13/10/2026
A contracting customer of ours in the north of England was told the field was clear.
His trencher did its job a little too well and cut through one buried water pipe, which flooded the trench.
He was aghast and embarrassed. He'd been told there were no utilities underground. But cutting through existing services doesn't give a good professional look, and the person standing next to the flooded trench is the one who wears it.
His first move was to find a way to turn off the water and tell the landowner about it. Fortunately, he managed to shut down the water supply, fix the broken pipe and carry on trenching.
If he hadn't, he'd have been looking:
• At a flooded field,
• A job taking much longer than planned,
• A potential financial hit on top of the embarrassment.
So if you're trenching for a customer, don't take what they say about buried services at face value.
Do your due diligence and check yourself for water pipes, electricity cables, fibre optic cables, etc.
→ Start with the plans and study the general topography of the land.
→ Many old plans usually arent too accurate, so you may need some form of CAT scanner to see whats really down there.
This way, your trencher only cuts through what it is supposed to.
