New York 811: Call Before You Dig on Staten Island

New York's Real One-Call Utility Locate Service

New York 811, Inc. is the correct, official one-call notification center covering Staten Island and the rest of New York City, along with Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long Island. It's the communications link between excavators or diggers and utility companies, coordinating utility markouts before any digging occurs and operating under the state law governing excavation notification requirements. It is the only call-before-you-dig service we point customers to for any Staten Island project.

Why Calling Before You Dig Matters

Once you call New York 811, member utility companies with lines near your project site come out to mark them, typically with paint or flags, before work begins. Underground gas, electric, water, sewer and telecommunications lines run beneath residential and commercial properties throughout Staten Island and Richmond County, often at depths and locations that aren't obvious from the surface — striking one during a dig can mean anything from a costly repair and utility outage to a genuine safety hazard, particularly with a gas line.

When You Need to Call

Any project involving digging — a new fence post, a landscaping project, a new structure's footing, trenching for a utility line of your own — should start with a call to New York 811 well before the digging itself begins. That includes homeowner projects, not just large-scale construction: a fence post hole is a small dig, but it's still a dig, and it's still worth the call. Confirm the exact required notice window directly with New York 811 for your specific project, since that detail is best verified straight from newyork-811.com rather than assumed.

How This Connects to Dumpster Placement

Placing a dumpster itself generally doesn't require a locate call, but any excavation-adjacent work on the same project — setting posts, trenching near the placement site — does. If your project involves both a dumpster placement and any digging nearby, it's worth handling both in the same planning conversation, well before either the digging or the delivery. Knowing where utility lines run can also help inform where a container safely sits on a property, since that sometimes changes the best placement spot.

Where This Fits Alongside a Dumpster Rental

A renovation or landscaping project anywhere across Staten Island that involves both a dumpster rental and any digging should have the New York 811 call happen early in the planning process. We're not the utility-locating service ourselves, and we always point customers to New York 811 directly for that part of any project.

Questions About Your Project

If your job involves both digging and debris removal — a renovation, a fence replacement, a landscaping overhaul — call (718) 808-9313 and we'll help you think through the dumpster side of the project while you handle the New York 811 call on your own timeline.