Cant find water line

[Flienlow]

As per usual, my luck....sucks. Former owner of my house made a mother-in-law above a detached garage. The sewer was ran down hill to septic tank....In the most idiotic way

Instead of 4" schedule 40 Sewer pipe this brain trust used 3" thin wall.

"But wait.... there's more!" It was only buried 2 inch deep.

"And if you call in the next 3 minutes...We'll throw in a PVC waterline right below it."

Needless to say, I need to rip all this crap out and redo it.
I went to the garage and found the sewer outlet. The water shut off is right next to it inside. No Brainer... go to the outside and dig it up. It is located under some steps which sucks, but life isn't fair.
So me and buddy dig like badgers. We find the septic outflow, but cannot find the water ingress point at all. We dug up most of the water pipe on the outside but cannot find a freaking "T" off that line into the building anywhere. We even dug under the foundation and slab.

 

[skeets]

Maybe check on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE METER not that I have ever seen that done coffcoffcoff

 

[Flienlow]

Maybe check on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE METER not that I have ever seen that done coffcoffcoff

Paid a Guy $100 to come out and do a locate with a Rigid Locator tool.
What a complete waste. That thing was freaking useless.
Neighbor said... I think its in the corner by the porch. Dug down. Found it.

 

[skeets]

Sometimes it makes no sense why people do things like they do

 

[CaveCreekRay]

When I put my well in, I paid for a blue stake company to come survey for power and to identify my water main coming in off the street, to run the well pump line into. To my surprise, Blue Stake only covers your main out in the right-of-way. They do not survey your property. I had two companies come out because the first one could not positively identify the water line location. The second company had ground penetrating radar.

The second tech was really thorough and thought he has isolated the water line to within a six foot path. To make sure, he broke out his divining rods.

He walked back and forth across the water line with two 1/16" rods bent 90 degrees with a 4" and a 12" portion. After a couple of passes, he had me turn the water on to full flow. Two more passes nailed the location. (Evidently, flow affects the "mojo.") Then, holding the rods extended over the water line, he stamped his foot until the rods crossed. They crossed between the fifth and sixth stomp. I marked the location and he said it was just over five feet down. I smiled and asked him where he learned dousing. He said it was from an old guy he started with, now long retired.

The next day, I showed up with an excavator and started digging slightly offset from the mark. When I had gotten down six feet, I started carefully scraping the wall of the trench on the side toward the survey mark. On about the fifth pass, I exposed the water main. It was exactly six feet under ground and it was about six inches off his mark.

Of course, my wife thought this whole dousing thing was hokum. His rods had fallen off his truck bumper as he left so I gave those to my wife and told her to go find the power line. She found the power line in three attempts in different locations. From that point on, she was a believer.

I took photographs of the well splice down in the trench before covering it. And, I ground a 1/4" slice into the edge of the concrete parking apron as a marker for future use. Those pics are in my well house in a baggie.

My well line ran right through the power and water line to my barn. The only way to safely dig that trench was to do it by hand by finding the power line and then following it all the way back to the power distribution box. Arizona dirt is largely rocky and I found a hand digger tool was my friend when digging right along side the 220 conduit.

My water line crossing under the 220 service into the house...

My well line goes under the waterline to my barn and runs just above the power line they installed 22 years ago...

 

[Newlyme]

......I smiled and asked him where he learned dousing. He said it was from an old guy he started with, now long retired.

The next day, I showed up with an excavator and started digging slightly offset from the mark. When I had gotten down six feet, I started carefully scraping the wall of the trench on the side toward the survey mark. On about the fifth pass, I exposed the water main. It was exactly six feet under ground and it was about six inches off his mark.

Of course, my wife thought this whole dousing thing was hokum. His rods had fallen off his truck bumper as he left so I gave those to my wife and told her to go find the power line. She found the power line in three attempts in different locations. From that point on, she was a believer.

When I put the foundation in for my chicken coop it was located near the electric line going to the barn. I was looking for ways to locate the line and had settled on a specific metal detector. I then went to You Tube to see it in action looking for buried electric lines and ran across a video on Dousing. The guy made it look very simple. He grabbed a couple coat hangers cut them up and away he went. I figured I would give it a try. Sure enough it worked. I could not believe it. Before this experiment I was sure Dousing was BS! It was the middle of February snow on the ground and the neighbors must have thought I was nuts. Traipsing all over the yard out front and in back. I went over the sewer line, (plastic), propane line, (copper), electric line, (aluminum in plastic conduit), and the hydrant to the barn, (3/4 inch plastic). Found them all, no question.
I could not wait for the Mrs to get home to show her. I showed her then gave her the coat hangers, (rods), and nothing happens.
Never did get the metal detector.
I have since showed a few people with success.

 

[shootem604]

I am a skeptic, but I can dowse. The science says it's subconscious power of suggestion, but with some nicely bent pieces of 1/4 copper tube, I can find water and sewer lines all day long.

 

[GeoHorn]

When I first experienced water-well problems after becoming a city-mouse living in the country... I called my local water well repairman and he arrived and asked where my water line ran.
I presumed it was directly from my well 100yds east..... West towards my house main water valve.
He pulled out two copper wires from the back of his truck and bent them as described and walked all over that area and announced "nope".
Naturally I thought I'd inadvertently hired a mad-man and wondered how difficult it'd be to find a real water well serviceman.
Within a few minutes he'd walked around in an ever-increasing circle and announced he'd found the line on the opposite-side of the well house...leading AWAY from my house. Right. I was really believing I had a Kook on my hands.
He pulled out a shovel and started digging and I was just about to suggest he bill me for the service call and go away.... when his shovel hit a pipe.

It turned out the well had been drilled many many years ago when the main ranch-house was EAST of the well about 70 yards. (The actual date of the well is unknown/undocumented on this ranch whose 5th generation descendant is the local postmaster and who has absolutely NO IDEA how/who/when the well was drilled. His ancestors established the ranch based upon script issued by the Republic of Texas for service in the revolution. He said family stories told that the windmill was removed when rural electrification was established in 1933, the well deepened, and cased in iron pipe.) That old house toward-which the just-found pipe ran... burned over 60 years ago and was dozed level...a corral being built in it's place, now unused and deteriorated. My house was built in 1952-ish and tied into the old ranch-house service before it burned,,, and ran along a road which once connected the two but now is overgrown and almost undetectable. The leak was beneath the soil near the old ranch-house location, and that was dug up, repaired, and no further problems. That was 19 years ago and when the well pump quit last week.... the same well serviceman was the only one I called, of course!

He warned me, that he expects to retire next year so I asked him to replace everything associated with the well house with new! He installed all new down-piping using stainless steel collars, new H.D. Gould pump, new pressure tank, controls, etc.

I may not have been born a country-mouse but I'm teachable!

 

[Tooljunkie]

Old guy long gone was one of the local oddballs.
Would strip down and climb into a cardboard box with bottom cut out.
Would wander around until he had an (indication) and would find well locations.
Aparrently he had a great success rate.

 

[vic gerbasi]

Old guy long gone was one of the local oddballs.
Would strip down and climb into a cardboard box with bottom cut out.
Would wander around until he had an (indication) and would find well locations.
Aparrently he had a great success rate.

i missed you its about time you reappeared