Services

Have a clogged sewer pipe? A full culvert? We can help. Have a culvert that is half full of sand from the last rain? Want it cleaned out quickly and the sediment removed? You need our culvert cleaning services. What you want is pipe jetting. Using a jet of water and a special attachment, we are able to remove the material in your culvert and rather than leaving it just outside to collect again, completely relocate the sediment to any number of more useful locations.

Pressurized Water System Inspection

Santa Fe Vacuum Excavation is now offering high pressure camera and water line location capabilities while keeping the line in-service.
Using existing access points (fire hydrants, back flow preventers, saddletaps, PRVs, etc.) we can insert our equipment into pressurized pipeline up to 232 psi without disrupting service in order to observe both visually and acoustically. Our cameras and sensors can make up to three 90° bends and operate in temperatures of 23°F to 104°F.

• Pressurized pipeline inspection up to 220 psi
• Service does not need to be shut off or drained
• Fire hydrant or valve style entry point equipment
• 512 khz transmitter for marking locations of problem areas
• Inspection of up to 600 ft of pipeline from a single access point
• Assess pipe condition for corrosion, damage, or blockage and valve operation
• Locate leaks
• Hydrophone for detecting leaks
• Industry quality reporting

Pipeline Camera Inspection

We also have a sewer and dry type camera system for inspection of non pressurized systems. This approach is preferred for Sewer, Electrical, & other pipeline systems where a cost competitive solution is desired.

• Horizontal inspection up to 300 ft
• Tablet based interface for multiple screen inspection
• Water display

Find that line without breaking it! We use non-destructive means and methods to locate buried utilities such as fiber optic, gas, electrical, and water lines. Our mission is to provide quality locating methods that prove the presence of utilities to keep your project on task and within schedule. When locating a buried utility, the key interest is to find it safely and efficiently. Using a technique commonly referred to as potholing, also known as daylighting, an air or water based jet as used to break up the dirt and sediment. This allows for non-destructive exploration of the area, often finding other utilities and items that would have been damaged by a backhoe or even a shovel.

The only way to know for sure where a utility line is buried is by potholing. We use vacuum suction and a digging lance pressurized with air or water to excavate a hole in the ground, down to the utility. Using this vacuum excavation method poses no risk of damage to the buried line. We can even safely dig around and underneath existing infrastructure.

Potholes can be as small in diameter as 6 inches and as deep as 40 feet. A pothole clearly shows us the size, grade, location, alignment, and exterior condition of a buried utility.

Vacuum excavation allows us to backfill immediately with the same dirt we just excavated, or cover the pothole for later with little risk of collapse. Our potholing truck is equipped with a saw and jackhammer to make potholes in asphalt or concrete.

Santa Fe Vacuum Excavation uses methods similar to potholing to excavate slot trenches.

Excavation of a deep, narrow slot trench is a safe and efficient way to shed daylight on utilities across a large area. It is especially helpful when there could be many unidentified utility lines running through the same space. Slot trenches can be up to 30 feet deep and as narrow as 6 inches. They are not at risk for dangerous collapse, and they can be backfilled easily and even driven over by vehicles.

Pipeline cameras are vital tools for utility location. We use our pushrod camera to investigate sanitary and storm sewer lines, manholes, and culverts.

The camera can enter lines from 2 inches to 36 inches in diameter and travel up to 320 ft from the insertion point.

We can locate the camera head from above on the surface, using an electronic locator and a radio sonde signal. This accurate location method allows us to get the position, alignment, and depth from grade information on any point along the sewer line.

With camera images of the line’s interior, we can precisely locate breaks, roots, or tie-in fittings. We are usually successful in finding lost clean-outs, manholes and even septic tanks with our pushrod camera.

Santa Fe Vacuum Excavation uses a range of different tools to gather accurate information on buried utilities as safely as possible. It is the natural next step from there to create a practical map of these utilities, in order to preserve the information from being lost again.

GIS(Geographic Information System) survey devices are more available and easy to use now than ever before. We use our handheld GIS device to quickly shoot the location of an exposed utility line at the bottom of a pothole.

Our device records the spatial location and elevation of the line using data corrections from satellite networks. The accuracy of our locater is sub-decimeter, meaning we can place a point in space within roughly the size of a softball. This is more than accurate enough for most practical applications that involve existing utility lines.

We can translate this information for you into a handy map that shows a record of our potholes and electronic surveying, complete with all the data that we gathered in the field. These details can include pictures, line depth to grade, line size, line type, and line condition.

The maps we generate can be converted into simple PDF images or text descriptions. Or they can be formatted for you to open in Google Earth or AutoCAD and plug into your building plans. SFVE will work with you and your survey and engineering teams to produce the most usable information possible on existing site utilities.

If there's a tricky hole with risk of collapse, we can come up with a customized way to keep it supported and prevent it from collapsing.

We have done everything from wood shoring, hydraulic aluminum shoring, to large heavy industrial shoring like using 20 x 8 foot road plate.

We can rent our trucks and equipment. Some training is required. Have a look at our Rentals Page for more information.

We can train people how to run vacuum trucks and point out things they may not even know about the machines. We are happy to come over and work with operators on their trucks in the field to train your people. Same goes for utility locating equipment, how it works, and what it does in the field on actual jobs.

Santa Fe Vacuum Excavation loves Santa Fe and SF County, but we don’t just stick around here! Our company will send a truck and crew to your job site anywhere in the state of New Mexico. We typically charge an hourly mobilization fee per vehicle to travel outside the Santa Fe/ABQ Metro area, but once we are on site our rates remain the same no matter where we are.

SFVE has worked in the past on jobs for counties, pueblos, townships and municipalities across NM.