Tore the gas line out to my moms tonight. It was completly my fault I never called dig safe. On all my paying jobs I do. It started out a couple weeks ago my stepfather wanted the driveway regraded n prep for concrete so I regraded the top then he decided a week later he wanted it all boxed out. So I did that n broke my track. Then he wanted the whole side graded for if he decided he wanted the side n back graded for incase he decided to put concrete. So I dug cable line up agin to reset it lower agin. Still no thought of where gas line was. I dug one inch above that line in between my theeth for twenty feet before I hit it. N to tell u the truth I am still amazed I went that far with it between my theeth before I hit it.
So what happened, did the gas company charge you lots to repair it?
Havnt got the bill yet. I don't think it will be to bad $350.I got one last fall that wasn't marked properly n I had toargue a little n nothing came of it. It was only a half inch
I dunno, I hope they don't take you to the cleaners but as an excavator your suposed to know to use one call. It isn't like your a homeowner than went to the rental yard, or borowed his neighbors piece. As soon as I log off, I'm headed to dig out a pine tree with my excavator. Property owner had his utilities located before I could call them in and wouldn't you know the gas line was almost too close to the tree. He said that he thought that it was farther over and deeper... One call is free guys... use it.
I hit a phone line weeks ago that Mrs. dig located wrong home owner was little up set wasn't my fault :beatsme, spliced it up good and on i went....
They are not bad here. The half inch drop lines are not a big deal, couple hundred bucks. Always want to call in for locates, but sometimes things just happen.
Here in the UK there are no records of the positions of utilities once they leave the public highway!! Therefore there is no way of knowing exact position let alone depth of the pipes/cables on private property. The worst thing about a gas pipe leak is the smell!!
Umnh, that ain't the gas pipe you dug up Seriously though my insurance wants a 5K excess if I don't dial before you dig, otherwise it's 500. Yes the service is limited but gives some idea if the real expensive/dangerous stuff is in the area.
So they don't locate a gas, power or telcom service to the structure/dwelling once it leaves the ROW? Our Line Locate Company will mark power, gas and telcom from the curb to the structure. If the local water authority is subscribed to Line Locate they will locate the water line as well. If the local Water Authority is not subscribed to the Line Locate then you have to rely on them to mark it... Most services are copper but some areas allow plastic. Unfortunately, the plastic lines normally don't have tracer wire, so you are digging solo. Now the preciseness of the locate is always in question, that's why it's always a good idea to take a few pics before digging.
Modern properties here in the UK have plastic water and gas pipes leading to them from the road so they are untraceable with a CAT/cable locator. You may be able to pick out the phone line if it has a signal running through it e.g. live Broadband connection or homeowner is actually talking on the phone. Luckily electric cables are traceable due to the amoured cable as much as the signal from the charge running through it. At least with copper you can sometimes feel/get a bit of resistance through the machine if you pull it and it stands up better to teeth scrapes which usually burst immediatley if done on plastic pipe due to the pressure.
Down here in Georgia they have passed a new law if you cut one without locate your going to hate life. First you are going to get reamed by the gas company to the tune of about 2k for a 1/2" line and the price goes up from there. Then the real fun starts you get to go to a gas line training class about $750.00 bucks and about 24 hrs long I think. Not calling the locators not a option any more in Georgia. Also do it the second time and you get to do the class all over and the fines get bigger.
wow, I guess they mean business down there in Ga. I don't know the penalties up here in Pa, and prefer it stays that way... Another contractor did get a $1500.00 fine for replacing a section of clay tile sewer pipe without a repair permit, or so the rumor goes.
I've registered many complaints with the one call dig people before and as far as I'm concerned its got a lot to be desired. The liability issure sucks and the laws should portect the person digging not the gas company. I'll give you an example where it falls between the cracks in the system and nobody will talk and it leaves the person doing the digging at risk and they claim its somebody else's problem and not theirs. We do ag tiling and did a one call on a farm property a couple of years back and this is what happened. There was a gas line running through the area but it was two properties over and some houses were between the gas line and the farm where we were working and I'd say it was no bid deal maybe 160 acres between the farm we were on and the gas main, there was a tap in the line with the box and everything on the property by the house closest to the main line, not on the property we were working, the gas company gave the thumbs up and said any private utilities were our responsibility and not theirs like they always do and I asked the owner if he had anything private and he said not that he knew of if it was he wouldn't know what so we proceded. We found the main tile and was working our way up a hill to get to the top where there was wet spot, no bid deal since its been in farm land for I figured ever and along comes an old guy in a pickup and stops to see what we are doing, nice guy and all and he asks us if we found the gas line and knew where it was at, no we have been cleared to dig and they said no line was there. He goes on and says no not the main line the gas line that fed the dryer that was to go in at the farmstead 25 years ago when so and so owned the property. Nobody had a clue what he was talking about not even the current owner. So he goes onto explain years ago this big farmer owned several thousand acres and gave the gas company permission to go through his property in excahange for farm taps to his bin sites and he planned on putting up a big dryer setup on the hill where we were tiliing to and thats why its wet theres a large gas main going to the hill where we were headed. He went onto explain the tap two properties over was the tap for the proposed site and over the years after the guy died in an accident his wife had sold off the properties and parted them out and this property had changed hands several times and all record had probably been lost but that tap went with this property not the house it sits beside and there was a line that was live basically right under us and make sure to have it marked. Now this set off a chain of events that follows, we call the gas company and they won't tell us anythng only the gas main is not on our property and thats all, we call the neighbors and they know nothing about the tap at the line that is on thier property, we call the one call people and complain and thats no use either. We call the gas company and demand someone come out and look and explain to us where the tap line runs and they decline saying "if theres one there its not our problem its private" this gets into a liability issue because the taps not on this guys property and the private locates won't do it becase the current owner throws stink about nobody is going onto his property for anything unless its the gas company and basically throws the private locator off and since he can't get the deal hooked to the line he can't locate it. So we call the attorney and ask questions from the field and he gives us an avenue to try with the gas company and we call them back and demand to know how big the tap was if it was still live or not, legally then they have to tell you if you ask specifically and also who is paying for the tap to keep the feed open. They tell us it is open and live and its a medium sized tap maybe about inch and a half or so but they we not sure and they though maybe a medium pressure line but didn't know for sure, the deal with the farmer at the time was it was to remain active as long as he paid the bills on the other sites and since someone has paid them its remained live ever since or something to that extent. Now when we asked why nobody could tell us about it in the first place they explained it was a liability issue and since you didn't ask specifics its not their problem. Now get this when we asked if they could shut it off they asked if the tap was on our property!!! No but it feeds a line that is and we want it turned off, answer was no, the owner of the property has to request it even though he wasn't paying the bill. We told him if we hit it and gas was leaking could they possible come out then and shut it off, question they asked, did you hit it and is gas leaking? Well dealing with the gas company got us nowhere and another call to the attorney and he made some calls and it took a few days and someone did come out and shut the tap off and we kept tiling and finished the job and to my knowledge we never did hit the tap but the point remains why didn't the gas company at least tell us it was there in the first place, we had no right to go onto someone elses proplerty to look at a tap, we just assumed it fed the house closest to the tap. When we pressed the issue with the one call people they claimed they were within the law and so did the gas company and the explaination the gas company gave was " it probably wouldn't have blown even if you did hit it its not high enough pressure" and this is the safety all the above mentioned are concerned with, no its about liability and who's at fault. The property owner was furious mainly because he was standing next to my trencher at the time if we would have hit it and would have been at the scene of an explosion but when he checked nobody legally had to disclose the information to him when he bought the property because it was a private utility no differnt than a private waterline or electric line most are undocumented. I was pissed about the whole deal because its got nothing to do with safety its all about liability and they could care less if someone is killed or injured as long as they aren't legally held responsible. The old guy that stopped used to do digging for a sideline and farmed and figured we had no idea about the line and nobody would tell us, it was another dirt digger that gave us the heads up at least and warned us and I thanked him kindly, he said he didn't want to feel responsible if someone got hurt because he kept quiet so he stopped and told us. So after that I always ask the gas company if they have knowledge of any taps on the proposed site and where the closest taps go and then go ask those private owners if thats the case. All parties involved told me my case was an exception to the rule and maybe things should be changed to help answer these questions better and resolve some of the problems with the system and protect the person doing the digging.
Holly typing! :dizzy
Mavrickxxx, The ones you do for free are the ones that always jump up and bite you.
did a trench job with a 463 bobcat and trencher for a buddy of a buddy went 30 feet hit some tin foil thought it was weird to be their went another 10 feet cut the house drop for the phone went back to the foil area cleaned the trench and missed the gas line by 2 in the foil was to tell you to stop you are about to hit the gas line woops :beatsme
Thats the thing, some services are covered with rubble or other debris but until you know that a service is there you kind of need to assume that it is just buried rubbish - if you hand dug every time you find some debris you might as well not use a machine on some sites!!
Since getting out of my own busniess I spend a fair bit of time digging around services as part of my new job. (well its been a year). We dont do any domestic work so the little stuffs not an issue. The job we did last week had us digging a small trench of only 30 metres long but it was across a busy road in North Adelaide. In that 30 metres we found 5 services, as well as the 8 power cables at the end of the trench. Of the other 5 we found 4 were located one wasnt, and of the 4 that were one ended up being 1mt across from the location. In the end no damage done, so a good job, but can never be to sure whats under the ground. I did have all of our dial before you dig plans, and our company has our own locators who are pretty good. When it comes to gas mains down here, the gas company we send someone out as a standby, most of the time they have a good idea where the mains are. Normally is sand, and marker tape around the newer stuff. The other week we had to find on that they had put inside an old cast pipe, found it with the digger but no damage done. Not saying I dont hit stuff, worst is water pipes, no sand, no marker tape, no trench lines., no ideas lol, breath on them and you have water everywhere. Carefull digging everyone.
we put a water line in years ago... the street was lined with nasty cedar trees... the gas services had to be crossed at every house... the roots had made it impossible to dig by hand... But evidently the company had already experienced this type of problem ... It appeared that the gas company had been there weeks in advance... the entire job had potholes at the main and the house... We didn't have to stop to look for the gas line... It was RIP THEM OUT but the gas company would disconnect them as we approached the service to avoid damaging the main or meter when RIPPING the service from the ground... after we would pass the line .. they would push a plastic line thru the old steel then hook the house back up..
Now that was a bit of luck!! Went through a 10mm copper central heating oil pipe on Friday - didn't know it was there. It was basically running along the line where I was told to dig, but I found it prior to actually pulling the trench when I pulled out a stubborn shrub root that was in the way of the trench!! I would of thought you could go through this pipe with a spade/shovel though so touch it with a digger and you wouldn't know it.