Is there an easy way to locate a copper (water) pipe under a slab? Would a metal detector do it?
Any way of injecting a radio signal into the water pipe system and picking it up with a radio wherever the pipes run?
I would greatly appreciate any help
Metal detector...maybe. Will pickup any rebar in the pour too.
You could force a large AC current thru the pipe and use a search coil connected to an audio amp to locate. This could be quite accurate.
Run water thru pipe and listen for the flow??
Jim
water companies have a radio device to help find lines.
whats up that you need to locate the line?
Need to drill some holes in the slab to kill termites under the slab. Termite company cannot locate pipes.
Flow as much water as you can thru the pipe. Listen to the slab with a mechanics stethoscope and mark the strongest areas with a piece of chalk or soapstone.
When you drill thru (concrete basement or slab floor?) you stop the drill once you feel you're going thru it. Enough pressure to go thru the concrete via masonry bit, but not leaning on it and drilling through the soil/fill below.
The pipe should not be in contact with the basement slab if it was installed properly.
Just always be prepared for _plan-B_. Get a quote on replacing the pipe (above ground) before you start.
-zero
Of course they can and they get a standard 10% from the plumber. :-)
Rent a "cable locator".
i was under the impression termite control is usually a permiter effort.
Get a 12 gauge shotgun and blast holes in the slab. When water hits you in the face, you found the pipe. How else would you do it? Modern people just dont understand the easy way to do things like this....
Damn..... I forgot to tell you. After you find the pipe with your shotgun and the water hits you in the face, you will need to duct tape the hole shut later on or you will have a permanent fountain in the slab. Of course that could be fun to watch after drinking a few half barrels of Bud and a case of Jack. So, be sure you got a few rolls of duct tape handy.
There are specialists that find these pipes by sound equipment. They find leaks or water flows by this way. You can find these guys in the yellow pages under leak detection.
As an electrician we often use what we call tic tracers, or Fox and Hound units to induce frequency into wires which we can trace with a wand. This might work if the copper was close to the surface, but I think I would have heard of it if it worked commonly. I have never heard of this being done; but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. The metal detector would probably be confused by all the steel in the concrete. The metal detector instructions say various metals can be tuned in or out........but I've never been able to tell the difference between a gold coin or a beer can tab.
Believe it or not, some will bend a two inch section of a welding rod or brass rod at a right angle, make a fist with the two inch part being held in the fist in such a way as to allow the rest of the welding rod to rotate freely as it so decides. I've seen people find buried electrical cable and water lines in this way. The rod will point at the cable or pipe. When they walk past it, the rod will change directions toward the cable or line.
This requires either faith or an undisclosed previous knowledge of the location to work. I was never sure which one. It remains a mystery!
Randy R. Cox
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