the snooper
getting older by the day
- Messages
- 21,078
- Location
- Hull UK
Oi oi oi I'll be round to hammer a piece of wood into that pipe your trying to trace
- Thread starter Parm
- Start date
CompoSimmonite
Member
- Messages
- 5,930
- Location
- Werrington, Staffordshire Moorlands.
Have you thought the pipe might actually for to another area where previous owner required a water supply, like down a field, but hadn't got around to running the feed pipe from the house hence never connected ?
Kent
Member
- Messages
- 9,988
- Location
- Bowland, Lanacshire,UK
Well I traced a leak over about a mile of pipe doing just that
Just pre calculate your cfm. The volume of the pipe and time it
Any water in the pipe will come out the other end or shoot back out when remove the air
My guess is it was never connected the other end though - you might blow out a clod of earth though
It's worth a go
Direction could be guessed by digging back a few feet? Not always but likely
gordon stephenson
Member
- Messages
- 7,473
- Location
- Skelton in Cleveland U.K.
Something not yet mentioned, Get a long length of copper braided co-ax (tv) cable shoved down the pipe and follow it with a metal detector.
Wendelspanswick
Member
- Messages
- 6,486
I don't think a metal detector will work as water pipes need to be laid at a depth of between 750mm and 1350mm, that's too deep for a standard metal detector.
- Messages
- 23,197
- Location
- Birmingham
Connect a signal generator to the coax and use a radio receiver to trace it?
- Messages
- 23,197
- Location
- Birmingham
I'd chuckle my socks off if someone, in the past, had just shoved a short length of pipe into the ground to confuse a future owner.
and on a more dangerous note, I've seen a few inches of earth wire connected to a shower then just plastered into the wall under the tiles
MattF
Forum Supporter
- Messages
- 17,625
- Location
- South Yorkshire
Wouldn't just sticking a speaker over the end and blasting some noise down there be an option? Granted, some poor sod may think there's a ghost if it leads off into the unknown, but at least an audible tone is generally easy to trace/follow.
MattF
Forum Supporter
- Messages
- 17,625
- Location
- South Yorkshire
and on a more dangerous note, I've seen a few inches of earth wire connected to a shower then just plastered into the wall under the tiles
Makes you wonder about some folk, doesn't it.
- Messages
- 23,197
- Location
- Birmingham
"have you seen our neighbour?, he's standing at the back of his barn shouting at a blue pipe"
Wendelspanswick
Member
- Messages
- 6,486
The landlord of a pub we were drinking in told us then the previous owner had converted the barn to accommodation, when it rained the rain water down pipe gullies had overflowed so he called out a maintenance guy to clean them out, turns out the gullies were just buried into the ground, no pipe work going anywhere!
The worse thing was the new landlord had just had the car park tarmac'd so it all had to be dug up.
The worse thing was the new landlord had just had the car park tarmac'd so it all had to be dug up.
Cobbler
Codger bodger
- Messages
- 8,007
- Location
- Gloucestershire UK
Similar thing happened to my mate when he moved into a new house. Connected up the washing machine, his wife filled it & set it going & they went out shopping. Came back to find the ground floor awash. It turned out that the builders had taken the waste pipe out through the wall, but not connected to the drain. Had to have all the units changed due to water damage, the builders tried it on saying they will dry out, but they had all gone too far.
I watched someone do this even though he had a proper electronic scanner in his JCB, he said sometimes he could find pipe runs that the machine wouldn't. I cut a couple of lengths of galvanised fencing wire and found that I could do it too. It's the most bizarre thing, they move as you pass over the pipe. I had previously thought it was a load of tosh.
- Messages
- 14,660
- Location
- UK
I know a JCB driver they call 'the vicar'.....never misses a service
EddyP
Member
- Messages
- 726
- Location
- Northants
Unfortunately plastic pipe is a bit tricky to trace, the best ideas are in this thread already like putting air down it.
I used to manage a large Sewage Treatment Works and we had a problem with a 8" sewer at another site about 1.5 miles away, we thought it was connected into the main 3.5m sewer to the works but we couldn't be sure, the pipes from the 1950s and many changes had happened over the years.
So I chucked some tennis balls into the 8" pipe then we pumped a load of water down it, we then watched at the main works for the tennis balls, and they came in about 15 minutes later. Job done.
I used to manage a large Sewage Treatment Works and we had a problem with a 8" sewer at another site about 1.5 miles away, we thought it was connected into the main 3.5m sewer to the works but we couldn't be sure, the pipes from the 1950s and many changes had happened over the years.
So I chucked some tennis balls into the 8" pipe then we pumped a load of water down it, we then watched at the main works for the tennis balls, and they came in about 15 minutes later. Job done.
Cobbler
Codger bodger
- Messages
- 8,007
- Location
- Gloucestershire UK
I used to work with a guy, now long gone unfortunately, one of our jobs was to track telephone cables & ducts, dowsing was always his first method of choice even though we had a radio scanner & tracer. The only thing was he could not identify what he had found, several times i dug down where he said & found a sewer or water pipe instead. I tried it several times & could not find anything, I could not get any reaction at all.
tinman123
Putting the Extra into ordinary.
- Messages
- 1,068
- Location
- Northern Iron.
you never met my Father.....
his max lay for water pipe was about 100mm....
@Parm
any harm to ask why you want to know where this pipe is going?.
i know tho that we all like to know where pipes are going but times some are a stretch too far.
so much so at the farm here about 3 yrs ago i got a concrete saw and cut the whole yard, i laid 2x 25mm pipes and 2" ducting to every shed here, the yard looks like a map but i have no more leaks, bad plumbing, burst pipes, frozen pipes or anything else for that matter.
a dear job but cheap in the long run.
did you try and blow down it to see if there is a resistance or free air going through it?.
Glad we could help
My better half thinks I've lost it as I've been sat here for the last five minutes chuckling to myself, unable to explain to her what tickled me so much.
P.s. Parm your tagline is perfect for this thread ..."Full time H&S Consultant, Part time Welder", no wonder you don't like any of our suggestions
Parm
Respect The Sound System
- Messages
- 18,005
- Location
- Towcester
It will be useful to have water far away from the house, pipe is there and poking out of the ground but not installed by me. Just trying to find out and make things easyyou never met my Father.....
his max lay for water pipe was about 100mm....
@Parm
any harm to ask why you want to know where this pipe is going?.
i know tho that we all like to know where pipes are going but times some are a stretch too far.
so much so at the farm here about 3 yrs ago i got a concrete saw and cut the whole yard, i laid 2x 25mm pipes and 2" ducting to every shed here, the yard looks like a map but i have no more leaks, bad plumbing, burst pipes, frozen pipes or anything else for that matter.
a dear job but cheap in the long run.
did you try and blow down it to see if there is a resistance or free air going through it?.
