Powerlines and gas lines...What do you do when stumps get painted?

[arbor pro]

...And god help you if you hit a fiber line, they will bill you by the minute for lost revenue, you can tell them the home owner signed a waiver all you want but it will not help, if you think otherwise I seriously recommend that you talk to your insurance agent..

Around here, you're not going to hit fiber when you're only grinding 10" deep. If there is fiber in the area, it's going to be marked so even a blind man can see it.

The best solution is always to pass the liability onto the HO or utility. When in doubt, simply don't grind. Let the HO and utility fight it out. It's simply not worth a big repair bill and, as the contractor, you have to obligation to grind the stump if you're not comfortable with the situation.

 

[Hoosier]

Around here, you're not going to hit fiber when you're only grinding 10" deep. If there is fiber in the area, it's going to be marked so even a blind man can see it.

EVERYTHING should be marked so a blind man can see it?

You miss the point, sure one should not be able to hit it at 10" deep,hell, we really shouldn't hit anything at 10" deep.
But, from what some guys have mentioned in this thread I wanted to hammer on the fact that you cannot pass the buck if you do hit a line, period.

How deep does a big stump machine go anyway?It's not like the backhoe and sewer line projects...
If everything is installed correctly we should not have a worry, but lines can get shallow if they were trenched in on a Friday at 4:55 by the guy who had the " we are near the house anyway, who's gonna dig here?" mentality.

You still need to dig to check depth or walk away if you are within 2 feet of the paint...period.

Do what you want, I just dont want to see the story in the back of the trade mags called "Stump grinder hits buried utility".

 

[Curbside]

Many lines are no longer trenched in but rather directional bored or hydro pushed. These lines can get pretty wonky depending on obsticals like rocks and roots and operator experince. I've seen gas lines as little as 6" below grade yet 10 feet away they are back to 36" below grade. Always be careful around the lines and here in our province its the company doing the digging thats liable no matter what kind of permission you have or whether your working for a city or municpality. You have to bid those crazy ones accordingly. Tomorrow we're starting another round of stumps for the city. Saturday the hydro vac fellas start and on Sunday we followup grinding out the stumps in the city tree wells that have been hydro vaced.

 

[Hoosier]

Saturday the hydro vac fellas start and on Sunday we followup grinding out the stumps in the city tree wells that have been hydro vaced.

Can you post a short vid of that, it sounds interesting.

 

[ropensaddle]

I don't dig #### if it has to be hand dug they either hire a laborer before I show up or pay 100 per hour for me to take my sweet azz tine digging it. Having said that a job like those small stumps is 125.00 or my minimum. Take me an hour including pitch forking shavings into truck.

 

[Curbside]

Hydro Vac broke down so they only got 3 stumps done. Canceled us till next weekend. I'll see if I can take some pictures but really all it is the mud and dirt is all gone as they use a pressure washer and a big vacuum to suck up the water and dirt. The stump and roots are just sitting their waiting to get ground up with all of the utilities down around the outside of the hole or sometimes running under the stump. Everything is visible in the hole.

 

[curterj145xr]

Is there any value to using a metal detector to determine the location of certain lines? I think that even with PVC gas line, they are supposed to pair it with a metal wire so that it is locateable.

 

[Oly's Stump]

I posted here earlier that I never hit a gas line in 23 years in business. Cannot say that now. Last week I hit a private gas line between the house and pole barn. The owner told me that he thought the line was 20 feet away from the stump. He was wrong!

 

[ckliff]

For the little $$$ involved I say skip it. Let someone else take the risks, sweat the hand digging, or leave the stump & put a potted plant on it.