Call 811 Before a Roof Crew Puts a Stake in Your Yard

A roof job puts more into the yard than most homeowners picture. The dumpster has to sit somewhere, the shingle pallets wait somewhere, a ladder needs firm ground at its feet, and on some jobs the crew sets posts for a scaffold or a temporary fence line. Each of those touches the soil. Before any of it happens, the question is what is already buried under that soil, and Missouri has a process for finding out.

What the 811 call covers

Missouri's Dig Law requires anyone who is going to excavate to give notice to the one-call system before the ground is opened. A call to 811, or a request through the online form, sends the notice to the utilities that have lines in the area. Those utilities then mark their facilities on the ground with paint and flags, typically for gas, electric, telephone, cable, water and sewer lines they own, including lines that run in the public right of way or on the service line to your house. The marks are a guide for whoever is digging, and they expire, so the date on the ticket matters as much as the marks themselves.

The one-call system does not find everything. Lines on your side of the property that belong to you rather than a utility often go unmarked. A sprinkler line, a low-voltage light run, an invisible fence wire, a buried downspout drain and a private sewer lateral are common examples. A freeze and thaw cycle in winter can also move a shallow private pipe a few inches from where it was first laid, so a line that was never in the utility's records can still sit where a post is about to go. If any of those lines lie where the crew will work, a private locating company can find them for a fee. A homeowner who assumes the 811 marks cover the whole yard is the one who gets surprised.

Where a roof job opens the ground

A dumpster on the drive or at the curb usually does not dig anything. The ground gets more involved at the pad. Some crews set the bin on boards or a gravel base to keep it off the lawn, and the wheels or legs still press into whatever is underneath. Scaffold feet and outriggers press into the soil at each corner, and a long ladder with stabilizers can sink into soft ground after a wet morning. None of those is digging in the strict sense, but a post driven for a temporary fence or a sign is, and so is a hole for an anchor. Ask which of these will happen, and where.

A roof project can also involve digging on purpose. When the scope includes a new drain line that carries downspout water away from the foundation, the trench is part of the work, and it needs a marked route and a set depth. That is the case where the notice is not optional. A downspout that empties onto the lawn is a different question from one that runs underground to daylight, and the second one is where the digging happens. Read the scope to see which one you are being quoted.

Who makes the call, and when

In practice the party that digs makes the call, so the question to ask is who will be digging. If you are doing the digging yourself, the notice is yours to give before the shovel goes in. If a contractor or subcontractor will dig, ask them to write into the scope which company will place the notice and the date it will be placed. Do not accept a general promise to take care of it. Ask for the ticket number, which is a short string that identifies the request and ties the marks on the ground to a specific date.

Write the ticket number in the job file. Check the expiration date, and if the work will run past it, ask for a new ticket before anyone digs again. Photograph the marks before and after the dig, with a tape or a stick in the frame so the distance from each mark to the trench is visible. A photo file like that answers the question of what was marked and where the trench actually went, and it costs nothing to make.

Walk the yard before the crew arrives

Walk the yard with the crew lead, or with whoever will be the homeowner's contact on the day. Mark the spots you want left alone. Garden beds, a newly seeded lawn, an irrigation zone you already know about, a septic field that sits under the grass, and the footing of a play set are all things you can point at and name. The roof crew does not know your yard the way you do, and a written map from you costs far less than a repair later. Keep a copy of the map with the ticket number and the scope.

Questions to put to the roofer

• Which parts of the crew's work touch the ground, including dumpster pads, scaffold feet, fence posts and ladder stabilizers?
• Who places the 811 notice, and what is the ticket number once it is placed?
• Which private lines run across the property, and who locates them before any digging?
• If a line is struck, who repairs it, and does the written scope say so?
• Where does the dumpster sit, and what is underneath the spot it will rest on?

What to have in writing from Keys

If you hire Keys Roofing, ask that every ground-contact item appear in the written scope, along with its location and the notice details for any digging. Keys puts a written scope with photos and measurements in the homeowner's hands, so the yard work belongs in that same document rather than in a conversation at the curb. If something in the yard changes after the scope is signed, ask for the change in writing before the ground is touched. Questions about the yard can go to Keys at (314) 220-2333 before the crew is booked.

Tickets run on a clock

Locate tickets expire, and a roof job that slips by a few weeks can outlast one. Ask for the expiration date on the day the ticket is issued, and put that date on the calendar next to the roof date. If weather moves the job, the ticket may need a fresh request, and it is cheaper to ask now than to explain later why the marks on the lawn have washed away. Once the trench is closed, keep the photos and the ticket number together in the same folder, so the record of what was marked and dug is in one place for as long as the house stands.