Our Vac Truck allows us to offer proactive cost savings and reactive emergency service
Utilizing some of our most advanced and flexible pieces of equipment, our vac truck division allows us to offer rapid response time for applications across all the divisions of the company and the general public.
Combining the vac truck with our pipe camera allows us to not only clean but to inspect and make recommendations for repairs and replacements.
- Cleaning of sanitary sewer mainline and service laterals
- Cleaning of storm sewer inlets and pipelines
- Risk free location of existing underground utilities
- Excavation and cleaning up to 400′ from the truck
- Minimal disturbance excavation for sensitive areas and tight spots
- Video inspection and pipe condition reports
Modern construction methods have changed immensely over the last 20 years. New machines, techniques, and materials have all been combined to improve efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. The area where it seems to have advanced the most is in the environmental responsibility of the projects, contractor requirements and eco-friendly storm water management.
In 1970 the “Save the Bay” initiative was founded with the goal of reducing the amount of harmful runoff entering the watershed from New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland in an effort to save many species – most notably the bay crab and Striped Bass (Rockfish).
In recent years “Save the Bay” has made it increasingly more common to see underground retention facilities, inlet filters, trash snouts and even inlets that incorporate trees and filter media being installed on both new construction and rehab projects. All the new products work together to control the amount of water leaving a site and ensure the water leaving is clean.
One of the newest products being used in this effort to clean up the environment and be environmentally responsible with new construction is permeable concrete and asphalt. Now often this product is overlooked because who really looks at the material our parking lots are made up of? This permeable product looks very similar to standard asphalt or concrete but acts very differently, it allows rainwater to slowly percolate back into the ground reducing the rush of water going into storm inlets. It also acts as a filter to trap many contaminants on top of the surface rather than just letting them runoff into our local streams and ponds.
But like any other product everything comes with a tradeoff, the permeable products require regularly scheduled cleanings to ensure the pores stay open and that the contaminants are cleaned off and disposed of properly.
DHM Excavating has developed a one-of-a-kind cleaning method designed to do a deep cleaning on permeable materials safely and efficiently. Our method uses a combination of high-pressure water jetting with a large volume vacuum system that cleans deep into the pores and then sucks the loosened debris away into a large holding tank for disposal in an environmentally responsible location later.
One of the fastest growing markets in excavating involves something most people don’t think of when it comes to moving dirt, a giant vacuum cleaner. This new method of excavation goes by several names, Hydro Excavation, Hydrovac, Water Excavation and with a slightly different method Air Excavation.
Hydro Excavation is a method of digging that uses a very small diameter high pressure jet of water to loosen soils up which are then sucked up through a large vacuum tube into a truck mounted holding tank. With water pressures up to 3500PSI this method of excavating can loosen up all but the toughest soils, solid rock, or concrete.
Every year, the number of construction projects that are happening in previously developed areas increases. This forces contractors to work around existing underground utilities. Most states 1Call programs whether it be 811 or Miss Utility have regulations spelling out how contractors must work around existing utilities. These regulations dictate that “Prudent Methods” must be used with 18-24″ on each side of existing utilities, with “Prudent” meaning hand digging or non-destructive methods. Hydro Excavation is widely accepted as the most effective and fastest method of “Prudent” digging for around these utilities.
Our Hydro Excavator truck can carry up to 1200 gallons of water for loosening soil and a 12-yard debris tank for holding the excavated materials and transporting them to be dumped on your site or at one of our approved dumpsites. We can also pair our Hydro excavator with our fleet of water trucks to maintain a high production level even on the most remote sites.
Sewer cleaning and inspection, while it’s not something that is on most people’s minds on a daily basis, is something that every facility manager should have as a part of their maintenance program. Far too often we overlook sewer line maintenance until it becomes a major issue and as we all know major issues always cost more to handle than scheduled maintenance.
Sewer lines from residences are recommended to be cleaned and inspected every 3-5 years and in a commercial setting every 18-24 months. Cleaning and inspecting your sewer line at these intervals can help prevent blockages, speed up drainage, eliminate odors, and spot a leak, break, or tree root intrusion early. It’s also recommended that you have a sewer inspection performed prior to purchasing a home.
Sewer cleaning and inspection on a regular schedule is a great cost saving measure as well. The average residential sewer inspection often runs in the $250-$400 range while commercial cleaning and inspection runs in the $800-$1200 depending on the amount of cleaning and the length of the line. The average sewer line break starts at $3000 and rapidly increases depending on how involved the breakage and restoration are.
Not only is cleaning and inspection more cost effective it offers the convenience of being scheduled. When a line is clogged or broken and backing up into your building or running across the parking lot posing a hazard to your employees and customers you need it fixed right now leading to disruption of your traffic flow, customer access and potentially closing your business down for the day. A cleaning and inspection can be scheduled for anytime, day or night when it either doesn’t affect or minimizes the impact on your operations.
With our vac truck we can clean sewer lines from 4″ up to 15″ on a standard setup and can go larger with advance notice. We carry a variety of flushing nozzles to handle pipe materials from Terra Cotta to ductile iron and everything in between with a wide variety of water pressure and mechanical cutters available as need. From basic preventative cleanings to tackling stubborn grease buildups we can get your line flowing again. And with our available inspection cameras we can provide documented HD video recordings showing the before and after footage for future reference or to aid with your insurance claim.
We look forward to helping you save money by being proactive with your site or residential maintenance. Please feel free to contact us to schedule a free onsite consultation or to schedule your cleaning or inspection.
Recent years have been a bit unusual for our area, the big snowstorms we remember from our childhood have missed our area. The tradeoff to no snow has been quite a few heavy rain and ice events that have pointed out an often-overlooked area of everyone’s facilities maintenance plans. It’s easy to walk over storm drainpipes, inlets, and retention systems without remembering they are there. The cleanliness and functionality of onsite storm water management systems is one of those out of sight out of mind things right up until it isn’t.
When storm sewer systems have an issue the first sign is often a flooded parking lot, creating a safety issue for your employees and customers as well as potential environmental damage from the discharge of dirt, debris and hydrocarbons that had been contained within your systems. These issues are a quick way to show up on the radar of your local storm water agency and potentially expose you to significant fines and even civil penalties.
Your local storm water agency has guidelines that vary slightly between municipalities but that operate under the same general umbrella of the “Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System” (MS4) program from the EPA. Since the early 2000’s the MS4 program has served to minimize the effects modern societies (garbage, erosion, salts, fuel, and oil products) have on our waterways and stream banks. Almost all municipalities either have in place or are working on policies requiring yearly for even more frequent) cleaning of storm sewers and other storm water management infrastructure. Storm sewer runoff once accounted for over 30% of all pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay but the MS4 efforts have brought that number down as low as 17% by some estimates.
By going to a scheduled maintenance and cleaning schedule you are not only maintaining compliance with these regulations you are going “Greener” by improving the quality of water in our watersheds and potentially saving yourself a lot of money. Cleaning your systems helps prevent flooding, stops illicit discharge of fuels and other waste, and spots damaged and failing systems early, often allowing cost effective repairs to be done instead of costly and disruptive replacements. Repair work has been shown to save 50% or more over having to replace a system. In some areas a documented maintenance program can even get you discounted rates on storm water taxes.
David H. Martin has the equipment and training to offer full-service cleaning of inlets, storm pipes and other storm water facilities along with video inspections and any needed documentation about the cleaning services provided. We offer the latest and most cost-effective vacuum and flushing technologies available to keep your site ready for whatever weather gets sent our way.
If you would like to schedule a free evaluation to see how David H. Martin Excavating can help you save money while helping the environment with our storm sewer maintenance programs, please contact us today.
At DHM we use a mentor-based training program for all our training programs. Pairing a senior experienced operator with new hires until such time as the new hire is deemed competent by the mentor and passes a job advancement interview with a member of senior management. As part of the training program the new employee will be trained on all aspects of the safe operation of the vac truck and attachments, driving safety course, CDL training if necessary, and hazard awareness specific to locating underground utilities by hydro-excavation or air dig methods. In addition to these specific trainings new hires must pass the following training courses to move up to technician level.
- First Aid / CPR
- OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 depending on previous experience
- Confined Space training
- Excavation competent person
- Fall protection
- Hazcom
- MSHA new miner or &bow, refresher
- Operator certification classes
- Silica hazard awareness
- JHA and Trench safety documentation training
- Traffic control training
- Job site specific trainings as needed
- Training on GPS rover and utility locating
This basic training curriculum is added to as needed for job specific requirements and as the new hire makes the transition to technician we start adding in certifications such as PACP and memberships to organizations like NASSCO. Each technician undergoes a minimum of 40 hours of new and retraining courses each year in addition to attending industry trade and training events.
Surface Cleaning
Modern construction methods have changed immensely over the last 20 years. New machines, techniques, and materials have all been combined to improve efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. The area where it seems to have advanced the most is in the environmental responsibility of the projects, contractor requirements and eco-friendly storm water management.
In 1970 the “Save the Bay” initiative was founded with the goal of reducing the amount of harmful runoff entering the watershed from New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland in an effort to save many species – most notably the bay crab and Striped Bass (Rockfish).
In recent years “Save the Bay” has made it increasingly more common to see underground retention facilities, inlet filters, trash snouts and even inlets that incorporate trees and filter media being installed on both new construction and rehab projects. All the new products work together to control the amount of water leaving a site and ensure the water leaving is clean.
One of the newest products being used in this effort to clean up the environment and be environmentally responsible with new construction is permeable concrete and asphalt. Now often this product is overlooked because who really looks at the material our parking lots are made up of? This permeable product looks very similar to standard asphalt or concrete but acts very differently, it allows rainwater to slowly percolate back into the ground reducing the rush of water going into storm inlets. It also acts as a filter to trap many contaminants on top of the surface rather than just letting them runoff into our local streams and ponds.
But like any other product everything comes with a tradeoff, the permeable products require regularly scheduled cleanings to ensure the pores stay open and that the contaminants are cleaned off and disposed of properly.
DHM Excavating has developed a one-of-a-kind cleaning method designed to do a deep cleaning on permeable materials safely and efficiently. Our method uses a combination of high-pressure water jetting with a large volume vacuum system that cleans deep into the pores and then sucks the loosened debris away into a large holding tank for disposal in an environmentally responsible location later.
Hydro Excavation
One of the fastest growing markets in excavating involves something most people don’t think of when it comes to moving dirt, a giant vacuum cleaner. This new method of excavation goes by several names, Hydro Excavation, Hydrovac, Water Excavation and with a slightly different method Air Excavation.
Hydro Excavation is a method of digging that uses a very small diameter high pressure jet of water to loosen soils up which are then sucked up through a large vacuum tube into a truck mounted holding tank. With water pressures up to 3500PSI this method of excavating can loosen up all but the toughest soils, solid rock, or concrete.
Every year, the number of construction projects that are happening in previously developed areas increases. This forces contractors to work around existing underground utilities. Most states 1Call programs whether it be 811 or Miss Utility have regulations spelling out how contractors must work around existing utilities. These regulations dictate that “Prudent Methods” must be used with 18-24″ on each side of existing utilities, with “Prudent” meaning hand digging or non-destructive methods. Hydro Excavation is widely accepted as the most effective and fastest method of “Prudent” digging for around these utilities.
Our Hydro Excavator truck can carry up to 1200 gallons of water for loosening soil and a 12-yard debris tank for holding the excavated materials and transporting them to be dumped on your site or at one of our approved dumpsites. We can also pair our Hydro excavator with our fleet of water trucks to maintain a high production level even on the most remote sites.
Sewer Cleaning
Sewer cleaning and inspection, while it’s not something that is on most people’s minds on a daily basis, is something that every facility manager should have as a part of their maintenance program. Far too often we overlook sewer line maintenance until it becomes a major issue and as we all know major issues always cost more to handle than scheduled maintenance.
Sewer lines from residences are recommended to be cleaned and inspected every 3-5 years and in a commercial setting every 18-24 months. Cleaning and inspecting your sewer line at these intervals can help prevent blockages, speed up drainage, eliminate odors, and spot a leak, break, or tree root intrusion early. It’s also recommended that you have a sewer inspection performed prior to purchasing a home.
Sewer cleaning and inspection on a regular schedule is a great cost saving measure as well. The average residential sewer inspection often runs in the $250-$400 range while commercial cleaning and inspection runs in the $800-$1200 depending on the amount of cleaning and the length of the line. The average sewer line break starts at $3000 and rapidly increases depending on how involved the breakage and restoration are.
Not only is cleaning and inspection more cost effective it offers the convenience of being scheduled. When a line is clogged or broken and backing up into your building or running across the parking lot posing a hazard to your employees and customers you need it fixed right now leading to disruption of your traffic flow, customer access and potentially closing your business down for the day. A cleaning and inspection can be scheduled for anytime, day or night when it either doesn’t affect or minimizes the impact on your operations.
With our vac truck we can clean sewer lines from 4″ up to 15″ on a standard setup and can go larger with advance notice. We carry a variety of flushing nozzles to handle pipe materials from Terra Cotta to ductile iron and everything in between with a wide variety of water pressure and mechanical cutters available as need. From basic preventative cleanings to tackling stubborn grease buildups we can get your line flowing again. And with our available inspection cameras we can provide documented HD video recordings showing the before and after footage for future reference or to aid with your insurance claim.
We look forward to helping you save money by being proactive with your site or residential maintenance. Please feel free to contact us to schedule a free onsite consultation or to schedule your cleaning or inspection.
Storm Sewer Cleaning
Recent years have been a bit unusual for our area, the big snowstorms we remember from our childhood have missed our area. The tradeoff to no snow has been quite a few heavy rain and ice events that have pointed out an often-overlooked area of everyone’s facilities maintenance plans. It’s easy to walk over storm drainpipes, inlets, and retention systems without remembering they are there. The cleanliness and functionality of onsite storm water management systems is one of those out of sight out of mind things right up until it isn’t.
When storm sewer systems have an issue the first sign is often a flooded parking lot, creating a safety issue for your employees and customers as well as potential environmental damage from the discharge of dirt, debris and hydrocarbons that had been contained within your systems. These issues are a quick way to show up on the radar of your local storm water agency and potentially expose you to significant fines and even civil penalties.
Your local storm water agency has guidelines that vary slightly between municipalities but that operate under the same general umbrella of the “Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System” (MS4) program from the EPA. Since the early 2000’s the MS4 program has served to minimize the effects modern societies (garbage, erosion, salts, fuel, and oil products) have on our waterways and stream banks. Almost all municipalities either have in place or are working on policies requiring yearly for even more frequent) cleaning of storm sewers and other storm water management infrastructure. Storm sewer runoff once accounted for over 30% of all pollutants in the Chesapeake Bay but the MS4 efforts have brought that number down as low as 17% by some estimates.
By going to a scheduled maintenance and cleaning schedule you are not only maintaining compliance with these regulations you are going “Greener” by improving the quality of water in our watersheds and potentially saving yourself a lot of money. Cleaning your systems helps prevent flooding, stops illicit discharge of fuels and other waste, and spots damaged and failing systems early, often allowing cost effective repairs to be done instead of costly and disruptive replacements. Repair work has been shown to save 50% or more over having to replace a system. In some areas a documented maintenance program can even get you discounted rates on storm water taxes.
David H. Martin has the equipment and training to offer full-service cleaning of inlets, storm pipes and other storm water facilities along with video inspections and any needed documentation about the cleaning services provided. We offer the latest and most cost-effective vacuum and flushing technologies available to keep your site ready for whatever weather gets sent our way.
If you would like to schedule a free evaluation to see how David H. Martin Excavating can help you save money while helping the environment with our storm sewer maintenance programs, please contact us today.
Training Program
At DHM we use a mentor-based training program for all our training programs. Pairing a senior experienced operator with new hires until such time as the new hire is deemed competent by the mentor and passes a job advancement interview with a member of senior management. As part of the training program the new employee will be trained on all aspects of the safe operation of the vac truck and attachments, driving safety course, CDL training if necessary, and hazard awareness specific to locating underground utilities by hydro-excavation or air dig methods. In addition to these specific trainings new hires must pass the following training courses to move up to technician level.
- First Aid / CPR
- OSHA 10 or OSHA 30 depending on previous experience
- Confined Space training
- Excavation competent person
- Fall protection
- Hazcom
- MSHA new miner or &bow, refresher
- Operator certification classes
- Silica hazard awareness
- JHA and Trench safety documentation training
- Traffic control training
- Job site specific trainings as needed
- Training on GPS rover and utility locating
This basic training curriculum is added to as needed for job specific requirements and as the new hire makes the transition to technician we start adding in certifications such as PACP and memberships to organizations like NASSCO. Each technician undergoes a minimum of 40 hours of new and retraining courses each year in addition to attending industry trade and training events.