If you’re digging anywhere in Nanaimo — even a fence post, even a garden bed, even a small excavation for a new deck — there’s a free service you’re probably supposed to call first. It’s called BC 1 Call (also known as BC One Call), and homeowners routinely skip it. Then they hit a gas line, a fibre optic cable, or a water main, and the repair bill starts at $2,000 and goes up fast.
This is what BC One Call actually is, when it’s legally required, when it’s a smart idea even if it isn’t required, and what happens on the day you cut through something you shouldn’t.
The Short Answer
- BC One Call is a free service. You call, or submit a request online, and utility companies come mark where their buried lines are on your property.
- In BC, it’s required by law before most digging on any property. The BC Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act applies to homeowners and contractors alike.
- The service is free. Damage isn’t. Cutting a gas line, telecom, or water main during a DIY project can easily cost thousands of dollars — plus criminal liability if the damage is serious.
- Locating takes ~3 business days. Plan for it before your project starts, not the morning of.
What Is BC 1 Call?
BC 1 Call (formally, BC 1 Call Underground Facility Locating Service) is a coordinated notification service. You submit one request — either by phone or through their website — and they distribute the request to every utility with buried infrastructure in your area. Each utility then sends someone out to mark, in coloured paint or flags, where their lines run on your property.
Who marks:
- Yellow: Natural gas, oil, or fuel lines
- Red: Electric power
- Orange: Telecommunications, cable TV
- Blue: Water
- Green: Sewer or drainage
- Purple: Reclaimed water or irrigation
- Pink: Temporary survey markings
- White: Proposed excavation limits (you or your contractor marks these)
Once you have those marks, you know exactly where NOT to dig within a safety buffer (usually ~1 metre either side of the marked line).
When Is BC One Call Legally Required?
Under BC’s Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act, a locate is required before any planned excavation — which is defined broadly. In practice, that means before you:
- Dig fence post holes deeper than ~30 cm
- Install a deck footing or pier
- Excavate for a shed, garage, or addition
- Trench for water, gas, electrical, or drainage lines
- Dig for a garden bed of any real depth
- Plant a tree with a root ball of any size
- Drive tent pegs, stakes, or ground anchors more than a shovel’s depth
- Do any grading or landscape work that disturbs original ground
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a homeowner, a contractor, or hiring a professional. The requirement is on whoever is doing the work.
When It’s a Smart Idea Even If You Think It Isn’t Required
- Any Nanaimo property built before 1990 — old service laterals and unrecorded runs are common
- Rural or acreage properties in Cedar, Lantzville, Errington, Coombs, or Nanaimo suburbs — lines can run in unexpected paths, especially older private wells and septic
- Older homes with multiple additions — every reno era added utilities, and not all of them are documented
- Anywhere near a road, driveway, or shared property line — telecom and gas often run along these
- If you’re not the original owner — the utility maps you inherited may not be accurate
The rule of thumb: if a shovel is going more than a few inches into the ground on a Nanaimo property, call.
What Happens if You Skip It
The friendly answer is that you might get lucky. The realistic answer is a decision tree of things going wrong.
If you hit a gas line:
- Everyone on scene evacuates immediately
- FortisBC dispatches an emergency crew (they respond fast — this is a public safety event)
- Repair bill: typically $2,000–$8,000+ depending on damage and access
- Potential violation charges under provincial and federal safety legislation
- If anyone was injured (fire, explosion, fumes), the liability picture gets very serious very fast
If you hit a power line:
- Live-current damage is a life-safety event — treat as an emergency, do not touch anything, call 911
- BC Hydro repair costs typically start at $2,500 and rise sharply for major damage
- If the line was carrying business or commercial load, you may also be liable for downstream losses
If you hit a fibre optic or telecom line:
- Not immediately dangerous, but expensive to repair
- Telus/Shaw/other providers charge repair costs to whoever caused the break — typically $1,500–$5,000+
- If the line served an emergency service (a business, medical facility, first responder network), you may also owe for outage-related liability
If you hit a water main:
- Flood damage on your property and possibly neighboring properties
- RDN or municipal repair crew called out — bill sent to whoever caused the break
- Typical cost: $1,500–$4,000+ for repair, plus water damage remediation
If you hit a sewer or drainage line:
- Environmental cleanup can be expensive if sewage spills
- Repair and remediation typically $2,000–$6,000+
None of these numbers include what your project delay costs. A commercial or contractor job that gets shut down for an emergency utility repair can lose thousands more in schedule.
The Cost of Doing It Right
Zero.
BC 1 Call is a free service, funded by the utilities themselves. There’s no fee to submit a request, no fee for the visit, no fee for the marks. The only cost is time — typically 3 business days from request to marked property.
How to request:
- Online: bc1c.ca (search “BC 1 Call”)
- Phone: 1-800-474-6886
- Provide: your address, planned dig area, project date
They’ll send confirmation and dispatch the requests to relevant utilities. You’ll receive notice as each utility completes their locate. Once everyone has marked, you’re clear to dig.
Where a Professional Utility Locator Comes In
BC 1 Call marks the public utility side — gas, electric, telecom, water, sewer up to the property line and often beyond. What they usually don’t mark:
- Private-side laterals (the run from your meter or main into the house)
- Irrigation, geothermal, or drainage you or a previous owner installed
- Buried propane tanks or lines
- Old services from previous renovations or additions
- Undocumented electrical to sheds, hot tubs, gazebos, garden lights, or outbuildings
For anything more than a fence post, or for older Nanaimo properties, a professional utility locate — done with ground penetrating radar (GPR) and electromagnetic detection — catches what the public locate misses.
That’s what our utility locating service does. We scan your project area for anything metallic, plastic, or clay-lined below the surface, and mark what we find before the shovel goes in. It’s the safety layer that catches private-side infrastructure the public locate never covers.
What About Small Jobs?
The instinct on small jobs is: it’s just a couple of fence posts, why bother.
The counterargument is the number of Nanaimo homeowners who’ve hit a gas line with a fence post auger. It’s more common than people realize. The auger goes deeper than a shovel and puts more torque into the ground; if a line is where you didn’t expect it, the damage happens fast.
The fair rule: any auger, any dig deeper than ~30 cm, any excavation on a property you don’t have a current utility map for — call. It costs you three days and zero dollars.
The Nanaimo-Specific Reality
Nanaimo has a mix of old and new infrastructure. Downtown, Old City, and some parts of Central Nanaimo have older services with less accurate records. North Nanaimo, Rutherford, and newer neighborhoods have well-documented modern infrastructure but still have complexity around service laterals.
Common Nanaimo hits we’ve seen or heard about from local contractors:
- Gas line hits on fence installations in central Nanaimo neighborhoods (older service runs)
- Fibre optic cuts on deck footings in North Nanaimo (newer utility runs, often shallow)
- Water main damage on driveway repairs in older neighborhoods
- Private-side irrigation and drainage damage on landscape overhauls (BC 1 Call doesn’t cover private-side)
None of it should have happened. Every one of these was a locate-first situation.
Ready to Book a Utility Locate?
If you’re planning any project that involves digging in Nanaimo — a deck, a fence, a small addition, a landscape overhaul, or any excavation — we handle utility locating alongside our mini excavation and bin rental services. Call 778-909-9874 or explore our utility locating page for details.
If it’s just a small job and you want to submit the free BC 1 Call request yourself, that’s absolutely the right first move. Go to bc1c.ca and start there. For anything private-side, older property, or higher-risk, we can help.
Related Reading
- Bobcat E10 vs a full-size excavator for a Nanaimo backyard project — coming soon
- Nanaimo bin rentals — for the debris side of any excavation project
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BC 1 Call really free? Yes. There is no fee to request a locate, and no fee for the utility marks. It’s funded by the utilities themselves as part of public safety infrastructure.
How long does BC 1 Call take? Typically 3 business days from request to completion. Submit a request 3–5 days before you plan to dig.
Is BC 1 Call required for small projects like fence posts? Under BC’s Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act, most planned excavation requires a locate. Fence posts, deck footings, and even deeper garden work are all included. The requirement is on the person doing the work — homeowner or contractor.
Does BC 1 Call cover my private-side utilities (irrigation, geothermal, unrecorded old lines)? No. Public utilities are covered up to the property line and often to the meter. Anything you or a previous owner installed on the private side needs a professional locator.
What’s the fine for damaging a utility in BC? Fines vary by severity. Repair costs are charged to whoever caused the damage — typically $1,500–$8,000+ per incident depending on utility type. If safety was compromised (gas leak, live line exposure), regulatory penalties and civil liability follow.
Does All Canadian handle utility locating in Nanaimo? Yes — we provide GPR (ground-penetrating radar) and electromagnetic utility locating throughout Nanaimo and Central Vancouver Island. We often pair it with mini excavation and site prep so it’s one visit, one team.