811 is a legal requirement. It is not a complete answer.
What 811 does - and doesn't - cover
811 marks public utilities up to the meter or property line. It does not mark: private water and gas lines beyond the meter, private electric, irrigation, low-voltage (data, security, landscape lighting), or abandoned lines. Everything on the private-side is on you to locate. If you dig into it, you own it.
Where private locating pays for itself
- Commercial or industrial sites with unknown historical utility runs
- Sites with irrigation, landscape lighting, or private power
- Any dig within a few feet of a suspected utility corridor
- Bore pit setup - you need to know depth, not just presence
- Anywhere the cost of a strike is more than the cost of locating
Locating + hydro-potholing = Level A verification
For projects that need Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE) Level A quality - verified, exposed, and documented - combine electromagnetic locating with hydro-potholing at critical points. That's what defensible utility data looks like on a job site.