Construction projects that involve excavation usually involve the process of daylighting as well, that is, the process of finding underground pipes and determining their underground location and direction – small wonder that the boost experienced by the Centennial State’s construction industry has brought about and is continuously motivating the development of the Colorado daylighting industry as well.
What is Daylighting?
Daylighting is the process of identifying the location of underground pipelines and utilities on a construction site, in order to avoid them, to remove them, to repair them or to reuse them to serve the new construction.
Daylighting has been traditionally performed by hand digging. The manual digging process used to involve high labor costs and long completion times, but nowadays more and more Colorado companies use advanced equipment to complete the daylighting process in a safe, quick and professional manner.
Modern Daylighting Technologies – Types and Benefits
The two most widespread technologies in daylighting are vacuum excavation and hydrovac excavation.
Vacuum excavation involves the usage of equipment that delivers high-pressure air to loosen the soil and to excavate into the layers underneath the surface and then extracts the loosened-up soil with the help of vacuum. Most vacuum excavation systems are connected to a tank into which the machine moves the extracted soil and debris, leaving the job site completely debris-free when the excavation process is complete.
Hydrovac excavation is very similar to vacuum excavation, but the process involves the employment of water to penetrate the soil. The slurry generated during the injection of water is removed using powerful vacuum, just like in the case of the previous method.
The Benefits of Professional Daylighting
One of the most important benefits of hiring a professional company that uses vacuum excavation or hydrovac equipment is increased safety for the construction team as well as for the entire work site. According to recently collected statistical data, hand excavation is to be blamed for at least 20% of utility damages across the country – not knowing where old utility pipes or cables are located, construction workers can easily dig into the pipes and cables. Vacuum and hydrovac excavation, on the other hand, are non-invasive, completely safe methods that detect pipes and cables before damaging them.
The other major benefit of modern daylighting is efficiency. Both vacuum and hydrovac excavation take only a few minutes to do the excavation work that would take a team of construction worker days to complete and as time is money, these professional excavation methods can significantly reduce construction costs as well.
Daylighting done with vacuum or water is also very convenient in terms of comfort and order on the job site. Both types of machines are very silent and they both remove all the soil and debris generated during the daylighting process and store in a special tank that can be later on emptied in a suitable location.
Whether your excavation project is large or small, the Colorado daylighting industry is ready to offer you the perfect, quick, safe and hassle-free solution – contact local experts for consultation and hire them to get the job done on your site as efficiently as possible.