As-Built Utility Documentation in Richmond, BC

Construction as-builts are routinely red-lined design drawings, not measurements — field changes, unmarked reroutes, and 'close enough' drafting accumulate. Independent verification catches the deviations before they become the next decade's mystery strikes. We find meaningful divergence on the majority of sites we check.

Open-trench, before backfill — survey-grade positions at minimal cost. Second best is immediately post-construction while installers remember the routes. The most expensive time is fifteen years later, which is when most owners call.

Routes, depths, materials, junctions, valves, and access points — layered by utility in CAD, attributed with capture method and confidence, plus a readable PDF atlas. Facility managers use the atlas; engineers use the CAD.

Yes — that's reconstructive mapping: GPR + EM + sonde tracing assemble the record from the ground itself. It's the same service as utility mapping, deliberately formatted as the as-built the building never had.

Only partially. BC 1 Call marks registered public utilities up to your property line — free, and you should always use it. Everything inside the line is private and unmarked: irrigation, gas runs to outbuildings, landscape lighting, old septic, abandoned services. Richmond's stock — slab-on-grade construction nearly everywhere, dyke-protected industrial parks, and extensive irrigation and drainage infrastructure. — is exactly where those private surprises accumulate. Private locating closes that gap before you dig.

Richmond sits on Fraser delta silts and peat with a water table often within a metre of grade. Richmond is BC's most depth-limited GPR environment — saturated silts attenuate signal fast. Shallow targets still image well, and we compensate with EM, acoustic, and tracer methods for deeper work. Where local conditions limit one technology, the survey leans on the others — EM tracing, sonde work, and acoustic methods — so the locate objective is met regardless of soil.

Richmond is inside our standing Metro Vancouver coverage — typical scheduling is 24–72 hours, with same-day service often possible during business hours (Mon–Sat, 8am–6pm Pacific). Pricing follows our province-wide structure with no regional premium; the free phone consult produces a firm number in about five minutes: 604-239-9934.