Digging on your own, without locating pipes and cables under the ground with established detection methods can have disastrous consequences. Every property has many cables and pipes buried underground which can get damaged by penetrating. For instance, if you hit the main water pipe while digging, it can lead to flooding and wastage of a large amount of water.
If you hit a pipe in the sewer line, your property will be covered in raw sewage. Things can get even worse for you and your immediate neighbours, if you hit a gas pipe. Leakage of hazardous, flammable gases can result in massive harm. It takes a lot of time, effort and money for things to get back to normal if your property is affected with such problems.
If you feel that digging with heavy machinery is a problem, you are wrong. Even if you use a shovel or a spade, chances are that you would be locating a pipe. This would leave you with no option but to start it all over again in a different location, where you may find yet another pipe. The entire time, effort and money put into digging goes to waste unless you can track the location of pipes on your property.
How Can Locating Services Help?
For locating and mapping underground pipes, you need cutting-edge technology and the expertise of professional underground utility locating services.
Most underground utility locating services use ground
penetrating radar that can detect the location of underground pipes and cables.This is the type of radar used even by mining companies for scanning mineral deposits.
Ground penetrating radar is easy to use and very safe too as it only emits roughly 1% of the power emitted by a cell phone signal for location and detection underground. It works by sending a minuscule
pulse of energy into the ground through an antenna and the subsequent detection of the strength and time required for the returning reflected signal. Ground penetrating radar has been established as the go-to scientific instrument for this industry because of the high level of accuracy of detection obtained while scanning both metallic and non-metallic objects.
Not only does ground penetrating radar make digging easier, it also helps to make PVC and poly pipe investigation more efficient than ever. You will not have to dig up the entire pipeline, defacing your property, for detection of faults. Pipe locating and pipes scanning are crucial to make the process of digging and repairing underground utility easier and hassle-free.
Apart from the above-mentioned domestic applications of ground penetrating radar, there are many more uses of this technology in various fields depending upon the requirements of clients.