Services
Locating, investigation and documentation — from records to field findings
Services covering the stages of a project, for residential, commercial, industrial and major infrastructure work across the GTA, Golden Horseshoe and across Ontario. Each one is delivered with documentation you can hand to your engineer, a contractor or a project manager — including what the work covered and what it could not confirm.
We take responsibility for accurately marking the utilities identified within the agreed scope and clearly documenting any limitations or unresolved findings.
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.
01
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.
Records review and utility data compilation
We gather and review the drawings, records and information made available for the work area and compile them into a starting picture of what is expected below grade. Records are treated as a starting point, not as a record of what is actually in the ground.
What you receive: A records-based utility picture for the agreed work area, with the sources it was drawn from.
Electromagnetic locating and marking
Detectable conductive services are traced with a transmitter and receiver and marked on the surface, following the signal path within the agreed work area. A service can only be traced where it is conductive and where an accessible connection point allows a signal to be applied.
What you receive: Field marks on site plus a record of the detected indications.
Mapping of visible utility features
Manholes, catch basins, valves, hydrants, pedestals and other visible utility features within the work area are located and recorded as surface evidence of what lies beneath.
What you receive: A record of visible utility features and their positions within the work area.
GPR investigation where suitable and in scope
Where ground conditions suit the method and ground penetrating radar is included in the agreed scope, radar is used to investigate subsurface responses that locating alone does not show. Results vary with soil, moisture, surface material, depth and the target itself.
What you receive: Scan results interpreted and documented, including the areas scanned.
Field documentation and reporting
Findings are documented as they were established: methods used, areas covered, detected indications, positions and depths as estimated from instruments, and what could not be detected or confirmed.
What you receive: A report with mapping and digital files recording findings, methods, coverage and limitations.
02
Utility locating
Standard locates and electromagnetic locating, documented so the information is still usable after the crew leaves site.
Holding a public locate ticket and still unsure what is under the property? See what a public locate covers and what it leaves out →
Standard locates
Private utility locating on a property of any size — residential, commercial, industrial or institutional — within an agreed work area.
Electromagnetic locating
Tracing of detectable conductive services, including buried conductors and metallic services, where an accessible connection point exists for the signal.
Pre-design and pre-construction verification
Re-checking the utility indications in an agreed area before drawings are finalized or work begins, so a potential conflict is identified while it can still be designed around or planned for.
Marking, mapping and digital documentation
Field marking together with mapped and digital records of what was detected, so the information survives the paint.
What you receive: Marked limits on site plus mapping and digital documentation of the results.
03
Ground penetrating radar
Non-destructive scanning of concrete, asphalt and soil where conditions suit it — used alongside locating, not instead of it.
Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)
Non-destructive scanning to investigate subsurface responses without excavation. What radar can resolve depends on the surface material, ground conditions, depth and the target.
Non-metallic and unrecorded services
Radar is used where a service is not detectable electromagnetically — PVC, clay, concrete — or where the available records and the ground do not agree.
Voids, structures and anomalies
Investigation of subsurface responses that records do not explain: possible voids, unknown structures and abandoned services.
What you receive: Scan results interpreted and documented, including the areas scanned and any responses that could not be resolved.
04
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.
Manhole entry and inspection
Structures opened, inspected and documented where the access, entry procedure, permits and safety arrangements for that specific task have been confirmed and agreed in advance.
What you receive: Documented findings from inside the structure, recorded by qualified personnel.
Confined space locating
Locating and inspection work inside confined spaces, carried out under an agreed entry procedure with the required permits, equipment and rescue arrangements in place.
What you receive: Findings from the agreed task, documented on completion.
Restricted and high-risk environments
Detection work in complex or restricted settings, scoped individually once the access conditions and the safety requirements are understood.
05
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.
Utility conflict identification
Identifying where proposed work and detected utilities appear to intersect, so the conflict is discussed while it can still be planned for.
Damage prevention support
Practical measures to reduce the chance of striking an unrecorded or mislocated service, built into how the field work is planned.
Coordination with your engineers, contractors and project managers
Direct communication with your design and construction team so the information reaches the people who need it. Professional engineering work remains with your engineer; we supply the field information they ask for.
Reporting, mapping and digital deliverables
Reporting, mapping and digital files prepared for the people who need to use them.
What you receive: Reports, mapping and digital deliverables handed over at completion.
06
Drone services (third party)
Drone services are provided through a third party, subject to availability and agreed scope.
Aerial imagery of the work area
Where aerial imagery of the site would help the project team see conditions and access, it is arranged through a third party as part of the agreed scope. The aerial work itself is carried out by that third party, not by Precision Tech.
Crew certifications
Certifications held across the crew include the following. Which of them a given task requires — and whether the access, procedures, equipment and rescue arrangements are in place — is confirmed when the scope is agreed, before the work is accepted.
- DPT100
- DPT200
- Working at Heights
- First Aid & CPR
- Manhole Entry
- Confined Space
Where a physical exposure is needed to see a service, hydrovac excavation can be coordinated separately as part of an agreed scope. Precision Tech does not provide excavation, hydrovac or daylighting itself.
Not listed here: pricing and scheduling. Those depend on the site — send us the address and we will quote it properly.
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.