Homemade buried line tracer

[biggerten]

If it's in PVC, you can use some coat hanger wire bent @ a right angle.. Try !2" X 6", one will work, but I like using 2 rods... Squeeze your fingers lightly and let the short end float in the light grip ( one rod in each hand ).. Pratice over some known burried pipes..

BTW, Call the utility Co. before you dig...

Good Luck...

I wondered how long before the necromancers showed......

 

[602466]

I use this to find my underground dog's fence. It works well and its under $130.00. Not sure it will work for you application?

Fault Locator

Wally

 

[Treemonkey1000]

From what I understand around here the phone or power companies can do a locate for free even on privately owned stuff if you tell them you want to dig.

 

[jimgerken]

I have a cheap battery operated transistor radio and ear buds I keep around just for locating. AM band, set down low in the band range between stations, turned up loud. As others have said, it helps if there is something electrically noisy running on the line. I havent figured out what would be the best noisy load on the line, but HO flourescent lites are enough. A really good noisy load might be an old universal motor (the kind that has sparking brushes).
You have to crawl on your knees to follow the wire once you find it.

 

[Licklog]

Thanks all. I checke w/ on rental place and they didn't have any buried line locaters but I'll try some others. They are expensive ! And I'll try AM. It is a private line from the service drop at the pole to the house, so I guess the utility company doesn't find those, right ? Since I'm trying to find the line to the house, I suppose it should have some "load" on it, right ?

And I assume a metal detector wouldn't work, right ? It's about 12 inches down and is in pvc.

Bob

Call 811 before you Dig especially on a line from the pole to your house...the service is free.....They traced my electric and telephone lines but not my propane line. I I had natural gas they would have traced those as well.



* How 811 Works
* The Call
* The Wait
* Safe Digging

"One easy phone call to 811 starts the process to get your underground utility lines marked for free. When you call 811 from anywhere in the country, your call will be routed to your local One Call Center. Local One Call Center operators will ask you for the location of your digging job and route your call to affected utility companies. Your utility companies will then send a professional locator to your location to mark your lines within a few days. Once your underground lines have been marked, you will know the approximate location of your utility lines and can dig safely, because knowing what's below protects you and your family."

Always call 811 before starting any digging project!

http://www.call811.com/default.aspx

 

[Mace Canute]

Licklog, I'm pretty sure they are referring to Utility lines. not privately owned lines. Most Utilities won't locate private stuff for a couple of reasons, one being Liability issues. Miss one because the homeowner forgot or doesn't know about it and doesn't even have a map indicating roughly where the lines are and who is responsible for damages if it gets hit? Can of worms... Not saying ALL don't but it's more likely they won't.
Utilities locate lines for two reasons, basically. One is for safety of course, the other is to minimize damage to their property. You might get lucky and be able to talk a Locator into locating your private stuff when he is there doing the Utility lines, but don't count on it.
I sometimes would locate a customer's private line, and if he saw where I was going and took note...fine and dandy...but I would never "mark" it or even say I was locating it. As far as he knew I was just making sure it wasn't a Utility line.

 

[Licklog]

Mace Canute, since you did these for a living you must be correct, sorry for the bad info; I may not have understood correctly. I thought when BCarwell said that the line ran from the pole to the house it would be covered. In my limited experience it was the utility's line all the way from the pole or transformer to the house (meter). Never thought that the meter servicing a house would be on a pole. The only meters I have seen on poles were for temporary services or remote well pumps.


Licklog

 

[BHD]

some people can "witch" the line with a few bent wires, (yes I know it is not 100%)

but I know my SIL can find many many lines and pipes, (no he is not 100%) but some times He is better than than the utility, (I have placed some small marker where he said they were, and have had the phone company come out, and they will mark it and he most of the time is dead on,

no I can not explain it either, and I can not do it.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

usually the utility will claim it up to the meter, and from there on it is yours, they may locate the line for you tho,

 

[Cruisin]

Here in NC, 811 will locate the water line to the meter but not to the house. Everything else, cable, phone, gas, electric, all the way to the house.

 

[John_in_TN]

I am in Tennessee and when I called 811 (before doing some landscaping), they came out and marked all underground electric, water, natural gas and telephone lines (to the house, to the shop, even to some landscape lighting in the yard. The only thing they didn't mark was the cable TV line. The cable company said "if you cut it just call and we will send someone to replace it no charge". (We did cut the cable, called and they were here within a couple of hours and installed a new cable from the pole to the house, ~140 ft).