Lots of smart people still have landlines.?ÿ Even me.
Have two cells phone and a land line plus the wife's cell phone.?ÿ When I can't get away from someone on the cell while at my desk I can grab the other cell phone, call the landline, wait for it to start ringing three feet from the cell phone I'm on, then tell the caller I absolutely have to get the other phone, then politely hang up.?ÿ Works like a charm.
Besides, my internet service is through my landline provider and will be for far into the future now that they are laying fiberoptic cable to my house.
Lots of smart people still have landlines.?ÿ Even me.
?ÿ
I do too; 1 at the house and 2 here at the office; and my 2 cell phone bills take care of 8 lines...
My communication/internet bill runs about $1K every month.
Call 811. Get the lines marked. Tell them you are digging in the area. If needed, you could get a private locate. That would help know what you are standing over. (And it helps with the aftermath when you hit the gas line they didn't mark.)
Also, get a pin locator that indicates polarity.?ÿ
In those instances, I often go back to a rebar over and over just to hear the particular sound I am looking for. It seems to help in the clutter.
In those instances, I often go back to a rebar over and over just to hear the particular sound I am looking for. It seems to help in the clutter.
Good advice.?ÿ?ÿ Also, when there is only one obvious obstacle, like a t-post that might be near the rebar, run the locator around the post at a constant radius while set for a medium tone and listen for any change in the sound.
I'm pretty sure that utility depth here is 18".?ÿ
See my comment above about the gas line just below the paving, and of course, correspondingly shallow under the lawns.
telephone line
I know of a fiber optic line so important the signs warn you that even after getting a locate, they require you to pay a phone company crew to stand by while you dig.?ÿ If the bench mark is there, I'm not going to be the one to find it.
telephone line
I know of a fiber optic line so important the signs warn you that even after getting a locate, they require you to pay a phone company crew to stand by while you dig.?ÿ If the bench mark is there, I'm not going to be the one to find it.
Pipeline companies around here sometimes act like railroad companies when it comes to activity within the limits of their easements.?ÿ They are constantly mistaking the nature of their easement with fee simple.
Never use the local code as a guide to somethings depth or you will end up hitting a lot of things. I know on a small job it is not worth it but if the job is a little more complicated you can rent a trailer compressor (they are really not that big anymore) and rent an air knife to blast the soil, it works on 85% of all soils and turns hard pan to fluffy dirt that is then scooped out with ease, and you feel utilities with the nozzle. Big operations need a Vac truck to suck it out but on smaller jobs a lid from a 5 gallon bucket works as a great deflector to keep things on the ground so no vac truck is needed. So it's not for every job but once you use the set up you won't want to dig any other way when around unknown lines.
I??m in coastal NC also. Saturday I dug up seven corners. Three of them were more than 1-Ft below the surface. Two of those were more than 2-Ft deep and one was close to 3-Ft deep. All three of these were along a utility easement with water, power, fiber, sanitary and storm in an industrial park adjacent to a river with bits of scrap metal scattered along the surface of compacted fill and ABC stone.
I staked to each computed point, turned my locator sensitivity way down to help refine their positions, then commenced digging. Periodically I checked the hole with the locator to be sure there was still something down there and to refine the direction of my digging.
I dug up a pipe on the front corner of a lot on the intercostal last week that was 3-Ft below the surface, 2-Ft from another pipe at the surface and amongst several heavy duty landscape fabric pins.
This is my standard procedure that was taught to me more than 30 years ago in coastal NC. I never hit water or any utilities on either of these sites. I found these corners because of my confidence in my computations, my ability to adjust the sensitivity and distinguish between the tones of my locator, and sheer determination.?ÿ
If it??s there, you can find it. Be sure to post a photo when you do.?ÿ
Dig it out and while doing so, continue to remind yourself that it's awesome to work in an area where there are no rocks in the soil.?ÿ Dump a few pales of water over the area if you must, but be grateful you're not doing the same thing in an old cobble river bed or anywhere near the path of a glacier.
?ÿ
I carry a quality pin-pointer for when things get crowded. Mine is waterproof and has a tough tip that I can shove through most of our soils. Very handy in the mountains where the schoenstedt is too much to carry.
Now that the thread is simmering down, I'll play grammar police:
It is worth stating here that, as you have demonstrated, a thorough pin search does not begin and end with waving the pin finder around.?ÿ Not even with a lot of unfocused digging. You can't say that you have really thoroughly searched a location until you have calc'd and staked its probable location(s) and then dug, with or without pin finder response.?ÿ?ÿ
Funny thing...I Found an engineering set from 2001 that depicted this line I calculated based on the valves I found and extended the lines to best show where it should be....
They marked the Blue lines, but remember, until I'd put my pink marks out there they had screamed up and down no water line existed...so I Asked....if there's no water line there, what's with the two water meters on opposite sides of the alley for then?
?ÿ
Something needs to be done in the world regarding lack of competence.
Hijack over...
Dig, just don't be too brutish about it. Its part of the art.... ???? ???? ????
?ÿ
?ÿ
?ÿ
I have scanned old plats, inserted them into the drawing and somethings that will offer a clue as to what to do next.?ÿ
@firestix hey man you're in NC so make sure you give 811 a shout about any utility locates (not really helping with finding the corner but it does help eliminate other issues). some of the guys with 811 are great to deal with & others are turds -BUT- the good ones are worth it to talk to for a few minutes
Many years ago I had put in a locate request for a specific location.?ÿ When I arrived on scene it appeared every utility had been marked except one.?ÿ That would be the one with seven pipelines.?ÿ I called the contact number and asked why they hadn't marked this site.?ÿ I was told they had nothing there to locate.?ÿ The guy about filled his drawers when I told him that not only could I see their little warning posts on both sides of the road but that I could see the major pumping station less than a half mile distant.?ÿ I also told them I had a backhoe on site ready to dig.?ÿ Things began to happen very quickly.?ÿ They marked, we dug, we found what we needed to find with no problem.?ÿ Oh, and they watched, too.