There are certain industries where consumers tend to assume that if someone has the right equipment to complete the task, that’s enough. Have you ever asked around when you needed to hire a professional photographer and had someone respond with, “So-and-so has a nice camera. You should call them.”?
We sometimes hear this type of comment at our company when someone needs underground scanning services. They’ll say something like, “My buddy works for a company that has a ground penetrating radar machine. They’ll probably let me borrow it,” or, “I know a guy who does a little GPR scanning as a side gig. He’ll do it for cheap.”
Having good underground scanning equipment and knowing how to use it properly are two very different things. While the actual operation of a GPR scanning device isn’t all that complicated, the interpretation of the data it puts out is actually quite complex.
For example, the type of soil that is being scanned can greatly affect the scan. If the soil contains a lot of moisture or if it has heavy clay content, our technicians will read the scan differently than if they are dealing with dry, sandy soil. It also takes a lot of training and experience on the part of our technicians to differentiate between the types of buried utilities and hazards they regularly come across. To the untrained eye, a PVC irrigation line might not look very different from a power line, but a trained technician would be able to tell the difference between the two.
It’s also the case that the same GPR antenna should not be used in every situation. Some antennas are designed to provide relatively high-resolution images but can only do so for items at a shallow depth. Other antennas have a lower frequency and can reach greater depths, but the images they produce will not be as clear. A trained GPR technician from Enhanced Scanning will choose the GPR antenna best suited for your project, based on your soil conditions and the information you need in order to safely proceed.
In addition, GPR isn’t the only technology we have at our disposal at Enhanced Scanning. If the results of the GPR scan are inconclusive, we can bring in other tools to provide you with a more complete picture of what is located below the surface of the ground.
Our ultimate goal is to provide you with accurate information about what is located below the surface of the ground before you start digging or excavating. Your safety is our number one concern!
Contact us today at Enhanced Scanning to schedule service or to learn more about the underground scanning services we provide.