Private utility locating · Sub Surface Utility Mapping & Investigation · Field documentation
Understand utility conditions before work begins.
Precision Tech provides private utility locating, subsurface utility mapping and field documentation to help project teams understand utility conditions within an agreed work area. We review available records, trace detectable conductive services using electromagnetic locating and, where suitable and included in the agreed scope, use ground penetrating radar (GPR) to investigate subsurface responses. Our findings document detected indications, methods, coverage and limitations.
8,335
Reported underground utility damage and near-miss events in Canada, 2024
Includes 345 near misses. Voluntary reports; not a complete national count. Annual published data—not a live injury counter.
Decorative illustration — not incident locations
CCGA DIRT Report 2024We take responsibility for accurately marking the utilities identified within the agreed scope and clearly documenting any limitations or unresolved findings.
Crew certifications
- DPT100
- DPT200
- Working at Heights
- First Aid & CPR
- Manhole Entry
- Confined Space
Certifications held across the crew. What a specific task requires is confirmed when the scope is agreed.
What we do
Utility information your project team can plan around.
A locate mark on the pavement is a starting point, not an answer. We review the records, trace what can be traced with electromagnetic locating, use ground penetrating radar where the conditions suit it and the scope includes it, and document what was found — with the coverage and the limits of the work stated plainly.
We work for engineering firms, general contractors, developers, municipalities and institutions who need a clearer picture of existing services before design, excavation or construction.
See all servicesEngineering firms
Field information for design and pre-construction, within an agreed scope.
General contractors
Conflict identification and damage prevention on site.
Developers
Site due diligence before land or budgets are committed.
Municipalities & institutions
Dense campuses and public infrastructure.
What this work can and cannot tell you
- Not every utility or buried feature can be detected. Detection depends on the material, the depth, the ground conditions and whether an accessible connection point exists.
- Markings reflect utilities identified within the agreed scope. Coverage depends on access, signal quality, ground conditions and target characteristics; instrument-derived depths are estimates.
- These methods do not confirm whether a service is connected, live, out of service, or safe to disturb.
- The work is not permission to dig, and it does not replace required responses from public utilities and infrastructure owners, or private locates arranged separately.
- Precision Tech does not provide professional engineering services.
Services
Utility locating and site investigation services
Sub Surface Utility Mapping & Investigation
A records-to-field investigation of an agreed work area: review what records exist, trace what can be traced, scan where radar is suitable and included, and document what was found — with its methods, coverage and limitations.
5 capabilities
Utility locating
Standard locates and electromagnetic locating, documented so the information is still usable after the crew leaves site.
4 capabilities
Ground penetrating radar
Non-destructive scanning of concrete, asphalt and soil where conditions suit it — used alongside locating, not instead of it.
3 capabilities
Confined space and manhole entry
Offered where the specific task, access, personnel qualifications, equipment, procedures, required permits and safety and rescue arrangements can all be confirmed and agreed before acceptance and scheduling.
3 capabilities
Construction support & coordination
Utility information that is useful to the people designing and building the job — clear, coordinated and delivered in a format they can work with.
4 capabilities
Drone services (third party)
Drone services are provided through a third party, subject to availability and agreed scope.
1 capabilities
- Ask us →
Not sure what the site needs?
Send us the site and the stage of the project. We will come back with a practical scope for the investigation that fits.
Public locate vs private locate
A public locate answers a narrower question than most people expect.
A locate request through the Ontario Dig Authority notifies member utilities with plant in the area. What each owner marks follows infrastructure ownership and the demarcation point that applies to that infrastructure — so the split is not simply a property line, and it varies by utility. Owner and public responses have to be received and reviewed before the picture is complete, and a private locate may also be needed as applicable to the services in your work area.
What a public locate covers — and what it does notOwner / public response
Requested through the Ontario Dig Authority, with each affected owner responding for the infrastructure it owns, as that ownership and demarcation apply.
Private locate
Private services, in-property infrastructure and unrecorded or abandoned lines, investigated separately where the work area requires it.
Site types
The kinds of sites we scope for
We review the proposed work area, available records and access conditions to agree a practical utility investigation scope.
Linear infrastructure
Transit corridor
Public grounds
Zoo and recreational grounds
Campus
University campus
Institutional
Institutional campus
Commercial / urban
Urban commercial corridor
Illustrative site types, not a list of Precision Tech clients or completed projects.
Why Precision Tech
Qualified crews, the right method, and reporting that states its own limits.
Crews qualified for the work
Crew certifications include DPT100, DPT200, Working at Heights, First Aid & CPR, Manhole Entry and Confined Space. What a specific task requires is confirmed when the scope is agreed.
The right method for the conditions
Electromagnetic locating and GPR each see different things. We use what the site conditions and the agreed scope actually call for — and say so when a method is not suitable.
Scope agreed before we start
We review the proposed work area, available records and access conditions to agree a practical utility investigation scope.
Specialist entry treated as specialist work
Confined space and manhole entry is accepted only when the task, access, personnel qualifications, equipment, procedures, required permits and safety and rescue arrangements are confirmed.
Reporting that records its own limits
Reports set out the methods used, the areas covered, what was detected, and what could not be detected or confirmed.
Responsive communication
Direct contact with the people doing the work, and professional service from first call to final deliverable.
Have a site that needs eyes under it?
Send the address and what you are planning. We will come back with a practical scope for the investigation the job actually needs — and a clear quote.