Ground Penetrating Radar Utility Locating · Southeast Alabama

Know what’s underground
before you dig.

Private utility locating and concrete scanning across the Wiregrass — the southeast corner of Alabama — using Leica DS4000 radar with RTK GPS. We find your lines, mark them on the ground, and hand you the coordinates.

Submit a Locate Request Emergency? (334) 981-0051

Requests go in online — you get a ticket number straight away and a call back within one business day. Keep the phone for emergencies and same‑day work.

  • $200 base + $150/hr
  • 3 business days · rush & same‑day available
  • Leica DS4000 + RTK GPS

811 won’t mark your private lines. We will.

Alabama 811 marks public utilities up to the meter. Everything past it — electric to the shop, irrigation, propane, septic, site lighting, fiber — is the property owner’s responsibility, and digging blind into it can cost up to $10,000 per incident under Alabama law, before repairs and downtime.

Call 811, then send us a locate request. That’s a covered dig.

What We Do

Services

Private Utility Locating

Electric, gas, water, sewer, fiber, and irrigation on private property — marked before your excavator moves.

Concrete Scanning

Rebar, post-tension cable, and conduit located before you core, cut, or drill.

Tank & Septic Locating

Storage tanks, fuel tanks, septic tanks, and drain fields — for closings, repairs, and due diligence.

Void & Sinkhole Detection

Voids, washouts, and subsidence under slabs, roadways, and foundations.

Cemetery & Grave Location

Non-invasive mapping of unmarked graves and burial shafts for churches, families, and developers.

Utility Mapping

Optional mapped site plans with RTK GPS positions and measured distances — field data your engineer or surveyor can build on. Adds $300 and about an hour on site.

Surfaces we scan

  • Dirt
  • Mowed grass
  • Asphalt
  • Concrete

Before we arrive

Have the scan area mowed to 2 inches or shorter and clear of brush. The antenna needs clean contact with the surface — that’s the only prep we ask for, and it keeps your quote where we said it would be.

What We Find

Metal or not, we find it

Radar reads the ground itself instead of chasing a signal through metal. That means plastic pipe, clay tile and empty conduit come up just like copper and steel — all of it, on the same pass.

Water & Sewer

  • PVC water lines
  • PEX
  • Poly / HDPE
  • Copper & galvanized
  • Ductile & cast iron
  • Clay tile
  • Sewer laterals
  • Storm drain & culvert
  • French drains
  • Irrigation mains

Septic Systems

  • Septic tanks & lids
  • Distribution boxes
  • Drain fields
  • Field laterals
  • Tank inlet & outlet lines
  • Abandoned tanks

Power & Communications

  • Buried electric service
  • Feeders to shops & barns
  • Well pump power
  • Site & parking lot lighting
  • Cable TV / coax
  • Fiber optic
  • Telephone
  • Security & data conduit
  • Empty conduit

Gas, Fuel & Tanks

  • Poly gas lines
  • Steel gas lines
  • Propane runs
  • Buried fuel lines
  • Underground storage tanks
  • Cisterns & vaults
  • Footings & slabs
  • Voids & washouts

Plastic is what we get called for. PVC, PEX, poly, clay tile and empty conduit all show up on radar — these are routine finds for us, not hard ones. They only get missed because a conventional locator has to trace a signal through metal, so it walks right past them. That is why they are the lines excavators hit.

And you’ll see exactly where they run

We mark every line right on the ground in bright paint, in the standard APWA colors your crew already reads — with depths written beside them. No guessing off a drawing, no squinting at a phone. Your operator sees the line from the seat.

  • Electric
  • Gas & fuel
  • Comms & fiber
  • Water
  • Irrigation
  • Sewer & drain

Our Equipment

Leica DS4000 with RTK GPS

Professional-grade gear, not entry-level radar. It is the difference between “something is down there” and coordinates you can build from.

Radar

Leica DS4000

Dual-frequency utility detection radar with 200 MHz and 900 MHz antennas covering an 80–1500 MHz range. Its EsT technology delivers 40–60% greater penetration depth than conventional GPR, capturing shallow and deep targets in a single pass.

  • 200 + 900 MHz dual antenna array
  • 80–1500 MHz frequency range
  • HH / VV polarization switch
  • One pass for shallow and deep targets

Positioning

Leica Zeno FLX100

GNSS smart antenna riding with the radar, so every hit is recorded at real coordinates as we scan. You get 2 cm horizontal and 3 cm vertical RTK accuracy — centimetre-level positions that drop straight into your CAD or GIS.

  • 2 cm horizontal RTK accuracy
  • 3 cm vertical RTK accuracy
  • GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou
  • 184 channels, 10 Hz update rate

Together that means we can hand you paint on the ground and a georeferenced file — on the same visit, for the same trip.

Pricing & Scheduling

$200 base + $150 per hour

That’s the whole formula. Mapped site plans add $300 plus about an hour on site, and the base covers travel up to an hour from Elba. No surprise line items — you get an exact number back before we leave the shop. What drives it is simple: are we finding one known line, or gridding the whole property?

$200 Base · covers travel up to 1 hr
$150 Per hour on site
Optional +$300 Mapped site plan · adds ~1 hr on site

Travel: the $200 base covers driving up to 1 hour from Elba — most of the Wiregrass. Past that, drive time is billed at the same $150 per hour, quoted before we leave.

Rough estimates

JobTime on siteEstimate
Single locate — you know roughly what and where
Find a known line, tank, or septic1 hour$350
Full property scan — gridded coverage, both directions
Quarter acre2–3 hours$500–650
Half acre3–4 hours$650–800
One acre6–7 hours$1,100–1,250

Add $300 to any of these for the optional site plan — and about an hour on top of the times above, because every line gets shot with RTK GPS while we’re on site. Estimates only; actual time depends on size, access, and ground conditions. Most jobs don’t need a full property scan: tell us roughly where the line runs or which corner you’re digging and we scope it to that, for a fraction of gridding the whole lot.

What you get either way

  • Leica DS4000 radar sweep
  • Bright APWA-colour paint on the ground
  • Depths written beside each line
  • Photo report

Optional: add a site plan for RTK GPS positions to 2 cm, measured distances, and a CAD/GIS deliverable.

3 business days Typical turnaround
Rush & same day Available — just say so on the request

Optional Add-On

See an actual site plan

A site plan is optional — every locate includes paint on the ground either way. Add $300 and about an hour on site, and you also get these three sheets, with every line located by radar and shot with RTK GPS. Click any sheet to view it full size.

Download PDF

Sample data for demonstration. Your plan carries your site, your lines, and your field date.

Scope: Wiregrass GPR locates and maps underground utilities. We are not licensed professional engineers or land surveyors. Our plans are a record of what the radar found and where we shot it — they are not a boundary survey and not a sealed engineering document. If your project needs a sealed deliverable, we hand our field data to your engineer or surveyor.

Where We Work

All of Southeast Alabama

The Wiregrass is the southeast corner of Alabama — Dothan, Enterprise, Troy, Ozark, Geneva and the counties around them. We’re based in Elba and work two hours in every direction from it, which also reaches Southwest Georgia and the Florida panhandle.

  • Elba
  • Enterprise
  • Dothan
  • Troy
  • Ozark
  • Geneva
  • Andalusia
  • Opp
  • Eufaula
  • Luverne
  • Greenville
  • Montgomery
  • Headland
  • Abbeville
  • Daleville
  • Fort Novosel
  • Samson
  • Hartford
  • Slocomb
  • Brundidge
  • Marianna, FL
  • Panama City, FL
  • Bainbridge, GA
  • Columbus, GA

Our Office

22529 Hwy 189
Elba, AL 36323

Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm · By appointment

Emergencies & same-day: (334) 981-0051

Submit a Locate Request

Questions

Straight answers

Do I still need to call 811?

Yes — it’s free and required by Alabama law, with two working days’ notice. 811 marks the public utilities. We handle every private line past the meter that 811 won’t touch. Use both and you’re covered.

Can you find plastic pipe?

Yes — that’s where radar earns its keep. PVC, PEX, poly, and clay tile carry no signal for a conventional locator to trace, and empty conduit is invisible to one too. Ground penetrating radar reads the ground itself, so it picks up non-metallic lines the same as copper or steel.

How deep can you see?

The DS4000’s dual 200/900 MHz antennas and EsT technology give us 40–60% more penetration depth than conventional GPR, and we pick up shallow and deep targets in the same pass. On typical Wiregrass sandy soil that reaches well past normal excavation depth. We’ll confirm what we can reach on your specific site when we review your request.

What does it cost?

$200 base plus $150 per hour, and a mapped site plan adds $300 plus about an hour on site. The base covers travel up to an hour from Elba; past that, drive time bills at the same $150 an hour. What moves the number most is scope: finding one known utility is usually a single hour on site, around $350. Gridding an entire property takes far longer — a half acre runs 3–4 hours, roughly $650–800, or 4–5 hours and $1,100–1,250 with a site plan. Tell us which you need on the request form and you’ll get the exact number back with your callback.

Do I need to do anything before you arrive?

Just one thing: have the scan area mowed to 2 inches or shorter and clear of brush. We scan dirt, mowed grass, asphalt, and concrete — the antenna rides on the surface, so it needs clean contact to read what’s below. Everything else is on us.

How fast can you get out here?

Most work orders are done within 3 business days, and rush and same-day service are available. Put your dig date on the request form. If it is an emergency or you need us today, call — that is what the phone is for.

Will it damage my yard or slab?

No. Radar is completely non-destructive — the antenna rolls across the surface. All we leave behind is marking paint, and we can use water-soluble paint on finished surfaces.

What do I get at the end?

Marks on the ground in APWA colors with depths, plus a photo report and site sketch. Because we run RTK GPS with the radar, we can also deliver coordinates accurate to 2 cm for your CAD or GIS file — accurate to 2 cm horizontally.

Request a Locate

Submit a locate request

Same idea as an 811 ticket — but for the private lines 811 won’t mark. Fill it out, get a ticket number on the spot, and we’ll call you back within one business day.

Private Utility Locate Request Wiregrass GPR · Elba, Alabama

Ticket no.Issued on submit

Only the fields marked are required. The rest helps us quote it right — skip anything you don’t know.

1 Who’s requesting

Nothing is sent until the last step — your answers are saved as you go.

Submit a Locate Request Emergency