What to know
Private drainage lines are not covered by the marks on the street.
Before excavation, New Jersey property owners arrange utility markouts for public utilities — but the drainage lines on private property, from the house to the street or septic connection, are generally the owner's side of the system and are not always where old drawings or assumptions place them.
Non-invasive pipe locating and line tracing follows the actual route of the accessible line and can mark a problem area from above. That information helps landscapers, excavators, and contractors work around the line instead of finding it by accident, and it lets a targeted repair open one small area instead of a trench.
Key takeaways
- Why assumptions about a line's route are risky
- How non-invasive tracing maps a private drainage line
- When to locate a line before landscaping, excavation, or construction
What to pay attention to
- Planned landscaping, fencing, or grading near a suspected line
- An addition, patio, or driveway project over unknown routing
- A camera inspection that found a problem needing surface location
- A contractor asking where the line runs before quoting