GEO FAQs
Find practical answers about drilling, daylighting, and private utility locating with GEO across Ontario.
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GEO Locating traces and marks private utilities. GEO Daylighting exposes a marked utility using air or water excavation. GEO Drilling advances boreholes for environmental, geotechnical, construction, sampling, testing, and monitoring work. Some projects use all three services in sequence.
GEO works across Ontario, including the Greater Toronto Area, urban project sites, and northern or remote locations. Mobilization depends on the project scope, site access, and schedule.
Yes. GEO can coordinate private utility locating, daylighting, and drilling as one project scope. This reduces handoffs between contractors and helps each field crew work from the same site information.
Our crews receive comprehensive training across regulatory, safety, environmental, and industry-specific programs. Additionally, our personnel hold Reliability status, OPP and OPS clearances, fully qualifying them to work securely on government sites.
Have questions about our credentials or want to discuss your upcoming project? Contact our team today.
Include the project address, required service, planned scope, site access, preferred field dates, and your contact information. Send available drawings, public or private locate information, target depths, testing requirements, or restoration requirements when they apply.
Drilling FAQs
Methods, site access, sampling, testing, monitoring installations, and difficult groundwater conditions.
GEO performs environmental, geotechnical, and various specialized drilling. Available methods include solid-stem and hollow-stem augering, mud rotary, casing advance, diamond coring, air rotary, and portable Pionjar drilling.
The project requirements guide the setup. GEO considers the soil or rock formation, target depth, required sample recovery, in-situ testing, borehole diameter, site access, and available headroom before selecting the rig, tooling, and drilling method.
Yes. GEO has rubber-track rigs, a low-clearance CME 55 that requires 3.91 metres of headroom, and portable drilling equipment for locations that conventional truck-mounted rigs cannot reach. The team reviews access, ground conditions, ventilation, and working room before confirming the setup.
Yes. GEO supports soil sampling, rock coring, standard penetration testing, continuous sampling, cone penetration testing, pressuremeter testing, packer tests, and televiewer work when included in the drilling program.
Yes. GEO installs monitoring wells and soil vapour probes as part of environmental and geotechnical drilling programs. Installation details must follow the project design and applicable requirements.
GEO has completed boreholes and monitoring installations in artesian bedrock. Depending on the formation and project design, crews may use drilling mud, casing, cement or grout, and expandable well plugs to control flow and protect the borehole. GEO reviews the expected conditions before confirming the drilling plan.
Daylighting FAQs
Utility exposure, air and water excavation, surface access, spoil handling, and site planning.
Locating traces and marks the expected route of a buried utility. Daylighting opens a small area over the mark so the crew can see the utility before drilling, excavation, inspection, or repair continues.
Yes. Daylighting exposes a utility, but it does not replace the required public and private locates. Confirm the locate status for every planned exposure point before the daylighting crew begins work.
Air excavation uses compressed air to loosen soil while the vacuum collects dry spoil. Water hydrovac uses pressurized water to loosen soil and collects the resulting slurry in the truck. GEO selects the method for the soil, utility, access, and spoil-handling requirements.
GEO uses daylighting for utility exposure and mapping support, borehole clearance, tree-root exploration, infrastructure inspection or repair, and well installation support. The method is also useful where mechanical excavation would create unnecessary risk around buried services.
Yes. GEO can cut asphalt or concrete to reach the exposure point. Depending on the project scope, the crew can replace dry spoil or approved fill, compact the opening, handle spoil in drums, or leave the opening ready for the next contractor.
Provide the project address, locate status, number and position of exposure points, surface material, available truck position, expected hose distance, spoil or backfill requirements, and required date. Photos or a marked site plan help the estimating team review access.
Private locating FAQs
Public and private ownership, locating methods, field records, utility verification, and request details.
Ontario One Call sends a public locate request to participating infrastructure owners. Privately owned services, or services beyond an owner's demarcation point, may not be included. A private locate covers those services within the agreed work area.
Arrange a private locate when the work area may contain services owned by the property, facility, or another private operator. Common examples include lines between buildings, secondary electrical, private gas, internal water or drainage, communications, lighting, gates, irrigation, and process piping.
Electromagnetic line tracing applies and follows a signal on a conductive service. Ground-penetrating radar can help identify buried features that do not carry a traceable signal. GEO uses the available records, site conditions, and expected utility types to select the locating methods.
Private utilities may include secondary electrical, gas, water, sanitary and storm drainage, communications, security and control lines, irrigation, reclaimed water, and process piping. Every site is different, so available drawings and a site walk are important parts of the work.
The agreed deliverables may include surface markings and a locate drawing that records the located area, property limits, utility routes, structures, field labels, and signal notes. The drawing documents the field findings for the project team and must be read with its notes and limits.
Use daylighting when a critical crossing or work point must be physically confirmed before drilling or excavation. GEO can coordinate the locate and the daylighting work so the exposed utility can be compared with the field markings and project information.
Provide the property address, proposed work, defined work area, Ontario One Call ticket or public locate status, available site or as-built drawings, known private services, required date, and site contact information.
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