Good way to record the location of gravity drain pipe

[Diggin It]

You could maybe capture a google Earth shot and draw the pipe line in with an image editor...then print and or store as a digital image...

Or you could use a ..... Sharpie.

 

[Vaquero]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ideal-3...ion-Buried-Electric-Line-Red-42-201/300497520

Tracer tape.

 

[WranglerX]

Our contractor will be digging a gravity drain approximately 11 ft below grade from the foundation of our new house to outfall approximately 400 ft away. Due to the layout of our house and contours around it, the drain pipe will need to change directions a few times. It will be very difficult to know the path of the underground pipe a few years from now.

I am looking for a way to record the location of the drain pipe just in case we need to access it later. I have a handheld GPS receiver which I can use to record the path of the pipe very quickly and easily but it is only good down to 10 ft or so which is not good enough. So apart from burying some metal objects near ground surface along the path which I can pick up later with a metal detector, is there any other way I can record the path fairly accurately and easily ?

I am looking further down the road when we will have quite a lot of additional buried lines (internet, low voltage etc) leaving the house in different directions so I would rather find a way to record their positions if possible and not dropping metal objects everywhere. But if this is the easiest and cheapest way, so be it...

I would love to be able to afford a nice total station to record all the locations I want to across our lot (around 60 acres). I used one a long time ago when I started my engineering career in setting out but they are very expensive so not a realistic option for me !

Would love to hear your ideas.

Put some metallic tape along drain line so a metal detector will follow it.... You can also use a copper wire and leave one end exposed to connect to locator transmitter and you use receiver to follow line.... All most all your other lines (low voltage and such) since they are metallic the can be traces using a RF tracking...

Something this type of technology can follow...

Amprobe US - Electrical Test and Measurement Tools

You don't have to buy the technology, you can hire someone to do the trace as long as there is conductor in ground along line (usually buried 2-3 feet below grade as trench is back filled)...

Might want to talk to "Underground Service Alert" (USA Digs) personnel and see what the recommend....

Dale

 

[RichardMH]

Lots of good ideas above. Looking at all the options, I think I will lay tracer tapes above lines which are in areas which will unlikely to be ever plowed.

For the lines in areas where plowing is likely in future, I will use MossRoad's suggestion and triangulate my way along. I have a Leica Disto 810 (laser distance meter) which can measure distances quite accurately (within 2mm over 200m in good conditions) so with a couple of good reflectors, I can get the measurements done pretty quickly and the accuracy will be good enough for me.

And if I ever win the lottery, I will buy myself a Trimble Geo 7x !!!

Thank you all.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

For my geothermal lines, i put pvc pipe with ground level caps in yard for the corners. Gotta clear grass off occasionally.

I slso measured each from multiple corners of house. I also have these measurements for septic tank, diverter box, trees, other buildings, then i put them on my CAD drawing of my lot.

 

[Henro]

My sewer line is about 200 feet to the main.

I had to put a clean out every 50 feet so I can easily know where the pipe runs.

I would think that if you installed a clean out at each directional change point this would be enough to identify where the pipe is, and could be beneficial in the future if the pipe clogged for some reason. Would not add that much to the cost if you are doing it yourself.

My clean outs end slightly below ground level and are covered by concrete stones, with metal rods next to them just in case over time they disappear in the grass...

 

[dodge man]

I'm a land surveyor and the amount of money I would charge you to do something like you ask would probably out weigh the benefit. Tracer wire is great but then you need a locator to find it, and I don't mean just a regular metal detector. Putting rebar in would probably be the best and the locators to find one would be a cheaper cost.

 

[bigtiller]

Using letter stencils and some scrap wood, I cut out the letters to spell the word WATER.

I made a 6X12X4 inch box from 2X4's and some left over melamine.

Mixed up a bag of Quikrete and pushed the wood letters in the top and let it dry.

I planted the "WATER" brick locator on top of the water line, leaving it flush with the sod so in the future, anyone will be able to find the water line.

It isn't obvious it's there because the grass grows and covers it a bit.

 

[RichardMH]

Thank you for your comment - Dave. Yes - I did know that I would need inductive locating equipment to find the tracer tape/wire and they are very expensive to buy. But I thought I would go and rent one for a day if there is a need to track down the pipe in future.

Having said that, I just found out that most rental places do not have them. Right now, I have only found two which carry them but both are over 250 miles away from us ! Since the option of hiring a professional locating firm is not an attractive one for me, I am coming to the conclusion that although it would be nice to have tapes/wires along the entire path of the pipe, rebars make more sense.

 

[stuckmotor]

MossRoad's idea sounds good to me. I'd make several copies of the coordinates, put one in the cloud, one in a bank vault, and tack one to the wall.