Before the grinder starts
Marking Buried Lines Before a Stump Is Ground
Grinding a stump means digging below the lawn, so the gas, power and water lines near it are marked through 811 first, at no cost. Here is how the request works, how far ahead it goes in, and which lines the marks leave to you.
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Lines marked first
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The number to know
The free call-before-you-dig line
811 is the national call-before-you-dig number, free to use, and in Virginia the requests go to Virginia 811.
Whoever is about to break ground places a request, called an "811 utility locate", and the utility companies send someone out to mark their underground gas, electric and water lines near the work. It works the same way across the country, one state's center at a time, as 811 Before You Dig lays out.
A stump grind counts as digging. The wheel cuts below the lawn and into the root zone, which is exactly where service lines tend to run.
811Call before you dig
- Takes the request in Virginia
- Virginia 811
- What it costs
- Nothing, the locate is free
- What gets marked
- Underground gas, electric and water lines
- When it is needed
- Before any digging, a stump grind included
Plan the notice
Three working days before the grind
Virginia 811 asks for the request at least three working days before digging starts, and in that window each utility marks its lines on the ground with paint or flags.
Those are working days, so a weekend or a holiday does not count toward them. The Virginia 811 homeowner guide walks through the request step by step.
On a stump job the order is fixed: the locate goes in, the utilities mark the buried lines near the stump, and only then is the stump ground, to roughly 12 inches deep unless the site calls for more.
What a strike costs
Gas, power and water lines under a stump
A grinding wheel that strikes a gas, power or water line under a stump can hurt someone, knock out service and leave a costly repair.
Lines run through the same root zone the wheel cuts: gas, water, sewer and electric from the street, and nearer the house, irrigation or an invisible-fence wire. With the lines painted and flagged before the machine arrives, the wheel stays clear of them.
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Injury
A gas line opened by the teeth, or a live power line, puts the operator and anyone standing near in danger.
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Outages
A cut line shuts off the gas, the power or the water to the house until the utility repairs it.
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Costly repairs
A struck gas line turns a stump job into an emergency, and the bill for it runs into the thousands.
Your part
Private lines, sprinklers and lighting
811 marks the public utility lines, so sprinkler heads, irrigation, landscape lighting and any other private line in the yard are left for the homeowner to flag.
Lines put in for the property itself belong to no utility, so no locator comes out for them. A grinding crew is not held responsible for concealed items such as sprinkler heads and buried irrigation or lighting lines unless they were marked or exposed first. Walk the yard before grind day and set a flag or a stake on each one near the stump.
811 marks
Each utility sends its own locator to the yard for what it owns.
- Gas lines
- Electric lines
- Water lines
The lines the owner marks
- Sprinkler lines
- Irrigation
- Landscape lighting
- Private lines to a shed or outbuilding
Who calls 811 for a stump job
Some grinding crews place the locate request themselves and others ask the homeowner to call it in, and the estimate says which way your job goes.
Either way, the marks have to be on the lawn before the grinder starts. If the request is yours to place, give the stump's spot in the yard as the dig site, and flag your private lines while the utilities do theirs. Richmond stump work starts with the locate on every residential grind.
residential stump grindingCommon questions
Calling 811, Answered
Is Virginia 811 free?
Yes. Placing the request costs nothing, and the utilities mark their underground gas, electric and water lines at no charge, as the section on the free call-before-you-dig line explains. The private lines in the yard are the one part left to you.
Do I need to call 811 for tilling?
Tilling breaks ground, and 811 is meant to be called a few working days before any digging project, planting trees and shrubs among them. In Virginia the request is free and needs three working days before the digging, so place it before the tiller goes in.
Google reviews
Neighbors on the Work We Did
We had trees removed by Elias who than used Garcia to remove stumps. Great work. Curtious, polite and got it done in no time. Thank you.
Garcia stump grinding is awesome! He took care of a lot of stumps we had in an efficient way. Our yard looks so much better! Highly recommend.
The Garcia Stump Grinding team gets it done every time rain or shine. We still have more work to do and we will call them again being that we only work with these guys. Highly recommend. Easy to get along with and they work extremely quick and clean. Really, these guys will steam roll a tree/ stump job.
A Stump Near Buried Lines?
Tell us where the stump sits and what runs near it. The free estimate covers the whole job and says who places the locate. We answer Monday to Saturday, 7 am to 6 pm, and return any other call the next working morning.
We show up when we say we will, and we quote the whole job before we start, with no surprise charges after.