Hi-tech gadget to trace the route of a drain.

[epsilonGreedy]

I am in the middle of a boundary dispute which involves the position of an original open drainage ditch that has now been piped and covered over. It would be helpful to establish the route of the pipe under the ground.

 

Is there a surveying gadget that can find the route of the drain that can then be marked at ground level? It is a surface water drain and probably buried no more than 1m under ground.

[ProDave]

Divining rods.

 

Yes I am serious.

[epsilonGreedy]

Just now, ProDave said:

Divining rods.

 

Yes I am serious.

 

 

It would be fascinating to see that actually work, can the technique be self taught? How to create a meaningful flow of water is another issue because the drain only takes water when another attenuation pond overflows in peak wet weather.

 

If it did work how convincing is such evidence be should the case end up in Court?

[ProDave]

Having "found" it with divining rods, I would then dig a hole to confirm the find and accurately identify the position.

 

Go on, give it a try.  find yourself a couple of rods, anything, welding rod, straightened out coat hangers etc.  Walk slowly towards a know underground feature like a water pipe and see if you get any reaction.  You may be as surprised as i was when I found "I can do it"

[Adam E]

Hi we had to get a company in that located the main sewer it was supposed to run along the edge of the pavement according to Scottish water but was one meter into the road,it cost around £400 they opened up a man hole cover and had a massive coil in the back of the van with a transmitter of some type that could be picked up by a cat type tool   

[epsilonGreedy]

31 minutes ago, ProDave said:

Having "found" it with divining rods, I would then dig a hole to confirm the find and accurately identify the position.

 

Go on, give it a try.  find yourself a couple of rods, anything, welding rod, straightened out coat hangers etc.  Walk slowly towards a know underground feature like a water pipe and see if you get any reaction.  You may be as surprised as i was when I found "I can do it"

 

 

Hey this sounds like a fun new project, there is even an Amazon page for that.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=water+divining+rods

[Onoff]

When we had a water main leak on a run of about 50m. Old iron main. Guy from Southeastern came out. He couldn't find it with whatever gizmo he had. East European lad, saying he shouldn't really do it as his bosses didn't believe in it, he dug out a set of divining rods. Saying he couldn't be sure he pinpointed a maybe about 10' from the actual leak. The leak was under concrete so I guess that might have skewed things. Not bad over 150' imo.

[Temp]

Dowsing was eligible for the James Randi $1m prize but nobody could prove it worked. Well at least this one couldn't. Sorry its a bad recording..

 

This one had more luck. skip first 3min..

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2021 by Temp

[Conor]

Ground penetrating radar. When we did it we charged £800 a day. Probably cheaper to dig a few holes.

[epsilonGreedy]

14 minutes ago, Conor said:

Ground penetrating radar. When we did it we charged £800 a day. Probably cheaper to dig a few holes.

 

 

As seen on TimeTeam?

[Russell griffiths]

Drain inspection camera, but you will need an entry point to poke the camera up, the head of the camera has a transmitter built in that can be picked up above ground. 

[Conor]

34 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

As seen on TimeTeam?

Yeah. Used them to map underground utilities in dense urban areas ahead of pipe laying works.

 

Or, as above, a pipeline CCTV and detector.

[Bitpipe]

38 minutes ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

As seen on TimeTeam?

 

And Bloodlands (NI drama currently on BBC1) - just make sure they don't find the bodies.

 

[Declan52]

If you have access to it somewhere via a manhole you can use a cat scanner with sewer rods and a mouse attached.

https://www.hireandbuy.co.uk/p/mouse-for-c-a-t-scanner/

[Dave Jones]

On 01/03/2021 at 22:16, epsilonGreedy said:

I am in the middle of a boundary dispute which involves the position of an original open drainage ditch that has now been piped and covered over. It would be helpful to establish the route of the pipe under the ground.

 

Is there a surveying gadget that can find the route of the drain that can then be marked at ground level? It is a surface water drain and probably buried no more than 1m under ground.

 

mk1 shovel.

 

Assuming its not 20 feet deep, just dig down and expose it. hours graft ? lot cheaper than getting the drain man out with his cat scanner.

[epsilonGreedy]

3 hours ago, Dave Jones said:

 

mk1 shovel.

 

Assuming its not 20 feet deep, just dig down and expose it. hours graft ? lot cheaper than getting the drain man out with his cat scanner.

 

That is tricky when the exploratory holes would be in the middle of a disputed slice of land. The Land Registry plan shows both sides of an open field drainage ditch, overtime the ditch was filled in and culverted, then the neighbour killed off the hedge on one side of the old ditch.

[PeterW]

Mouse on a set of rods and a Cat scanner. Horizontal accuracy can be a little suspect at depth but how wide is this land we are talking ..??

[epsilonGreedy]

On 02/03/2021 at 09:02, Declan52 said:

If you have access to it somewhere via a manhole you can use a cat scanner with sewer rods and a mouse attached.

https://www.hireandbuy.co.uk/p/mouse-for-c-a-t-scanner/

 

 

There is an access point nearby. The area to be investigated to establish the path of the drain is only 5m x 3m.

[PeterW]

Cat Scanner then. Mark the ground above and then dig to prove it. 

[epsilonGreedy]

1 minute ago, PeterW said:

Mouse on a set of rods and a Cat scanner. Horizontal accuracy can be a little suspect at depth but how wide is this land we are talking ..??

 

I doubt the drain is more than 1m deep and as just mentioned the area of uncertainty is 5m x 3m.

[PeterW]

Ok but a Cat scanner can be 900-1500mm off line - how wide a piece are you trying to claim...?  

[epsilonGreedy]

2 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Cat Scanner then. Mark the ground above and then dig to prove it. 

 

 

That would require a Court Order, a week before Christmas the neighbour's appointed property guardian attacked me and after a 999 call uniformed police spent 2.5 hours on scene.

[epsilonGreedy]

3 minutes ago, PeterW said:

Ok but a Cat scanner can be 900-1500mm off line - how wide a piece are you trying to claim...?  

 

 

The problem is I cannot form a viable drive to public road apron shaped as per the planning permission. An ambulance got stuck trying to enter the private estate on a lower priority 111/999 callout last November. A triangle 4m long 1m wide would resolve the access problem but since the attack I want the boundary restored to the Land Registry boundary which is the far side of the original drainage ditch. The full claim is 4m x 2.5m approx

[Dave Jones]

4 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

That is tricky when the exploratory holes would be in the middle of a disputed slice of land. The Land Registry plan shows both sides of an open field drainage ditch, overtime the ditch was filled in and culverted, then the neighbour killed off the hedge on one side of the old ditch.

Your relying more a land registry plan to define a boundary? Oh dear.

 

goid luck !

[dpmiller]

8 hours ago, epsilonGreedy said:

 

The problem is I cannot form a viable drive to public road apron shaped as per the planning permission. An ambulance got stuck trying to enter the private estate on a lower priority 111/999 callout last November. A triangle 4m long 1m wide would resolve the access problem but since the attack I want the boundary restored to the Land Registry boundary which is the far side of the original drainage ditch. The full claim is 4m x 2.5m approx

 

when did you realise your design woudn't fit on the purchased site?