Underground wire tracer

[theoldwizard1]

Trying to help a buddy ...

New shop (which has separate power from POCO) got built with concrete floor poured over the wire coming from the house to turn on the outside light (200' from the house).

Are your typical "in wall" wire tracers likely to work ?

Are there any in ground tracers that are less than $100 ?

 

[Mordakai]

Call your local power company, tell them you need a locate for a fence. When he shows up, catch him and Pay the service guy 20 bucks to locate the wire for you. Done.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Get a couple of old locate flags with the wire bent at 90 degrees,then use the old voodoo technique/witching.
Ive found plenty of pipes and wires that way over the years.

 

[ljhhontx]

Metrotel cable hounds (orange box) are available on ebay most of the time. They work on any metallic conductor, pipe, wire, etc. I locate for a living and Mordakai's suggestion is one of the reasons your utility bills are always going up. In his scenario only one out of four of the locators makes out by breaking company policy (risking his job) , the other 3 just wasted time and gas going to a locate that is not really needed. The guy that accepted the $20 also took on a boatload of liability if some one hits something in the process of digging it up.

 

[Eriehunter]

Get a couple of old locate flags with the wire bent at 90 degrees,then use the old voodoo technique/witching.
Ive found plenty of pipes and wires that way over the years.

I had a guy swear that method worked, so he located some lines. He was off by 20 feet!!! I don't trust that method. I then had some lines marked out with the actual tool made by Ridgid told depth and everything.... It was accurate... to about 1/4 inch.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Tell him he needs to practice more!I can usually find a trench within 6" doing it that way,and it doesn't cost anything.

 

[Eriehunter]

Tell him he needs to practice more!I can usually find a trench within 6" doing it that way,and it doesn't cost anything.

He was the self proclaimed expert.

When its big power stuff buried, telecom lines etc... and we are running excavators in the area..... I'm trusting the fancy gadgets all day long.
The one call marking service in the area gives us a window of 18" either side of the buried utility, they have been off by feet too, but not 20 feet.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

If I had a dollar for everytime our local gas co was off by 10' or more on their locates Id be eating steaks everyday for lunch and dinner!
I got tossed in jail for chasing the gas co's claim adjuster around a busy intersection with a shovel,3rd locate they screwed up in 3 weeks and let him know what I thought of their inability to mark their own damn utilities!
I told him from now on if he saw my name on a dig ticket to have a crew standing by.I said they had 18" plus half the line,if it was at 24" I was going to take it out of the ground.
He said he'd call the law,I told him if Im going to jail youre going to the hospital you fat "explicit" *******.
Then it all went done hill from there!
I was helping a friend of mine install a new water service last spring,when we did our street cut and started digging up the main for our tap I found an old gas line that wasn't marked so I called the gas co about it.
And guess who came out to look at it?He wouldn't even get out of his truck.

 

[scoob8000]

I agree with call in a locate (call before you dig) and ask them to locate that power wire too. Most cable locators can locate AC power without even hooking the sending unit up. Should be a 5 minute job for someone from a local utility company.

 

[CADPoint]

No Cuts, or call before you dig is different then Power Companies.

They are not the Power company, and if you call 811(here on East Coast)
be ready to tell the tale of why your calling, IE they might ask you a ton
of questions. Private property post construction you might not qualify, and
will steer you to a private locator.
Then wait a minimum of two to five days and a large time span
for them to show up.