Potholing is not discussed often enough, but it is in fact a process that can be extremely useful both in residential and commercial building projects. Whether you want to have a new house built, or you’re planning to have a large new office building erected in the middle of your city’s downtown area, potholing will be extremely helpful in determining and avoiding the location of underground utility lines that may be running underneath your property.

The process is simple: you call 811, and if the utility experts are unable to determine where the utility lines actually go, rather than giving you the all clear and risking that your digging and building practices might damage them, they will use potholing as a process to gain visual confirmation of the presence of the utility lines in question.

The actual procedure involves drilling a small hole with the use of a non-invasive digging or drilling process – such as hydro excavation – and using that hole to get a visual of any underground pipes or wires that might be present there. If the location of the utility lines doesn’t match up with what you have on your property’s maps and blueprints, then additional potholing and vacuum excavation services evaluations might be required to remap the utility line network before you get permission to commence your construction activities.