# Underground Water Line



## compost (Nov 15, 2008)

Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions on how to locate an underground water line that is in black plastic pipe? Besides digging a bunch of test holes:confused1:


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## LateralConcepts (Jun 6, 2010)

Plastic water piping cannot be located.

There is a way, but not easy or advisable actually.


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

Flavio said:


> Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions on how to locate an underground water line that is in black plastic pipe? Besides digging a bunch of test holes:confused1:


digging one really big hole.


explain why you need to do this. There might be something somebody can add to help you.

are you sure there wasn't a tracer wire run with the line? that would be a wire run right along with the water line so you could use a tracer to find it.


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## compost (Nov 15, 2008)

The reason that I want to locate the line is to install a hydrant midway between two others. There was no tracer wire installed.


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## merle (Dec 18, 2007)

you could try to find the line by "witching" it. Use two metal wires bent into an L shape. hold the short end in your hand loosely. ( one in each hand) walk the area you think has the water line. when the rods cross you are over the water line. ( This does not work for everyone. try several of your neighbors also.


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

Flavio said:


> The reason that I want to locate the line is to install a hydrant midway between two others. There was no tracer wire installed.


well, plumbers are usually cheap SOB's so they probably ran a pretty straight shot from one to the other. Obviously if there were any obstructions in the way at the time they would have had to go around it.

merle makes a good suggestion. I know people that claim they are good at it. Now, one of those guys figured he would show some guys just how good he was and missed the line by way more than anybody would accept as a tolerance so..

It is what it is.


just kidding about the plumbers. They aren't actually that cheap.:whistling2:

they are just so lazy it would take more work to dig a trench that wasn't straight.:laughing:


If it were me, I would scratch a line between the hydrants and where you want to put a hydrant, start digging a hole. Then if you don't find the pipe in the depth you suspect it might be, start turning that in a trench perpendicular to the scratched line.



In other words, no, there really isn't an easy and sure way to find the line.

is this a private line? If so, is there any way you could feed a wire through the line from hydrant to hydrant? If so, you do that and get a tracer and away you go.


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## LateralConcepts (Jun 6, 2010)

> is this a private line? If so, is there any way you could feed a wire through the line from hydrant to hydrant? If so, you do that and get a tracer and away you go.


That was going to be my not easy or advisable method. Depending on the size of the pipe and how whether it's a straight shot or not, you could run a fish tape, and locate it with a 65khz transmitter, but too many likely problems could occur


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## jogr (Jul 24, 2007)

Start where you want the new hydrant and dig a trench from that location towards and perpendicular to a straight line between the two existing hydrants. You should have no wasted digging that way.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

Related question...I am installing a sprinkler system in my lawn with black polyethylene pipe. Should I install a tracer wire as I lay the pipe? 

What is a tracer wire made of? Is it connected to some electrical source or just a piece of wire in the ground?


If a mod thinks this should be in its own thread, please split it off. Thanks.


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## Alan (Apr 12, 2006)

nap said:


> just kidding about the plumbers. They aren't actually that cheap.:whistling2:
> 
> they are just so lazy it would take more work to dig a trench that wasn't straight.:laughing:


UNLESS we were going to put PVC in there, and the trench was 'to be dug by others' and when we got there it was about as straight as a lawyer, so we decided to use poly instead to make it easy. 

:whistling2::thumbup::laughing:


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## compost (Nov 15, 2008)

Thanks to you all for your suggestions. It sounds like the simplist way to try to locate the pipe is to try the witching method If it works I will let you know. If it doesn't work for me, quess I will start diggin again.

Hey Nap, is that some kind of a dog by your name?


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## nap (Dec 4, 2007)

Flavio said:


> Thanks to you all for your suggestions. It sounds like the simplist way to try to locate the pipe is to try the witching method If it works I will let you know. If it doesn't work for me, quess I will start diggin again.
> 
> Hey Nap, is that some kind of a dog by your name?


it's a llama or alpaca. just some pic I found in the etherworld that seems to fit me.


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