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Directional drilling is a specialized construction technique used by several companies worldwide. It includes laying items such as pipes and communication lines underground without digging up a trench, preserving the area’s aesthetic appeal. Horizontal directional drilling HDD involves three steps.

• First, a pilot hole is drilled directionally from one surface to another.
• The pilot hole is enlarged to make it wide enough to install a new pipeline.
• Lastly, the pipeline gets pulled into the hole.

There’s no need to employ large crews, perform costly digging, conduct road closures, and go through other traditional excavating and pipe installation complications when you’re using this method.

Here, we will discuss the six advantages of using horizontal directional drilling HDD technique in hydro excavation projects:

Quick And Efficient Installations

The horizontal directional drilling method makes for a much faster installation of underground utilities. Digging a trench underground to add a piping system does significant damage not only to the ground but also takes a considerable amount of time to put everything back together.

However, using the directional drilling technique requires digging only one pilot hole and a machine to replace the underground piping system. Using the HDD method means displacing, reburying, and disposing of lesser dirt compared to conventional methods. This ensures maximum time savings for different excavation purposes, including water and sewer line and utilities.

Increased Durability

One significant advantage of horizontal directional drilling is that it makes use of increasingly durable materials with a long useful lifespan. Besides this, it provides increased utility placement accuracy, avoiding potential damages during the installation process. HDD allows efficient pipe and utility installation under rivers, driveways, and burying these lines improves the overall processes durability.

Less Disruptions

Horizontal directional Drilling displaces less soil and doesn’t require you to dig down into a property’s entire length of underground utilities. This helps to preserve landscaping without causing any disruptions.

Disruption refers to the overall disrupted landscaping and the amount of time taken to complete a particular hydro excavation project. HDD reduces both these factors significantly, which is why it’s the most preferred drilling technique today.

Decreased Costs

As horizontal directional drilling is a quicker technique, it also means lower process costs. Also, less dirt displacement means a lesser need for dirt replacement, which saves time. HDD also requires fewer operators; which results in significant savings in terms of workforce. There’s usually less equipment needed as this method doesn’t rely on backhoes and other heavy equipment rentals, reducing overall costs.

Enhanced Location Flexibility

Horizontal directional drilling provides obstruction-free pipes, water and sewer lines, and utility installation. Suppose you need to place a utility line under a road, driveway, river, or area where the line must curve; horizontal drilling allows for all as it’s an increasingly flexible drilling method.

Fewer Permit Issues

Whether you need to drill an area for a residential or commercial purpose, horizontal directional drilling requires little to no permitting. This is because it’s a drilling method that causes significantly less disturbance and debris. You also don’t need to block traffic when using HDD compared to traditional drilling techniques.

As HDD has fewer works and equipment requirements, it’s relatively easier to get approval from concerned authorities to perform the required drilling job.

About Ghost Hydrovac

Ghost Hydrovac offers specialized hydro excavation services, including horizontal directional drilling across Alberta and BC. Visit our website to learn more about our services or contact us here for personalized service.

When it comes to excavating and removing hard and frozen soil and other materials from underground utilities, hydro excavation is a safe method. It removes all unwanted matter, leaving underground tools, utilities, and plant matter undamaged. These specialized vacuum trucks perform hydrovac projects, a safer and more effective option than traditional digging techniques.

Hydrovac trucks can get the excavation jobs done safely and cost-efficiently. They provide safe removal of unwanted substances buried underneath the ground, eliminating the potential risk of accidents that may otherwise lead to financial obligations and serious physical injuries. As these trucks can dig in virtually all soil types, including clay, they offer the most practical form of digging up frozen ground.

A hydrovac truck equipped with a debris tank and water reservoir can suck up underground materials, like clay, gravel, and stone. You can safely and effectively use it for various hydrovac jobs, including daylighting, utility location, soil trenching, debris removal, directional drilling, potholing, backfill restoration, cold weather digging, and pipeline and utility crossing. Let’s discuss some of these hydro excavation projects briefly:

• Daylighting: Daylighting is when hydrovac trucks are used to uncover and expose underground utilities to broad daylight to ensure on-site safety. It results in reducing costs and increasing the productivity of the excavation process.
• Trenching: Trenching is one of the most common excavation methods, carried out through specialized vacuum trucks. There are different trenching techniques, like slot, perimeter, box and linear, and cross and boundary trenching, depending on the particular excavation project.
• Directional Drilling: This excavation technique can make necessary underground changes in specific directions and depth using hydrovac trucks.
• Pipeline & Utility Crossing: This excavation method is used in congested areas to ensure underground installations are not damaged during the drilling process. Using this technique, vacuum trucks help in excavating regions adjacent to pipeline and utility crossings without causing any damage to them.

Now, we will look into some of the top reasons why you should choose a hydrovac truck for your excavation project:

Lesser Manpower Required

When using techno-specific dirt vacuum trucks, there’s less demand for a workforce, which is why these trucks are low-cost and less time-consuming. These vacuum trucks can save you a lot more time and money than traditional methods.

Increased Operational Safety

Traditional digging methods use manual digging tools like backhoes, risking your human resources’ safety and the underlying pipes and utilities. Since no conventional equipment is used when deploying a dirt vacuum truck, it results in increased worker and underground utility safety.

No Damage To Surrounding Assets

These hydro excavation trucks use high-pressure water to excavate underground areas and then use a vacuum to suck up any debri and other unwanted material. Traditional equipment could harm the environment and disturb the surrounding area, using hydrovac trucks results in non-destructive excavation.

Enhanced Cost And Time Efficiency

An industrial vacuum truck sucks in wet and dry waste into the tank with the vacuum pipe’s help. Compared to conventional methods, which take days to get the work completed, using a hydrovac truck results in getting the job done faster. This reduced project time reduces the overall projects’ cost, ensuring the project’s cost-effectiveness.

About Ghost Hydrovac

Ghost Hydrovac provides expert hydrovac services, including hydro excavation, directional drilling, cleaning, washing, and more using specialized hydrovac trucks in Alberta and BC. Visit our website to learn more about our services or contact us here for personalized service.

The most common washing technique used in commercial and industrial settings is pressure washing, which can clean almost any type of dirty surface. However, there are some dirty surfaces and buildings that require a tougher approach to clean them completely. This is where steam cleaning finds its application. In this technique, steam is introduced at high temperatures at a lower GPM (Gallons Per Minute) flow. In this type of cleaning, grease, grime and dirt are removed through hot steam instead of pressure-washing.

Steam cleaning services prefer this method as it requires less water usage and cleans more efficiently and faster, thus reducing operating and labor costs. In this post, we have enlisted some of the advantages and applications of the steam cleaning technique.

Advantages Of Steam Cleaning

If you are looking for a way to remove grease and grime from any surface efficiently, then steam cleaning offers you a significant advantage over other traditional cleaning methods. For instance, using a pressure-washer sometimes leaves behind an oily residue, even when you use hot water. But if you use high-temperature steam with your pressure washer, it will completely remove the stuck-on dirt and oily residue.

This is important; if you are rebuilding an engine, you need to clean it thoroughly. Another place where you can use steam cleaning is your restaurant, where you have grease and oil stains on the walls and floors that have built-up over the months.

Efficiency

Steam cleaning uses a small quantity of water for operation. This means that the amount of run-off and splatter after each cleaning cycle is relatively low. When using a hot water pressure washer, you will still splatter oil residues when removing them, and the quantity of water runoff will also be higher. Therefore professional cleaners employ the steam cleaning method in the majority of their jobs. To avoid reclamation, professional cleaners use this technique as it reduces the amount of run-off.

Effectiveness

One major benefit of the steam cleaning technique is heat. The heat ensures faster, is and is more efficient, and effective at cleaning, using less water to get the job done. Chemical detergents work best when used with steam as they emulsify dirt and oil much better. This ensures thorough cleaning that leaves no oil residues behind. If you plan on repainting or refinishing any surface, this method is perfect as it ensures that the surface will remain clean for a long time.

Lower Operating Costs

A lesser quantity of water is used in steam pressure washers, and hot water evaporates at a relatively higher rate. This ensures that the total amount of water run-off is less than 55 percent, unlike in a standard pressure washer. This means that there is less water consumption and runoff; hence the waste of resources is significantly reduced. It also lowers the steam cleaning system’s total operating cost, which provides a huge advantage to professional cleaners. Thus steam cleaning decreases your expenses which can be redirected towards other places.

Applications Of Steam Cleaning

The following are some common applications of steam cleaning.

Gum Removal

You may have noticed a piece of gum stuck on a driveway or sidewalk. Removing it with a steam pressure washer makes the otherwise difficult task easier. The combination of high temperatures and pressurized steam allows the gum to break free from the surface, thus effectively removing it.

Cleaning Grease Traps

One of the toughest spots to clean in a food processing plant or a restaurant is one with grease or oil traps in them. Using a steam pressure washer will allow you to remove the grease trap completely without having to use any elbow grease.

Some other places where steam cleaning finds its application includes auto shops where you can clean off engines and transmissions before working on them. Another example is cleaning delicate surfaces such as monuments, memorials, headstones, and historical buildings without causing permanent damage.

Steam pressure cleaning is an ideal method for wide-ranging cleaning jobs. It causes less pressure against any surface you are cleaning and significantly reduces the chances of permanent damage.

About Us

Ghost Hydrovac offers fully-mobilized solutions in tackling frozen lines and washing and degreasing industrial equipment, utilizing ultramodern power steam cleaning and pressure blasting techniques. For more information about our services, visit our website or contact us.

Hydrovac excavation is a relatively new digging method that uses a precise and pressurized stream of water and a powerful vacuum to excavate and evacuate the soil. It is a non-destructive and non-mechanical process compared to traditional excavation and requires reliable contractors and professional people to dig up the ground as efficiently as possible.

Choosing the right hydrovac company is a critical decision as it can make or break your project. A professional hydro excavation company will be able to help complete your project faster with greater efficiency and precision while also offering reasonable rates. Below are five things to keep in mind when hiring a reliable and professional hydro-excavation company in your area.

Consider Their Safety Policies

One of the essential features of hydrovac technology is its safety. However, if the operator who handles the powerful hydrovac excavator machine is not careful enough, things can take a turn for the worse. For example, he might jeopardize others’ safety or damage the equipment, or worse, damage the underground utilities. For this reason, it is essential to hire a company that follows strict safety policies.

When interviewing a company for their hydrovac services, ask them to show you the relevant documents representing how safely the company operates.

Moreover, it is essential to keep in mind that locating underground utilities is only safe when hydrovac equipment is adjusted for water pressure. So, make sure to choose a company that is well versed and experienced in handling water pressure and the overall procedure.

Assess Their Expertise

It is the responsibility of the hydrovac contractors to take care of their client’s site. Although hydrovac procedure is far less destructive to the site than mechanical excavation, lack of knowledge and improper use of equipment and tools can result in unnecessary damage. This is why the person operating the project must know every nitty-gritty of the process and have the expertise to complete the job efficiently.

For example, technicians should precisely know the water pressure required for excavation as too much pressure can damage underground utilities. As a general rule of thumb, when excavating using vacuum excavation technology, the water’s temperature and pressure shall never exceed 115°F and 2,500psi, respectively.

You can check your contractor’s expertise by looking at their experience and the scale of their past projects.

Ensure They Are Offering Quality Service

It is important to be sure that you are getting quality service as this is the only thing that can determine your project’s success in the long run. You can judge their service quality by determining the standard of the company’s equipment, experience, safety policies, and reviews on various platforms.

Good quality equipment will affect the project’s speed and efficiency, whereas safety policies, experience, and reviews will help determine if you can trust the company.

Hiring a company with a good reputation in the market for its reliability, quality service, and cost-effectiveness can ensure your project’s success.

Check Their Prices

A hydro excavation company that charges too little for its services isn’t necessarily cost-effective. Their low prices might indicate they are compromising on the quality of their services and therefore may cost you more in the long run. While you also don’t want to go with the most expensive company. It is best to look for contractors that charge somewhere between these two extremes and offer quality service.

Compare The Speed Of Projects

Choosing between different hydrovac companies is quite a complicated task. However, one easy way to make the right choice between the two companies is by comparing their speed to deliver the project. The speed of completing a hydrovac project matters significantly, especially in time-sensitive trenching projects where everyone is always running on a tight schedule.

Therefore, you should hire a company that promises to finish their projects on time. To be sure of a contractor’s timely delivery of the project:

• Look at their past jobs
• Get recommendations from their previous clients
• Always get an estimated time of completion before signing the agreement

About Ghost Hydrovac

Ghost Hydrovac offers expert hydro-dig services such as hydrovac excavation, directional drilling, utility installation, cleaning, washing, and much more in Alberta and British Columbia. For more information, visit our website or contact us here today.

Although digging is an essential part of the human quest for progress, not all digging types are beneficial for every project. This is especially true in areas full of underground utilities, requiring specialized methods to perform excavation work safely. We can’t use conventional excavation methods to damage such utilities and, therefore, must employ advanced hydrovac excavation techniques to dig up the ground.

Hydrovac excavation is a process of digging up and evacuating soil using high-pressure water and air vacuums. Unlike traditional excavation techniques, this method of excavation is highly precise, accurate, fast and efficient.

The hydrovac excavation method utilizes an excavator truck that sends out a low, focused, and intense stream of high-pressure water, forcing the soil to break up. The slurry formed in the area is then suctioned and vacuumed by air vacuum to a tank mounted on the truck. This tank takes the debris to a designated location and dumps it there.

In the past few years, there has been an increased demand for hydrovac excavation services in Canada. Below, we have discussed the versatility of this process and its five popular applications.

Daylighting Or Potholing

Potholing or daylighting refers to the activity of exposing underground pipes and utility lines to daylight using a hydro-vacuum excavator. It is the best and safest way to expose utility lines such as gas pipes, sewer and water lines, telecommunication cables, and more without damaging them.

This application uses pressurized water and vacuum suction to excavate any soil type without damaging its surrounding areas and utility lines. Before this method, utility crossings had to be exposed by hand digging, as conventional methods would damage them. However, these methods, especially hand digging, posed a danger to workers if they accidentally hit a utility line.

This type of excavation is carried out in congested areas and is done to reduce cost and improve the process’s safety. It also significantly increases the project’s productivity as it is a much quicker way to expose the underground lines to daylight.

Slot Trenching

Slot trenching is an excavation process that involves digging very thin trenches and slots into the soil to place utility lines and underground pipes such as gas lines, water pipes, cables, conduits and more. Hydrovac excavation allows for very accurate and narrow trenches to be drilled into the ground and requires a minimum amount of backfilling.

This advanced form of excavation offers a much faster way to achieve slot trenching than manual excavation. Manual digging, on the other hand, is time-consuming and can damage underground utilities.

Debris Removal

Hydro-vacuum excavation is a cost-effective way to remove debris and clean certain areas without damaging their existing infrastructure. This method is ideal for cleaning drainage structures, utility holes, sewer lines, or catch basins that have become clogged.

Ghost Hydrovac provides affordable, reliable, and efficient flushing services for sewer lines, lift stations, and catch basins. We also provide high-pressure washing and steam cleaning services for various applications where you need dirt and grime removed. Some of the advantages of using the hydrovac technique for debris removal include:

• It can clean and flush utility lines buried hundreds of feet underground
• It can effectively remove dirt and debris around underground pipes and lines
• It offers a cost-efficient way to service and extend the lifespan of underground infrastructure, including utility lines

Cold Weather Excavation

Cold weather excavation poses many challenges for workers as they have to work in freezing temperatures to dig up the ground. Conventional digging during freezing temperatures also involves a lot of pollution. This is because the soil first needs to be thawed using cool, wood, or other chemicals before the workers can commence digging on it.

On the other hand, hydro excavation involves no pollution and uses warm water that allows the grounds soil to loosen faster. Using this process eliminates the need to expose workers to low temperatures and warm the soil with nonrenewable resources.

Pole Hole Excavation

Pole hole excavation involves installing holes for posts, poles, signs, and more. Hydrovac excavation is one of the great methods to accurately and efficiently achieve this digging task.

Holes for these items need to be of various depths and diameters. Hydro excavation uses pressurized water to create precise and narrow holes and then an air vacuum to remove dirt and debris. The precision of the hydro excavation process makes it ideal for piling hole excavation.

For more information on hydrovac excavation, visit our website or contact us today for personalized service.

Hydro excavation is a process of digging and moving soil using high-pressure water and air vacuums. The water pressure used in the process is so high that it loosens the soil and digs a hole. The wet and muddy excavated material is then vacuumed into a tank mounting on a hydro excavator truck which later carries the debris to a designated dump location.

Hydrovac technology is used in multiple industries and offers benefits that industrialists, especially construction contractors, celebrate worldwide. Compared to traditional excavation methods, this type of excavation is simpler, quicker, and more precise. It also requires less labor and is significantly less time-consuming than other conventional drilling methods that use manual shoveling to dig a hole.

Overall, hydrovac excavation has lots of benefits to offer. Let’s review some of these in detail below:

Advanced Technology

Hydro excavation uses advanced methods of digging. Although this method is not new, it is much more upgraded and has improved designs than conventional digging techniques.

The hydro excavator trucks used in the process are equipped with highly advanced vacuum systems, water heaters, and debris tanks. These trucks, designed to reach underground structures without damaging the buried utilities, use a combination of high-pressure water in a low stream and air vacuum to excavate the soil at a notably controlled rate.

Excavator machines then lift the mixture from the area through the vacuum and transfer all the debris to the tank via debris pipes.

Cost-Effective

Hydrovac excavation is a cost-effective and safe alternative to traditional excavation methods. It requires less labor, offers accurate and precise excavation, and minimizes damages to utilities, surrounding pipelines, and the environment.

For example, in potholing, installing cables, or other excavation projects, hydro excavation accurately and precisely moves the soil. Any pipes or underground utilities are not damaged, and there are fewer chances of leaks and cracks. This results in fewer repairs and significantly decreases the overall cost of the project.

Safety

Hydrovac excavation offers a safe method of excavating and digging the soil. It requires less workforce and fewer tools, making it a non-mechanical procedure. The use of heavy machinery in conventional digging methods pose threats to laborers and damage the surrounding environment. However, with fewer machines involved in hydrovac excavation, workers are safe from machinery mishaps and accidents.

Moreover, hydrovac excavation requires laborers to stay on the surface and out of the excavation. This further reduces their chances of getting injured.

Non-Destructive

One of the most significant advantages of hydrovac excavation is that it is a non-destructive method to dig up soil. In most excavation projects, it is necessary to protect underlying pipelines and cables from excavation damage. However, due to the invasive nature of conventional excavation methods, protecting utilities is not always easy or even possible in some cases.

Hyrdovac excavation poses little threat to the surrounding and buried utilities such as water lines, sewer lines, gas pipes, and underground telecommunication cables. It uses an intense and focused stream of high-pressure water that prevents damage to the area that surrounds it.

Moreover, since no machinery with claws and metal shovels is used, the damage to existing structures in the soil is minimized.

Efficient Waste Removal

Hydrovac excavation is a much more efficient method of excavation as compared to conventional excavation methods. In this method, the dirt is removed through a large vacuum and stored in a tank. This tank then disposes of the waste at a proper disposal facility.

Quick removal of the waste material and dirt from the excavation site greatly facilities the project. It shortens the project’s timeline, as less time is spent cleaning the area. It also reduces the project’s labor cost that managers otherwise spend on clearing up the site.

About Ghost Hydrovac

Ghost Hydrovac provides quality-focused excavation solutions to its clients in Edmonton and Surrey, Vancouver. We offer cost-effective, reliable, and premium hydrovac excavation and digging services across Alberta and British Columbia. For more information, visit our website or contact us today for personalized assistance.