White | Proposed excavation, where you intend to dig |
| Pink | Temporary survey markings |
White paint before the locate is worth doing yourself: marking out where you actually intend to dig means the locate focuses there rather than covering the whole property, which usually costs less.
We are licensed and insured plumbers, and this site is about leaks, finding the ones you cannot see and repairing them properly. Roughly half of what looks like a plumbing leak turns out not to be one, so the boundary is worth stating plainly.
Roof leaks are a roofer. Water under an air handler is an HVAC technician clearing a condensate drain. Water under an appliance is appliance repair. Drying, restoration and mold are separate trades again, and gas line repair is SoCalGas or a licensed gas fitter. We detect gas leaks, we do not repair gas lines.
The full list, with the trade to call for each, is on what we don’t do.
Worth knowing in advance, because the answer is different depending on what was struck and who struck it.
The liability point is why the written locate record matters as much as the paint. If a contractor damages a line that was marked, that is a different conversation from one that was never marked at all.
Call 811 first. Then have the private lines on your side of the meter marked.
(714) 386-7923Call or text, day or nightSchedule a Visit811 is free, it is required before you excavate, and it marks utility-owned lines up to your meter. Everything past the meter, your water line, sewer lateral, irrigation, pool plumbing, power to a detached structure, is private and is not marked. That is where most residential strikes happen.
Yes. Always call 811 first. It is the law before excavating in California, it is free, and it covers the lines that are most dangerous to hit. A private locate is what you add on top, not a replacement for it.
Yes. Plastic cannot be traced magnetically, so it is located either with a transmitting sonde pushed through the line or by tracing from an accessible point. It needs access at one end, which is the practical limit rather than the material.
$150 to $500 depending on how much is being traced and how accessible it is. Marking out the area you actually intend to dig in white paint beforehand usually brings it down, because the locate focuses there rather than covering the property.
Good enough to dig to confidently, and it is not surveying. Standard practice is to hand dig within a margin either side of a mark rather than trenching straight down the line, and any competent excavator will do that as a matter of course.
Yes, at the marked points. Depth is half the value of a locate: a shallow line changes what equipment is safe to use, and a deep one changes what the repair would cost if it were struck.
No. Gas is 811 and SoCalGas, and it stays that way. We detect gas leaks; locating and working on gas lines is not something this site does.
Days to a couple of weeks, depending on weather and surface. Rain and irrigation take them off faster than anything. That is exactly why photographs are part of what you get: the paint is temporary, the record is not.
Mains, usually. Individual laterals are small, shallow and often unmarked, and honesty is the right approach: we will tell you at the quoting stage what is realistically traceable on your system rather than after.
That is one of the better reasons to book a locate. You get the routes marked, the depths, photographs and a written summary, a document you keep and hand to every contractor who works on the property afterwards.