Finding buried utilities

[Crom]

Hey crew

Im digging up the back yard in an attempt to a) find sewer and b) lay power cable to my new workshop.

Said shop has a washroom / toilet so I need to find the sewer. I have council plans and the 1100 dial before you dig plans but I havent been able to find a thing following them. To make things interesting the neighbours have all found that the sewer runs differently to the plans anyway (for their houses.)

So what I need to know is are there electronic line finders or radio detectors or something that I can use to listen in (say, if the toilet is flushed) and find the bastard? And if so, where can I hire one in Perth?

Thanks for your help
J!

[Eddie Jones]

Try a water diviner. No, I'm not joking.

[Crom]

You're joking right?

Where do I find one of them? I have looked at the yellow pages and only found bore drillers etc.

Cheers.

[Ramps]

Crom

Best way I know to "sense" this type of pipe is a devive called a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) as you can tell they work on radar and bounce back a signal that shows a change in conductivity and/or density ... pipe being empty or full of water should be relatively easy.

Problem is the only units that I know of in Perth is the ones operated by pipe and underground services locating businesses ie prob expensive (but I don't know so I'm guessing here). There might be one availablr to hire but being about $10k to buy I don't think they'd be cheap.

So yes the technology is out there, yes it is in Perth but sorry can't help further than that ... can assist you looking them up if you need.

[Cliff Rogers]

Do a google on Underground Service Locators.

Do a Yellowpages search on Underground Service Locators

Check here...
http://www.radiodetection.com.au/und...ndServices.htm
http://www.geodetic.com.au/category970_1.htm
http://www.usa.com.au/usa/Utility_Locations.asp

[Clinton1]

start digging, stop when you find it. Its fun. It really is!

[silentC]

Had to do this once. I dug up the line where it left the house and got a rough idea which way it headed. I knew there was a vertical pipe into the main, so I drilled a hole in the pipe and shoved a bit of stiff wire in there until it stopped. I wrapped a bit of tape around the wire and pulled it out, then used it to gauge where the bend was. Then I started digging a trench perpendicular to the direction the line was running and kept going down until I found it.

[RufflyRustic]

Hi Crom,

If the map or plan can't be trusted, then it may be worth paying some $$ getting them found once and for all. I can appreciate it may depend on exactly how much $$ would be .

cheers
Wendy

[Cliff Rogers]

.....shoved a bit of stiff wire in there until it stopped. I wrapped a bit of tape around the wire and pulled it out, ......

Erk.... what did you do with the wire after that?

[silentC]

My next door neighbour wanted something to tie up his fence with. I said "I've got just the thing"

True story

[zathras]

Sewers tend to be laid in quite deep trenches - much deeper than you'd use for the power.

One upside, I assume living in Perth you'd have reasonably easy digging in the sand?

[journeyman Mick]

Crom,
one sure fire way of locating any services is to get in a excavator or backhoe and start digging!:eek: I once watched a backhoe dig up the water, phone and power in the first two scoops. Seriously though, I have seen diviners find stuff, an old builder I worked for years ago found a buried water mains in a few minutes. Apparently diviners won't/can't take money for their "gift" lest they lose it, or so I've been told. That maybe why you won't find them in the yellow pages.

Mick

[silentC]

Wouldn't the sewer need to be full of water for a diviner to find it? If it is, you'll probably need to dig it up anyway, because it's blocked

[Cobber]

Try www.dialbeforeyoudig.com.au

Do it on the web and the utililities will start sending out info that day.....

Cobber

[Glenn_M]

When replacing the storm water pipes a few years back, before digging up the old ones the plumber located all the old ones (to give me a quote).

Anyways he used a thing quite like a metal detector. Had a flexible hose type arrangement with a metal ball on the end. Shoved it down the pipe at the house and wandered over the back yard with this metal detector looking thingy and staked out the location of the pipes every metre or so.

Don't know if it was just a metal detector or not - found the pipes though.

Cheers,