Question: Can you please help? We have a water pipe onsite that no one can find, can you? In the middle of a paddock, we have a water pipe that can’t be found. We have had a locator out to site: he has found the power and the phone in the street, but can’t find this water as he says it is plastic. He recommended another locator who has ground penetrating radar. We called him to come out to the site, but after an hour or so onsite he gave up and said he couldn’t find it, and recommended we use a guy he knew that does hydro excavation (or they called it non-destructive digging). They have been out here for ages and have dug a trench 10 meters long and 2 meters deep and still can’t find it. We need to put a new sewer rising main through here and have to find this pipe as it is the main feed to the local town. I have now come across your website and see that you do service locating, GPR, and NDD, so maybe we should have just called you to come out first to do the whole lot. On your site, it mentioned that you do acoustic locating to find water pipes. There is a write up about it but what I would like to know is: if none of these other services can find it, then can acoustic locating find it? We are now over budget and the manager is annoyed that we are behind schedule.
Answer:
Wow, you really have tried nearly everything to find this pipe!
Firstly, acoustic locating works completely different from everything else you have used so far. As it is a main water feed, I’m assuming it is a larger diameter pipe. If that is the case then what we would do is use the comi and hook it onto a fire hydrant. We would then walk along, listening for where the pipe is.
If it is a smaller pipe then we can clamp around the pipe itself and listen for it down the line.
The area does need to be very quiet and the gear does have its limitations, but mate, you have literally had everything else out on site, so really, you have very little to lose, I say let’s give it a go and lets get this pipe found for you so you can move on with your works