Find Commercial Diving Contractors in Every US State

This page is the entry point to a state-by-state index of commercial diving contractors operating in the United States. It is written for bridge engineers, municipal water superintendents, port and harbor managers, marine contractors, and vessel owners who may need to buy underwater inspection, repair, or salvage services. It does not rank or endorse firms. It explains what these contractors do, how to vet them, how they price work, and the standards behind their operations. The index is organized by state because underwater work is highly regional; a contractor's base may be across a state line, but they may regularly work in your area. After you identify candidate firms using the state pages, use the guidance in this page to assess their credentials before you send out a request for quote. If you are unfamiliar with commercial diving, pay particular attention to the qualification section; a scuba card is not enough.

What commercial diving contractors do

Commercial construction, inspection, repair, and salvage. Typical work includes underwater bridge substructure inspections under the National Bridge Inspection Standards, interior inspection and rehabilitation of potable water tanks and reservoirs, hull cleaning and classification surveys of vessels, dam and intake maintenance, pier and pile repair, and marine debris removal. Contractors bring surface and underwater equipment: hydraulic power units, dive air compressors, hyperbaric chambers, sonar and video systems, lift bags, and cutting or welding gear. For heavily corroded steel submerged structures, wet welding is done to AWS D3.6M when joint integrity is required. Some jobs require support from ROVs before a diver is put in the water. A commercial dive team normally consists of two divers, a tender, a supervisor, and often a life support technician. The team exists because the work is risky. Any diver near a water intake, gate, valve, or pump must work under positive isolation procedures; differential pressure can hold a diver against a surface and has killed experienced people. Good contractors brief for this on every job.

How to qualify a contractor before you request a bid

Start with accreditation. Most reputable North American firms hold an ADCI certificate for their personnel and operations. Confirm that their dive supervisors hold an ADCI supervisor card. Ask for proof that the company operates under OSHA 29 CFR 1910 Subpart T. For bridge work, the chief of the dive team should be an FHWA-NHI qualified team leader; this is not a dive certificate, it is a bridge inspection credential. Ask if they have a hyperbaric chamber at the site or on call. Get the current insurance certificate: general liability, marine liability, workers' compensation, and USL&H. Ask about their safety record and any OSHA citations. Do not accept a recreational scuba card as justification for employment; that is not the same educational pipeline. If you are buying tank work, confirm that the coatings, sealants, or fixtures meet NSF/ANSI 61. For water tower interiors, they should know AWWA M42 and be prepared to follow AWWA C652 for disinfection. Even a small excavation or salvage job deserves the same diligence because diving contractors are not all the same.

How commercial diving projects are priced

Most commercial dive work is sold as a day rate per dive team. A standard team includes two divers, one tender, and one supervisor; that is four people. The day rate includes the compressor, hoses, helmets, radios, standby safety diver, and surface tended equipment. It does not include mobilization, which is the cost of getting men, equipment, and support vessels to your site. Mob/demob is sometimes a lump sum per job, sometimes a travel day. Many contracts also separate out tooling: hydraulic saws, underwater cameras, sonar, wheelabrators, welding equipment. Inspections are often priced by the linear foot of bulkhead or per man-hour in the water; construction jobs are priced on a unit basis. Expect 'touch time' on the bottom to be a fraction of the billed spread. Also, there may be surcharges for contaminated water, diving in live gated environments, currents over a certain knot, or work inside a confined potable water tank. Depth matters less than access and hazard. Ask for the line items, not just a lump sum.

Standards and regulations that apply to underwater work

Regulations specify both safety and inspection requirements. OSHA 29 CFR 1910 Subpart T covers commercial diving operations in the private sector; every contractor on a US job should be able to cite it. The ADCI consensus standards speak to team composition, supervisor qualification, equipment maintenance, and operational procedures. Federally funded bridge inspections must be scheduled under 23 CFR 650.311 and the National Bridge Inspection Standards; dive teams on those inspections must include a qualified team leader under FHWA rules. Municipal storage tanks: AWWA M42 provides inspection guidance, while AWWA C652 covers disinfection after work. Any material that touches potable water must comply with NSF/ANSI 61. For vessel owners, an in-water hull exam (UWILD) is guided by 46 CFR 71.50-3 for certain USCG-inspected vessels. Underwater welding is done to AWS D3.6M; a diver qualified to that standard is not the same as a topside welder. Corps of Engineers work often requires USACE EM 385-1-1. A letter from the dive company saying 'we do OSHA and ADCI' is not proof. Ask for specific compliance documentation on each project.

Seasonality: when projects happen

Commercial diving is not automatically summer work. The employment data shows a clear national seasonality, but regional patterns differ sharply. Minnesota swings about 59 points between peak and trough, Texas only about 8 points; the US average seasonal swing is 15 points. The framing 'summer business' is inaccurate. Many major segments run in winter. Lock dewatering on inland waterways occurs when barge traffic slows and that is often in cold months. Great Lakes vessel maintenance and winter layup happens when ships are out of service. In the Pacific Northwest, many estuary and in-water construction windows are tied to fish windows that can fall in late winter or early spring. After Gulf hurricanes, repair work runs through the fall. So when you build a bid list, do not assume that a contractor is unavailable in winter. Ask about their current workload.

How to use the state-by-state listings

Each state page on this site lists commercial diving contractors that have indicated they work in that state. The listing does not mean the company is headquartered there. Many divers work regionally, and a boat team may travel several hundred miles for a single job. Use the state pages to construct a starting list, then apply the vetting process in this page. If a state page lists only one or two firms, check neighboring states for regional shops that routinely mobilize to that area. For small inland states, the nearest real dive contractor may be in a coastal state. The point of these pages is not to rank; it is to give you the names that have cited that state as part of their operating area. Verify before you invest time writing a full scope of work.

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Questions about choosing by state

Do we need a commercial diver for a simple bridge inspection? Can't we use sonar?

For a Level I or Level II underwater inspection under NBIS, you may be able to use sonar or ROV as a screening tool, but hand-close inspection of key elements usually requires a diver. The Level III inspection at a frequency set by FHWA specifies a hands-on swim-by with underwater cleaning. Check the NBIS interval and refer to 23 CFR 650.311.

What is the difference between a commercial diver and a recreational diver?

Commercial divers are trained in decompression theory, deep air and mixed gas, surface-supplied equipment, underwater construction, rigging, cutting, welding, and communication. They work under OSHA Subpart T and follow ADCI consensus standards. A recreational scuba certification does not qualify someone to work as a company diver. It is a leisure credential.

How far in advance should we contact a commercial diving contractor?

For inspection that can be scheduled, 60 to 90 days is common because good firms book hull inspections and structural checks in specific environmental windows. Emergency work warrants on-call arrangements. If you are in the Northeast, a March bridge inspection may be competing with spring runoff work. Talk early.

What if a state page lists a diving contractor that only does recreational scuba charters?

That should not happen, but if it does, ignore them. The qualifications and certification levels are entirely different. Call the ADCI or ask for a copy of their commercial dive operations manual. Verify OSHA Subpart T compliance and ask whether the supervisor is an ADCI dive supervisor.