Planning a home improvement project? Planting a tree? Putting in a fence or deck? WAIT! Here's what you need to know first.

CALL

Whether you are planning to do it yourself or hire a professional, ALWAYS call 811 before each job. Calling 811 starts the process of getting underground utility lines in your yard marked. Click here to know what's below your yard.

WHY CALL

When you call before you dig, you help prevent unintended consequences such as injury to you or your family, damage to your property, utility service outages to the entire neighborhood and potential fines and repair costs. Do you really want to be the person who knocks out the neighborhood's cable service during the big game?

WHEN DO I CALL?

Call a minimum of two full business days before digging. If you're planning a weekend project, the latest you should call is Wednesday. You'll get a locate ticket number at the end of the call. Write it down for later reference.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER I CALL?

Utilities send their locators to mark any underground lines in your yard. Paint and flags will be placed to mark underground utility lines. The colors of the marks tell what type of utility is buried.

Locate marks are good for 30 calendar days. Any work beyond that requires another call to 811. If locate marks are destroyed before your project is done, stop digging and call 811. Then wait two full business days.

WHAT IF THERE ARE NO LOCATE MARKS?

There may not be any underground lines on your property. Find out by entering your ticket number into our positive response system or call (800) 852-8057. Utility companies are automatically notified if they have not responded. Note: Not all utility owners will locate privately owned utilities such as water and sewer lines from the meter to your house.

WHERE CAN I DIG?

The actual utility lines may not run directly below the marks. Dig carefully 24 inches on either side of the marks. For more information about the tolerance zone, click here.

Some utility lines may be buried only a few inches of the surface. An unintended shovel thrust could bring you right back to square one - facing potentially dangerous and/or costly consequences. Even if you think you know where an underground line is, time tends to change things. Erosion or root structure growth can shift the location of those utility lines. For more information on how utility depth changes, click here.

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I HIT AN UNDERGROUND UTILITY?

If you accidentally damage, dislocate or disturb any utility line, call the owner of that line and report the incident. If the damage is serious and creates an emergency situation, call 911 and take precautions to safeguard your health and property.