If you’re planning to put a new deck on your house, or maybe plant a garden this year, make sure you call Diggers Hotline first.
You have to call three working days before you dig, so that utilities have time to get out to your house or work site. You can reach Diggers by dialing 8-1-1.
Spokesman Chad Krueger says things like gas lines and electrical lines could be just under the surface of your yard. “The stuff in the ground’s dangerous. You don’t want to hurt anyone, you don’t want to damage your home or your neighbor’s home.”
Even if you’ve had your home flagged and marked in the past, Krueger says it’s important to make sure to get it reflagged each time. “The soil changes, there’s erosion, it freezes, it thaws. Things move around a little bit. The bigger element here is the depth: you don’t know how deep it was installed at.”
He says landscaping or other changes in your yard could make it hard to remember exactly how deep you can dig.
Krueger also says there could be some very expensive lines under your yard as well. That includes cable, or fiber optic lines. You don’t want to be known as the guy who knocked out the internet to the neighborhood.
“Boy a lot of businesses rely on that Internet, a lot of families rely on that Internet. Your neighbors rely on that Internet.”
Even more hazardous is some cases where cable or fiber breaks have cut off a county’s 911 lines.