Utility locates

673moto · Dec 22, 2020

Is there a type of metal detector you guys recommend for locating utilities?
As much fun as it is to blindly hand dig looking for the service drop to a house ...It’d be nice to have the right tool for the job!

Welder Dave · Dec 22, 2020

You can get detectors specifically for locating utilities (they aren't cheap) but generally it's a free service to have the utility company come out and mark them for you. Usually has a name like Dial before you dig with a 1-800 number. They advertise it all the time here. If you dig without calling them and hit a line you are charged for the repairs.

673moto · Dec 22, 2020

Welder Dave said:
You can get detectors specifically for locating utilities (they aren't cheap) but generally it's a free service to have the utility company come out and mark them for you. Usually has a name like Dial before you dig with a 1-800 number. They advertise it all the time here. If you dig without calling them and hit a line you are charged for the repairs.

Yes, I still make the call 811 to have services located... but I’ve found that unless I’m onsite those guys just throw a flag in the ground and keep moving. .. and working out in the country they won’t mark some backwoods pump line that homeowner buried at random depth 30 years ago

Welder Dave · Dec 22, 2020

I'd see if you could rent a utility locator. They can cost well over $1000.

aighead · Dec 22, 2020

Where I'm at it seems as though they won't mark water lines? I know where all the power stuff comes in but the water shutoff is about 40 feet from everything else and potentially cuts diagonally across the yard. It'd be nice to know where it really is.

skyking1 · Dec 22, 2020

If you can't get it located my suggestion is to dig it up carefully by hand after it comes out of the meter or shut off, see what material it is. If it is galvanized, it won't be wandering all over like a piece of poly or copper.
Once you expose it carefully follow along it with your backhoe and then jump down and hand shovel it off for a few feet and pretty soon you'll know how it runs.
It serves a couple of purposes. You see what condition it's in, how deep it is at that place, and what the material is.
Some materials are more forgiving for close encounters of the backhoe kind.
Galvey with threaded joints not so much.
Copper and poly in fairly soft materials if you are one with the force, you will notice them before you harm them.

aighead · Dec 22, 2020

I'm sorry, did you say "hand digging?" Ah hahahaha!

No, really, that's a good suggestion and a good plan. I don't know if it'll ever happen but that probably is a better idea than finding it with the backhoe. So far I haven't been one with the force and have dug up several things I shouldn't have and a water line would be, by far, the most inconvenient!

skyking1 · Dec 22, 2020

I've been digging around live utilities my entire career, and that's what I think it is, becoming one with the force. You see the dirt move a little bit, something's not quite right, you get down shovel and there's a pipe!
If the ground is really bony you're screwed. You pinch that copper or polyline against a rock and now you got to fix it.

suladas · Dec 22, 2020

The utility locates are a joke, I only get them to be covered as far as paperwork. They provide me no assurance where anything is. Buying a locator isn't cheap. I've found in most cases the services i'm digging for i'm hooking up to so if they can hit with the hoe just dig a bit further back. I've found a few gas lines over the years that weren't suppose to be there but it's amazing how strong the plastic is if you're careful.

Bls repair · Dec 22, 2020

It’s called cover your butt

.

skyking1 · Dec 22, 2020

Yeah I won't do anything without calling locate. My buddy was telling me they'd moved out onto the interstate highway and we're going to start digging without a locate. WTF?
State patrol notified? Check
Giant traffic control team? Check
Low boys and machinery prepared? Check
Locate? Locate? Bueller?
Needless to say, that poop show got canceled.

CM1995 · Dec 22, 2020

X6 on calling 811 before you put a shovel in the ground just for the liability reasons. The quality of the 811 one call locate depends on the guy marking in the field - like anything else depends on who is doing it.

For our own locates I bought one of these last year -

https://pipehorn.com/product/pipehorn-800hl/

Paid around $1600 for it. The company headquarters and manufacturing is here in Central Alabama and they sell direct so I bought from the source. They have the original Pipehorn on the wall in the reception area.

The Pipehorn works great for metallic lines and other lines with tracer wires. Plastic pipe is a tough one to locate, careful potholing is the best route if the line has no tracer wire.

After years of field locating plastic pipes in the ground with no tracer wire buried with it we don't put a piece of plastic pipe in the ground with a tracer wire. 500' of wire runs $60 a roll, if nothing else we're helping out the next future schmuck that has to dig around what we installed.

skyking1 · Dec 22, 2020

I work with plumbers so we have a camera with locator on it that comes in pretty handy. You can also clip a tone device to the wire if you can find it, and the same wand that came with the camera system works to find tracer wires that are energized.

673moto · Dec 22, 2020

That pipehorn locator looks legit... small price to pay compared with repairs to damaged utilities!

skata · Dec 22, 2020

Go to eBay and search "radiodetection". It's the same equipment the locate companies use. You can sometimes find older cheap units.

bam1968 · Dec 22, 2020

I can't believe nobody has suggested 'witching sticks or wires' whichever you prefer.... LOL

673moto · Dec 22, 2020

bam1968 said:
I can't believe nobody has suggested 'witching sticks or wires' whichever you prefer.... LOL

Dowsing rods. I have a set that were my grandpa’s made from heavy gauge copper wire

fastline · Dec 22, 2020

673moto said:
Dowsing rods. I have a set that were my grandpa’s made from heavy gauge copper wire

It sounds like you have all that you need?

Steve Frazier · Dec 22, 2020

Keep your eyes open for a change in the materials you're digging too. Utilities are often backfilled with sand or pea stone and can indicate you're close to it.

skyking1 · Dec 22, 2020

you can see trench lines often because the dirt that is in layers is now all mixed up, and has a different color too.

Utility locates

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