Locating an underground electrical power line

[Specialized29er]

Before having a 6.6kW solar system installed on the 1960's house I had a very large tree cut down and now I'd like the stump removed and have the ground area leveled but first I'd like to know where the underground electricity cable is.

I know about the dial before we dig service but that's about it, does Ergon provide the service and is there a charge or is the cable locating available through an electrician.

I Google the dial before you dig and it goes on about the plans, who has these plans because when I bought the house the Councils 1960's site plans show a vacant block with no buildings.

I don't plan to disturb the cabling and will work around it and just knowing where it goes between the buildings would be handy to know.

Electrical Cabling.jpg

[China]

If dial before you is unsuitable ( in my experience they are a waste of time ) you can hire a underground cable locator, from Kennards.

[NCArcher]

DBYD is a subscription service. You have to pay to have your plans included so there are pretty much zero private property service maps in the system. It's more for supply authorities, telcos and water boards so you don't damage their assets. And their assets finish at your property boundary

[Bushmiller]

Specialized29er

When your cable was installed a 100mm wide red, plastic tape should have been laid about 100mm above the cable. This is the warning that the cable is below. Dig down by hand carefully first to see if that tape is there.

Regards
Paul

[havabeer69]

Specialized29er

When your cable was installed a 100mm wide red, plastic tape should have been laid about 100mm above the cable. This is the warning that the cable is below. Dig down by hand carefully first to see if that tape is there.

Regards
Paul

I doubt they where putting the red tape in the holes back in the 60's

1960's house

having had to dig up and replace the main incomer to our house recently that was built in 1997, it didn't have the red tape either or the sand/matting, just the conduit. I believe the general standard is to basically go line of sight from where it goes under ground up to the meter box (ours did). we had to put in a private pillar box to allow us to change this line of sight and put 1x deg bend in.


my only suggestion would be to hire the cable locator, or just manually dig a hole/trench in the approx line of sight to your meter box manually and see if you can find the conduit.

[droog]

Ergon Energy is not responsible for the consumer mains, the consumer is so doubt they will assist.

Page 5
https://www.ergon.com.au/__data/asse...-2020-2025.pdf

There are companies that can be engaged to locate the service just Google "underground cable location services"
here is one example
Underground Service Locators Brisbane | Expert Service Locating

[wozzzzza]

my cable locator is just dig a trench, if you see sparks and/or power goes off you found a cable.

[droog]

my cable locator is just dig a trench, if you see sparks and/or power goes off you found a cable.

Just use a fibreglass handle shovel

[rjtwin501]

You can't hide a hole or a trench.
To find a hole or a trench simply scrape back the covering soil etc and the hole or trench will become visible by the different soil use to refill.
Ask anybody who has been on an historical dig site.

[Chief Tiff]

When we need to locate unmarked underground services at work we use a method called “pot holing”; essentially a trench is cut using a pressure washer and the slurry is removed using a vac truck. You could possibly replicate this by digging a trench down to about 400mm and then finish off using a Karcher and scooping the mush out by hand.

[NCArcher]

If it was a big tree its probably more than 60 yrs old, i.e it was there when they installed the cable.
Firstly look on the inside of your meter box. A small chance but you never know. There should be a basic map of underground cables on the property. Hand drawn by the sparky who installed them.
It it's not there, dig down at each end of run and see which directions the conduit heads.

[Beardy]

It costs $130 to hire a detector for half a day. Weigh that up against how much time on a shovel that is worth to you

[Bart1080]

As per Beardy response. If you don't know how to use one, simply pay for a locator...possibly $200 but way cheaper than damaging the cable which could easily be $1000 if you had to pay someone for performing the repairs plus draw a plan and/or take photo's of the spray paint marking where it goes for future reference (laminate it and put it in the meter box?).

You can dig down at each end but still no guarantees it runs in a straight line. I've seen services run in all sorts of directions.

Just locate it (hire device or pay someone) to be 100% sure, then you can pot hole if you think the stump removal might affect it.

[Specialized29er]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys and I live in the bush and couldn't find anyone in Emerald Qld who hires the locator.

What I did was went with the eye of sight method and dug a one foot hole half way between the house and the carport/granny flat and I found the conduit after 2 holes.

The line is about 2 meters past the stump and a tree removal guy is coming with a small excavator to dig around the stump then chainsaw and grind it down below the ground level.

I want the stump gone so to put a concrete path in between the house and the granny flat.

Attachment 5355893 x Big Tree - 13.08.22.jpgWeed Removal - 31.01.23.jpg