Private Utility Locating for Contractors
Know where the private lines are before your crew digs. We locate and mark private gas, secondary electric and other private utilities on job sites across the Denver metro and Front Range — typically scheduled within 1–3 business days.
What working with us looks like
You talk to the locator
We're owner-operated. The person who answers the phone is the person who shows up and marks your site — no dispatch queue, no relaying details through an office.
Scheduling that fits a job
Most Front Range jobs are scheduled within 1–3 business days. We're available Monday through Saturday. For anything urgent, call — we'll do our best to fit you in.
Marks your crew can use
Lines are marked on the surface in standard APWA colors, and we walk your foreman or super through what we found. Need it for the project file? Ask for a written locate report.
Trades and projects we locate for
Residential, commercial and rural private property job sites.
Who calls us
- Excavation and grading contractors
- General contractors and builders
- Fence contractors
- Landscape and irrigation contractors
- Plumbing and sewer contractors
- Electrical contractors
- Concrete and foundation crews
- Directional drilling and boring crews
- Property managers and commercial property owners
Typical jobs
- Trenching for new service, conduit or drain lines
- Footings, foundations and building additions
- Fence lines and post holes
- Boring under drives, walks and landscaping
- Parking lot and site lighting work
- Grading and site prep on developed lots
- Digging near outbuildings, shops and detached garages
How to request a locate
Call or send the details online. Here's what helps us quote and schedule quickly.
What to send us
- Jobsite address — or the nearest cross streets for new construction
- Where you're digging — the area or route of the work
- Type of work and roughly how deep you're going
- What you're worried about, if you know — gas, power to an outbuilding, lighting
- When you need it marked and when you plan to dig
- On-site contact and any gate or access details
Then what happens
- We confirm scope, timing and price with you.
- We sweep the work area and mark the private lines we find.
- We walk you through the marks and anything we couldn't trace.
Get your 811 ticket in too. A private locate covers the private side of the site, not the member utilities — you still need 811 before you dig.
Contractor questions
Private underground utilities that can carry a signal from our electromagnetic equipment: private gas lines, secondary electric, lighting circuits, metallic water lines, communication cable with a metallic conductor, and plastic lines that have tracer wire. See our services for details.
Any time there could be private lines in your dig area: past the meter, near outbuildings or detached garages, on commercial sites with multiple buildings or exterior lighting, on properties with propane, and anywhere the owner doesn't know what's been installed. If you're not sure, call and describe the site.
811 notifies member utilities, and they mark the lines they own — typically up to the meter. Lines owned by the property owner past that point aren't theirs to mark. A private locate covers those. Full breakdown: 811 vs. private utility locating.
Most Front Range jobs are scheduled within 1–3 business days. For urgent work, call (720) 514-2876 and we'll do our best to accommodate. Sites outside the Front Range may need more lead time.
Yes. We work on private property job sites of all types — residential, commercial and rural. We're not part of the 811 system and don't perform public utility locates for municipalities or utility companies.
Electromagnetic locating needs a conductive path. Plastic or clay pipe without tracer wire, or a line with a broken conductor, may not be detectable. If we can't trace something, we'll tell you on site so your crew knows where to dig with extra care.
Surface marks in standard APWA utility colors and a walkthrough of the findings. A written locate report is available on request for your project file.
The Front Range from Fort Collins to Pueblo, centered on the Denver metro. We take projects elsewhere in Colorado with advance scheduling; travel fees may apply. See the service area.