Wherever you happen to live in the world, if it is inhabited, it is very likely that there will be a lot of underground services that carry electricity, gas, water, sewage, telecoms, and more, all buried just a few feet below ground level. All right, perhaps not if you live in the Amazon Forest, but here in Lanzarote we have all the above.
At CanaryDetect we spend our time using specialist equipment and years of experience for pipe detection in Lanzarote. If you are going to carry out any sort of excavation work, pipe detection in Lanzarote is critical if you don’t want to strike cables, pipes, and so on when you are digging. And you really do NOT want to do any such thing because if you strike an electricity cable, for instance, it can cause serious injury, and on occasion can be fatal.
CanaryDetect is a joint venture between the MVP Group and Sygma Solutions Ltd. MVP Group is a family-run business and is one of the longest running businesses in Playa Blanca. We are involved in real estate, villa management and maintenance, holiday villa rentals, construction, productions, and we have a pool and spa shop. We are a multinational, multicultural team that works together to bring you whatever you need in the sectors in which we operate.
Sygma Solutions is a UK-based business that has combined experience of over 100 years in the location and detection of underground services using the very latest equipment. Now we have come together on the island as CanaryDetect in order to help with the location of underground services here, so that you don’t have an unpleasant experience when you are involved in any sort of excavation work.
If you strike any sort of underground services when digging, the very least that is going to happen is that those services will be out of action until the utility concerned has managed to carry out repairs. However, you could also get involved in a lot of costs for damages and delays to other businesses who have been without the service for a period of time.
There may also be penalties for a construction job running overtime as a result. The worst thing that can happen is that workers who are carrying out the digging work can be seriously injured, and in some instances this can be fatal.
Around A Dozen Fatalities Each Year
For instance, in the UK there are estimated to be some 4 million excavations carried out every year, resulting in around 60,000 cable strikes, and about 12 deaths. Fair enough, as a much smaller island we don’t have as many as that, but even one cable strike is one too many.
This is why it is essential to carry out a thorough inspection of any area in which you intend to dig in order to locate and identify buried services so that you don’t hit them.
At CanaryDetect we use sophisticated equipment for this precise purpose, and we have the experience and the team to locate and mark the position of underground cables and pipework so that you can avoid them when digging. This equipment is not cheap – as you would expect – and it requires training and skill in learning how to use it properly so that mistakes are not made.
Limitations
Even though the equipment is sophisticated and the very latest of its’ type, it still has certain limitations, and it is vital to understand what they are when you use it. It is not just a question of taking it out of the box and reading the instructions.
For instance, here is a simple example. You might use our VLOC PRO3 locator and it records that there is nothing there. If you didn’t know any better, you might believe that to be correct. It might be, but then again it might not. Why? Because if the locator can only read to a certain depth there may be a pipe or cable a bit lower down. So, for example, you need to dig two metres down, but the locator may only read to 1.5 metres.
What’s the answer? You dig very carefully down for a foot or so, and then take another reading. This time the locator may show that there is indeed a cable there. This is why you need our services at CanaryDetect in order to be certain that you don’t hit underground services.