TL;DR
An 811 utility locate is the free marking of buried gas, electric, water, sewer, and communication lines that the national 811 call-before-you-dig service arranges before any excavation. Member utilities send locators who paint or flag their lines using a standard color code, such as red for electric and yellow for gas.
What it means
An 811 utility locate is the free marking of buried gas, electric, water, sewer, and communication lines that the national 811 call-before-you-dig service arranges before any excavation. Member utilities send locators who paint or flag their lines using a standard color code, such as red for electric and yellow for gas. Most states require the request 48 to 72 hours before digging, and a contractor who skips it is liable for damage and repair costs. Homeowners see the spray-painted marks on lawns and driveways a few days before fence, deck, or irrigation work begins.
Where it sits in the glossary
811 utility locate is part of the Trade jargon group inside the ProFix Directory glossary. Browse every term in this category from the glossary index.
Why Ohio homeowners should know it
This is a term Ohio homeowners encounter when reading contractor quotes, hiring paperwork, or inspection reports. Understanding it well enough to ask one good follow-up question is usually all the protection a homeowner needs.
ProFix Directory keeps definitions short on the index page and saves the longer context — Ohio-specific rules, where the term comes from, and which ProFix tools touch it — for these per-term pages so the term is easy to cite and easy to share.
ProFix tools that touch this term
See also
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