How to trace course of underground water pipes?

Dowser

Please tell us how you get on.

(I'm a skeptic too, but I've twice now had pipes dowsed for me - and found the things!_

As a former skeptic myself I would say to others before they respond - try it for yourselves ... and prepare to be surprised.

Crack a tap open so that the flow makes a bit of a hissing noise, then get a steel rod and tap it a short way into the ground where your pipe enters your house. You should be able to hear the sound by resting your ear on the top of the rod. Progressively move the rod in the direction you suspect that the pipe runs and check that you can still hear the water - adjust position accordingly until you get to the boundry.

I've seen TWA workers use a similar method to look for leaks.

AWEM

That sounds an interesting possibility. Isn't it possible to attach some sort of listening device to the rod?

Only limited by your imagination !

Just don't bash the rod through the pipe, and don't bang your ear on the rod

AWEM

I agree, I once saw a water autority man get his rods out of the van to trace an underground pipe. I subsequently found that I could do the same after making a set of dowsing rods by bending two welding rods. I very quickly found a friends supply pipe and (hidden) stop c*ck when he moved into a cottage in Devon. After doing this for several years now, I do this one handed, just using one metal rod in my right hand. I can now walk along the lenght of a buried pipe, cable or drain. There is also a techniquie for determining the depth of the object !

Note, I am an electronics engineer by trade and a natural sceptic, but this really does work. When the rods react, they recact to what is under your feet rather than directly under the rods.

Worth a try.. but use metal rods, not hazel twigs or whatever.

Hire a CAT & a genny?

Ask the water board where the stop c*ck is. They have VERY detailed maps. You can then guess where the pipe goes between the two.

I had a guy out to see if my house was an "Industrial complex" which is what I was listed at, I took a look at his maps, and its very easy to find stuff then.

Rick

They have very _precise_ maps - this isn't the same as being _accurate_.

So, they can't tell a house from a factory, and we're expecting them to find a stopcock ?

We nearly had a water meter installed when next door asked for one. The stop tap nearest out property is next door's and the nearest to them is ours. Fortunately they checked the water had shut off to the appropriate property before they started digging.

I wouldn't blame the water authority for this, more the estate developers, the ones that had the helicopter ad, I assume the helicopter was constructed better than their houses.

The computer had me down as an "industrial complex", probably dating back many years to when cows, rather than humans, were the inhabitants.

Rick

I did ask the local water authority - the local council in our case - but they weren't able to help. They said they would have to turn off the water to a number of houses while a stop-c*ck was fitted, and they were reluctant to do this.

All the pipes are on private ground - the grounds of an old orphanage. The cottage in question was the nursery for the orphanage. The stop-c*ck is probably under what is now an entrance road to a group of new houses.

It works for some people, but for others it flatly doesn't.

Dunno why it works for me, but I've accumulated enough empirical evidence to confirm that it does.

Whatever succeeds in finding what you're looking for. I make a specific point of using hi-tech materials, but that's only to annoy the druids.

Have you tried this? :

Actually, the water-man from the council came today with a listening device - a rod about 1 metre long with a sort of sounding box a little larger than a tin of baked beans attached to one end. He asked me to turn on the water in the cottage.

Rather to my surprise, he found the stop-c*ck, which apparently is broken. He said he would add it to the ToDo list at the council.