Finding a buried water line

[quicksandfarmer]

I used a new-to-me technique to find a buried water line today and thought I'd share it.

In the basement of my house there is a 3/4" black poly water line that exits through the foundation. It's connected to the house water. A previous owner put it in and I don't know where it goes. I've tried opening the valve to see if water shoots out but nothing doing, I think it must be capped.

I had some time today so I thought I would try to figure out where it goes. I shut off the valve and disconnected it in the basement. Then I took a long electricians fish tape and fed as much of it as I could into the pipe, I later measured that it took 58'. I have a wire locator that I got on Amazon for about $50, it's not very precise but it's been very handy. It's this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F5WA6QQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The way it works is there's a transmitter and a receiver, you clip one wire of the transmitter onto the wire you're trying to trace, the other onto ground, and then you walk around with the receiver, the closer you are to the wire the louder it beeps. So I clipped the transmitter onto the fish tape and went out into the yard with the receiver.

Walking around, I could trace the pipe where it came out of the house. I followed it and it turned and went by a small shed. I found a spot where the signal seemed to stop. I walked around a few times to be sure, and then started digging.

The pipe was directly below where I dug!

So it worked. The hitch is I didn't find the end, just the middle of the pipe. I followed it for a few feet until it got to be dinner time. I measured the distance from the house and I might be 2' short. I don't know if the end of the pipe is a little bit further along and I just need to dig it out, or the pipe could be filled with dirt or some other obstruction. I'm trying to decide how much further to dig before cutting the pipe and putting in a hydrant.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the technique because I feel pretty proud of myself.

 

[Roadworthy]

Thanks for a bit of very useful information.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Nice. Thanks for sharing.. I have a wire to the pole barn I need to trace out

 

[Hay Dude]

I can find wires or pipes with a pair of dowsing rods.
All it takes is 2 pieces of coat hanger wire.

 

[sea2summit]

I’ve got a method, I can walk for three days into Denali National park away from the nearest road with a trenching shovel. As soon as that shovel touches dirt it will break a water pipe.

I offer my services to anyone, guarantee my work as well!

 

[oosik]

sea2summit - you must be craving for "lost". Three days walk into Denali NP would DEFINITELY put you in the middle of "nowhere" Alaska.

The City of Anchorage had electronic "tools" used to find water lines. I think it had something to do with finding a void in the ground.

 

[deereman75]

Would you happen to know the range of that tool?

I'm sadly assuming it probably won't work you here where our lines are 12' down.....

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I can find wires or pipes with a pair of dowsing rods.
All it takes is 2 pieces of coat hanger wire.

Yes I do that too. But I don't think everybody can do that. Finds dead people too. Go to a cemetery and try it. Points to the foot of a man and the head of a woman. It's really odd though because you find what you search for. I mean if you are looking for a water pipe the wires won't cross on an electric line, or vice versa.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Would you happen to know the range of that tool?

I'm sadly assuming it probably won't work you here where our lines are 12' down.....

Twelve feet is probably too much. I have found wires buried 4'. Since it's just an audible signal it's kind of like asking what's the range of AM radio, the limit is what you can hear.

It has adjustments on the transmitter power and receiver sensitivity because when you're close it can be too sensitive. This pipe was buried about 24" and I found with both on about half I got the best definition.

 

[deereman75]

Yes I do that too. But I don't think everybody can do that. Finds dead people too. Go to a cemetery and try it. Points to the foot of a man and the head of a woman. It's really odd though because you find what you search for. I mean if you are looking for a water pipe the wires won't cross on an electric line, or vice versa.

I had a bit of a laugh to myself when I had the "call before you dig" guy out to locate a phone line before we trenched for a water pipe. After about 10 minutes struggling with the locator (apparently a weak signal from old phone lines) he took one of the marking flags bent at a right angle and found the line in about 30 seconds. Then went over the path he just walked with the locator and sure enough there it was....
Amazing a bent flag worked better than that few thousand dollar unit....

 

[Hay Dude]

I had a bit of a laugh to myself when I had the "call before you dig" guy out to locate a phone line before we trenched for a water pipe. After about 10 minutes struggling with the locator (apparently a weak signal from old phone lines) he took one of the marking flags bent at a right angle and found the line in about 30 seconds. Then went over the path he just walked with the locator and sure enough there it was....
Amazing a bent flag worked better than that few thousand dollar unit....

Yeah ahahahaha
i have shamed many an overpaid no nothing from the utility company finding lines.

 

[dieselscout80]

I’ve got a method, I can walk for three days into Denali National park away from the nearest road with a trenching shovel. As soon as that shovel touches dirt it will break a water pipe.

I offer my services to anyone, guarantee my work as well!

That would be my luck too!!

 

[grsthegreat]

I have a a greenlee 501 tracker. Works great on electric lines. Never tried a water line, but as long as you could push a fish tape in it I don’t know why it would not work. Ive found wires 5 feet down. Very accurate.

mine is similar, but way older looking, than this

 

[dodge man]

When I read the first post I just knew this was going to end up about dowsing, not again.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

When I read the first post I just knew this was going to end up about dowsing, not again.

I probably should have put "without dowsing" in the title.

 

[5030]

I can find wires or pipes with a pair of dowsing rods.
All it takes is 2 pieces of coat hanger wire.

What I do but I use uncoated brazing rod and contrary to popular belief, it works and works every time. Works for pipes and buried electrical cable too. Metal coat hangers are getting to be pretty rare today...lol

 

[quicksandfarmer]

OP here. My dowsing story: I once owned a house that was built in 1928. The main sewer pipe went into the middle of the basement floor and vanished, and connected to a city sewer about 60' away. I needed to locate where the sewer went, so I called a plumbing company that specialized in utility hookups. The guy who came out said, "I have a $3,000 pipe locater, but I find my dowsing rods work better." So he gets out his dowsing rods and walks around the front yard, and he comes back and says he has bad news, the dowsing rods are showing that the pipe runs under an 8' retaining wall, then under the concrete front steps of the house and the porch. Digging it up is going to do tens of thousands of dollars of damage to the house.

So he decides to double-check his work, he gets a guy with a camera to go down the pipe and get its exact location. The camera shows that the pipe runs from the street straight up the middle of the driveway to the house. The driveway is brick pavers that we take up and put back by hand. It's nowhere near where the dowsing rods said it was. But exactly where the electronic pipe finder said it was.

 

[Hay Dude]

OP here. My dowsing story: I once owned a house that was built in 1928. The main sewer pipe went into the middle of the basement floor and vanished, and connected to a city sewer about 60' away. I needed to locate where the sewer went, so I called a plumbing company that specialized in utility hookups. The guy who came out said, "I have a $3,000 pipe locater, but I find my dowsing rods work better." So he gets out his dowsing rods and walks around the front yard, and he comes back and says he has bad news, the dowsing rods are showing that the pipe runs under an 8' retaining wall, then under the concrete front steps of the house and the porch. Digging it up is going to do tens of thousands of dollars of damage to the house.

So he decides to double-check his work, he gets a guy with a camera to go down the pipe and get its exact location. The camera shows that the pipe runs from the street straight up the middle of the driveway to the house. The driveway is brick pavers that we take up and put back by hand. It's nowhere near where the dowsing rods said it was. But exactly where the electronic pipe finder said it was.

Maybe it was a different pipe, or an original pipe that was replaced.
The dowsing rods work perfectly.
Just gotta know how to use em

 

[dodge man]

First off, dowsing does not work. It’s like a lot of things, people want to believe so in their mind it works. At one time there was a million dollar prize if someone could prove it, the prize went unclaimed.

Second, I absolutely believe people can locate utilities without any modern equipment. I’m a retired land surveyor and did a lot of topographic surveying. I can locate utilities but I use my senses. I could bend rods and say that works also I guess. For example, a sewer clean out near a house and subtle low spots in a yard show where the sewer service is.

I personally have seen dowsing fail on numerous occasions. There is always a reason given, like it must have been an underground stream, the gas line threw me off etc.

Last, I am not making fun of people that believe it works, I’ve seen people I respect as intelligent well educated individuals that believe it works.

 

[bcp]

I've seen it work on active underground electric lines. I suspect it is sort of like an electric motor, with the "dowsing" wires turning as they cut through the electrical field made by the underground wires.

Bruce