Drilling holes on my property -- electrical and gas maps (pool, drain)
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If I am a home owner in NYC and I want to drill holes on my property (for whatever reason, let it be a fence post), am I allowed to actually do that personally with my own equipment? Or is it that drilling holes (even though they're on my property) is allowed only to contractors working on my property?
Related question -- regardless of whether I am allowed to drill holes or not, am I allowed to have a technical map (or drawing) of gas lines and electrical lines under my property? If so, where should I get such drawings from?
In most places you dial 811 (usually called "Call before you dig") and someone will come out and put little flags where the known utilities are in the area where you want to dig. Its free.
About digging holes, I couldnt tell you.
Yep, calling 811 will get your utilities "marked".
As far as utilities that are "on" your property- none. The only utilities that are physically within the boundaries of your property are the service lines that service your house- and your house only. Or at least, that's the way it's suppose to be. There have been a few occasions that I'm aware of where that wasn't the case.
As Joe33 said, call 811 and they'll walk you through the process. Basically, you need to mark where you want to dig (either with survey flags or marking paint), then all the utilities will come by and see if any of it interferes with any of their lines. They are *NOT* always correct (I found a massive storm drain culvert that wasn't marked once, thankfully I was digging by hand), but at least you have covered your 6 by calling ahead of time.
Anything underground will be marked with spray paint, and overhead generally doesn't apply. The different colors of paint mean different things (gas, water, sewer, power, etc...)
Once marked, so long as there's no HOA rules you have to deal with, dig away. You'll only have a few weeks from the time you call 811 to do your digging AND have recourse if you hit something that's unmarked. Obviously, that won't include any privately installed lines, like sprinkler systems or electrical for lamp posts/garden lighting.
As for the survey (or Plat), which is the technical drawing, you're more than welcome to have one. I've got a hand-drawn map of my property based off 811 locations from prior digs. Not highly accurate, nothing legal, but I know where my lines run. If one already exists, you can get that from the county tax assessors office (usually), but not all counties have them and sometimes they don't have all the details. Beyond that, it's hiring a surveyor to draw out your plat and mark the things you want marked. Usually over $1000 and under $5000, at least in my limited experience (depends on if there's an existing record they can reference, might be cheaper if there is but then again that's already going to be free/public record).
If the OP is actually in New York CITY (as in Manhattan) the layers of utilities under the surface could be staggering, including subway lines, aqueducts, steam pipes, as well as the usual gas, water, electric, phone, cable, etc.
Digging a fence post hole won't hit a subway, obviously, but I suspect that permitting in the city is far more strict than we are used to elsewhere. In the OP's situation, I would find a licensed and insured contractor, make sure permits were pulled, and let that company take the chances of pulling an oopsie. Simply put, if I had the money to own land in Manhattan and pay the ongoing taxes and fees, you wouldn't see me digging holes in the ground.
Always have a locate performed before you dig. Utility drawings will give you the general location of buried infrastructure, but no body who knows what they are doing will start digging without a locate done first.
Drawings are kept for general planning purposes so that you know what to expect. As an example, you wouldn't plan to place a pool where your septic field is.
It never occurred to me that a homeowner couldn't dig on ones own property.
Yep, you should always call. This keeps you from getting electrocuted or blowing up the place, and protects you from liability if the utility doesn't mark the line. (which happens... my in-laws had a problem when the cable guys hit an electric line, took out a few appliances. We looked at the markings, and sure enough the high-voltage lines were marked right up to the underground transformer, but the service drops were not marked. Oops.)
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