The term ‘daylighting’ describes the unearthing and exposure of underground pipelines and utilities to the light of day. Hydrovac daylighting works to increase productivity, enhance project safety, and decrease the overall costs of projects. The unearthing of buried lines has traditionally been done by digging by hand and, just recently, through the use of air vacuum excavation. 


Daylighting is a non-destructive way of excavating that replaces more traditional air vacuum excavation and hand digging methods. The primary benefits of using hydro excavation techniques over air vacuum or hand digging are both speed and safety.

Daylighting is just one of the few hydrovac services we provide.

Job Efficiency

If the conditions of the soil are just right, experts can expose a cable or pipe buried 4 feet deep in only 4 minutes total, while the same job could take as long as 45 minutes to completely finish through the use of air vacuum excavating, and possibly several hours to finish by digging by hand. Enhanced utility excavation means that customers can get more work done each day, thus decreasing the overall costs for projects while increasing margins. 

Furthermore, research has illustrated that excavating by hand is liable for 20 percent of all North American utility damages. On the other hand, hydrovac excavation is virtually non-destructive overall.

Hydrovac is used in a variety of general cleaning and excavation applications, such as potholing or daylighting of buried cables and pipes, culvert cleanouts, service repair pits, piling holes, trenching pole holes as well as other kinds of debris removal, shoring installations, and tank cleaning.

Why People Choose Hydrovac Daylighting


• Increased Productivity

By incorporating this technology, it will enable the crew to greatly increase overall productivity, which several kinds of vacuum excavators simply can’t do. Also, enhanced productivity diminishes the total project expenses along with project timelines, while safety levels increase on the actual job site in general.


• Better Safety Standards

The safety standards that surround this method are developed and incorporated by a team of safety experts. These safety standards meet or surpass those established by a number of natural gas and oil producers as well as large utilities. Due to their experience, carefully trained professional crews possess a proven ability to safely work around virtually every kind of utility, which includes energized cables as well.

• Innovative Technology

General field experience gives experts a rich source of ideas for enhancing both the safety and the efficiency of its hydrovacs. Therefore, the design implements several unique features and aspects in order to reach high performance levels over and above those consisting of other vacuum excavators, such as sewer flushing trucks, trailer units, industrial cleaning units, and truck-mounted units.

• Versatility All Year Round

It is designed to unearth frozen ground, even in very cold conditions. Hydrovac methods utilize a coiled heater to generate hot water in order to liquefy the frozen soil, while key aspects are protected from the weather elements and subsequently heated. These special features enable experts to offer very safe excavation techniques and solutions all year long.

• Powerful Techniques

Some sites naturally have limited access. Daylighting employs extra long vacuum and water hoses to allow crews to work over 600 feet away in many cases from the truck and also excavate at depths more than 40 feet in total. The hydrovac daylighting system is also created to work efficiently regarding all soil conditions, even frozen ground, rocky soils, and super tough clays.

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