OT: finding underground wires/pipes

I am in the process of adding on to my house.

I have a well that is used for water, unfortunatly I have no idea where it is, only a general area.
From what I am told the cap sits about 18" underground and is metal, with the electric ran along side the water pipe about 3-4ft down.

Rather than digging at random I was wondering if anyone had any brilliant ideas of finding it.

I considered making an AM transmitter and hooking it on the wires and pipe from inside as an antenna, and then with a receiver looking for the strongest point outside above the ground.

Does anyone have an idea about this or any suggestions?

Hire a big metal detector?

Long, thin spike, poke it into the ground to about 2 foot deep until you hit something hard?

I have hired underground service detection people before and found them to be somewhat less than satisfactory.

You could turn your water on and listen to the ground to find the pump.

Seek the services of a dowser. Don't laugh! When I was going to Wastewater Treatment School, we were sent to a meeting of the American Dowsers Association, and this fellow was able to locate pipes in the ground with 2 "L" shaped pieces of coathanger.
Worth a try.

stvsas said:

Seek the services of a dowser. Don't laugh! When I was going to Wastewater Treatment School, we were sent to a meeting of the American Dowsers Association, and this fellow was able to locate pipes in the ground with 2 "L" shaped pieces of coathanger.
Worth a try.

Click to expand...

Not laughing because I've done it many times and you don't have to be a dowser. I use 2 welding rods and bend them into an "L" shape.

Hold the short ends loosely in your hands and keep the long ends level and parallel. When you walk around, the rods will criss-cross when you pass over a pipe - especially if water is running through it.

stvsas said:

Seek the services of a dowser. Don't laugh! When I was going to Wastewater Treatment School, we were sent to a meeting of the American Dowsers Association, and this fellow was able to locate pipes in the ground with 2 "L" shaped pieces of coathanger.
Worth a try.

Click to expand...

It works. Had a guy trace about 300' of plastic water line this way and he was within 4".

I had a maintenance mechanic that could find buried pipes in the plant. He would use whatever wire was nearby, coat hangers, electric wire. His info was always more accurate than the prints.

He sure made a believer out of me.

Over this side of the pond i would use a CAT for the Cable detection and a CAT with a GENNY for the Pipe Detection. The hire shops over here hire them out on a day rate fairly cheap.

I have seen the "dowser" method work as well, unfortunately there seems to be somewhat of a knack involved that I don't posess.

In a previous life I located underground cables. You can rent a device or hire someone to do underground cable locating. The locator will have a clamp that looks like an amp clamp to clip around your cable. This clamp sends an inductive signal that a portable wand can pick up. You can use the wand to trace the cable and pipe out to your well.

The machine I am most used to is a metrotech but there are others...

Damn you guys do it the hard way...

http://www.mo1call.com/

Call 1-800-DIG-RITE

This is a service that is provided for you, not many contractors here?...

geniusintraining said:

http://www.mo1call.com/

Call 1-800-DIG-RITE

This is a service that is provided for you, not many contractors here?...

Click to expand...

You could try that, but they generally only locate for the utilities (power, gas, cable, telephone, water). If you have something that is installed on YOUR premesis that was not done by a utility then it is YOUR problem.

When I was locating for an electric utility I was not allowed to find, for example, a guys service from his house to his garage. There are a few reasons for this;

1. When doing a locate for a utility you generally have a drawing from the initial instalation. The locate is done to verify and pinpoint the location from that drawing.

2. Locating is as much of an art as it is a science. You have to have somewhat of a clue as to what you are looking for and where it is to be able to find it.

3. If your wrong who's responsiblity is it?

4. People are ignorant. I've located services only to come back a day later and find that someone has augered a hole 4" off of my red paint mark in the grass and wondered why they hit a cable? You can estimate how deep a cable is but I wasn't allowed to tell people approximatley how deep there service was. Wonder why? You tell someone their service is about 3 feet deep and if they hit it at 34" guess who's to blame?

That was actually a fun job, I've got some stories.......

Newbie,

Get some rods (I like brass brazing rods the best) and find the pipe yourself. I have studided Dowsing and it works because of the magnetic field induced by flowing water and also by metal objects. Some people have a natural ability to detect magnetic fields (an ingrown talent to find water), while others do not. I think it depends on your genetic background and the part of the world your ancestors lived in (people from dry places seem to have a stronger ability). The rods are only a tool to focus the ability to find water. Many years ago a forked limb from a bush was used.

Now a quetion about your well which has nothing to do with finding your pipe, but an invention I am working on. How deep is your well and does it have a submersible pump? How often does the pump have to be pulled and replaced or serviced?

Lancie, To answer, I dont know how deep it is as I have no record of where it is from the previous owners. It is a submersible pump though, which is why I want to find it now rather than the dead of winter with a need to service it.



dowsing, I tried it with no luck, I didnt know the water had to be running. I did find a fairly big rock though, which I found out is also a use for dowsing, something about rocks?
I will try again tomorrow with the water running. I have an uncle that says he can do it but he is a few hundred miles away and wont be up til end of june, I wanna start construction sooner than later.

Thanks for the replies

If it is 75 feet deep (or more), then pulling the pump, pipe, and the water in the pipe can be real back strain. Depending on acidity of the water, many pumps have to be replaced about every 10 years. I replaced one for my Aunt Betty last week, although it was only about 65 feet deep.

I've eye witnessed dowsing done only twice. It worked one time. It didn't work the second time. The one time it worked a plumber was trying to find the exact location of a pipe that was known to exist under a concrete slab. The construction drawings showed the approximate location but this plumber didn't want to saw too big of a hole in the floor so he dowsed for the pipe. The pipe was actually at the edge of the hole he cut, not in the center, so whether it really worked then or not or whether he made a semi lucky guess on something that was alredy known to be within a 3 foot wide zone is something I guess we will never know. But I'm a skeptic - my most sincere apologies to my respected collegues here, but I think its horse excrement (but I'll still have a drink and a good natured laugh with ya'll)


One of my cow-orkeres needed to find a septic tank at his mother in law's house when she sold the home. They tried dowsing (didn't work, no surprise there). They tried a ground penetrating radar sled used to find things in an avalanche. They dried an inductive sensor a contractor had. They tried driving rods into the ground. Nothing worked. In the end they ended laying out a grid work of lines along the back of the house and trenching until they found the pipe. Then they had to follow the pipe. It was expensive. Sorry to break it to you, but you may just find yourself in the same boat.

If you know where the pipe enters the house and you can dig a trench perependicular to the pipe several feet away from the house you can get two points to give you an idea of what direction to go.

Good luck.

i must agree with Alaric...

i cant' describe how curious i am to see any demonstration that can proove it's more than guessing but until then i don't believe in dowsing a bit. magnetic field caused by flowing water is going to be very weak even if tested near power distribution station. using compass should have far better chance of detecting it than some branches held by hand. now that this is mentioned, i'm going to look for next meeting of dowsers in my city and see if they don't mind my curiosity... heck, im' going to read ther pages and build some gadgets to test it out, probably frustrate myself to death (at least it will amuse family and neighbours...)