Hi there!
My house was built in 1990, and the previous owners bought it in 1993 and lived here until I bought it in fall 2013. They made quite a few changes over the years including buried wiring and a buried water line. I don't know how much was homeowner-done and how much was done by tradesmen/contractors. Some of it I understand, and some is a mystery.
What methods are available to me to track where this stuff is, and potentially how deep it is? Either DIY or hired to find it are options. I don't know when the work was done, though some of it goes to my shop which was built in 2004. I think an electrician at least ran the power from the house to the shop, but the rest? I don't know.
I know there is a plastic water pipe running from the house to the shop. I know where it exits the crawlspace of my house but I'm not sure where it enters the shop.
I'll be re-doing the drive to the shop, which passes by the house where the meter base, etc. are, and almost certainly crosses some of the buried wiring and water line but I don't know where that stuff is, specifically, and I'm not sure how deep it is. Other than the service entrance power to the house, I do not assume that it's done to code. It may be but I know that the previous owner did not pull any permits to build the shop, which says it was almost certainly not inspected
Here's the side of my house. Take in the loveliness.
There's three gray conduits there, plus the meter base. One almost certainly goes to the shop. One goes, I think, to a shed behind the shop (which I think pre-dates the shop) that has power wiring. That wiring is a bit of a mess in that shed. The third conduit, I'm not sure. It might go to the upstairs of my house? The white conduit (which I think is just PVC pipe) goes to the shop and has a single phone line in it.
My house was built to have the attic space finished but the original owner did not do that. The second owners (from whom I bought the property) had that done by a contractor. I suspect, but don't know, that that's how they ran power to the upstairs? Seems odd but maybe that was easier than trying to pull wire from the attic space to the attached garage where the service panel is. There's no subpanel upstairs that I know of.
Then there's this. A buried conduit just beside the back step off of the attached garage, close to where the meter base is. It has Romex in it, it looks like, and it exits the crawlsapce. I have no idea what this would be powering. No outside landscape lighting, etc. on the property.
The mess of phone wiring on the side of the house? I don't know where most of it goes. The house has several phone outlets (which I don't use, I'm cellular-only and sadly there's no DSL or cable TV out here). There are two wires that come out of the ground that end in bare wire. Oh, and they didn't bother to caulk any of the holes where wiring passes through the house.
Last curious photo. Here's the service panel in the garage, which is on the same exterior wall as the meter base. A phone wire-sized wire comes through the wall, goes up, and into the ceiling.
Aside -- the entire attached garage is covered from floor to ceiling in pegboard. Even the space above the garage door header is pegboard. The ceiling is drywall, but no mud/tape on the joints.
The attic space above the garage is not part of the finished space. I've never been up there. Once I finish remodeling the shop I'll move all of my shop stuff out of the garage and into the shop, and I'll go exploring the garage attic. Right now getting to the attic access would take some effort.
Thoughts?
My house was built in 1990, and the previous owners bought it in 1993 and lived here until I bought it in fall 2013. They made quite a few changes over the years including buried wiring and a buried water line. I don't know how much was homeowner-done and how much was done by tradesmen/contractors. Some of it I understand, and some is a mystery.
What methods are available to me to track where this stuff is, and potentially how deep it is? Either DIY or hired to find it are options. I don't know when the work was done, though some of it goes to my shop which was built in 2004. I think an electrician at least ran the power from the house to the shop, but the rest? I don't know.
I know there is a plastic water pipe running from the house to the shop. I know where it exits the crawlspace of my house but I'm not sure where it enters the shop.
I'll be re-doing the drive to the shop, which passes by the house where the meter base, etc. are, and almost certainly crosses some of the buried wiring and water line but I don't know where that stuff is, specifically, and I'm not sure how deep it is. Other than the service entrance power to the house, I do not assume that it's done to code. It may be but I know that the previous owner did not pull any permits to build the shop, which says it was almost certainly not inspected
Here's the side of my house. Take in the loveliness.
There's three gray conduits there, plus the meter base. One almost certainly goes to the shop. One goes, I think, to a shed behind the shop (which I think pre-dates the shop) that has power wiring. That wiring is a bit of a mess in that shed. The third conduit, I'm not sure. It might go to the upstairs of my house? The white conduit (which I think is just PVC pipe) goes to the shop and has a single phone line in it.
My house was built to have the attic space finished but the original owner did not do that. The second owners (from whom I bought the property) had that done by a contractor. I suspect, but don't know, that that's how they ran power to the upstairs? Seems odd but maybe that was easier than trying to pull wire from the attic space to the attached garage where the service panel is. There's no subpanel upstairs that I know of.
Then there's this. A buried conduit just beside the back step off of the attached garage, close to where the meter base is. It has Romex in it, it looks like, and it exits the crawlsapce. I have no idea what this would be powering. No outside landscape lighting, etc. on the property.
The mess of phone wiring on the side of the house? I don't know where most of it goes. The house has several phone outlets (which I don't use, I'm cellular-only and sadly there's no DSL or cable TV out here). There are two wires that come out of the ground that end in bare wire. Oh, and they didn't bother to caulk any of the holes where wiring passes through the house.
Last curious photo. Here's the service panel in the garage, which is on the same exterior wall as the meter base. A phone wire-sized wire comes through the wall, goes up, and into the ceiling.
Aside -- the entire attached garage is covered from floor to ceiling in pegboard. Even the space above the garage door header is pegboard. The ceiling is drywall, but no mud/tape on the joints.
The attic space above the garage is not part of the finished space. I've never been up there. Once I finish remodeling the shop I'll move all of my shop stuff out of the garage and into the shop, and I'll go exploring the garage attic. Right now getting to the attic access would take some effort.
Thoughts?
