Locating an underground plastic pipe

[alistairc]

Hi

I need to connect my land drainage to a pipe which connects to the rainwater system from my house. The pipe was put in as a spur when the house was built, but the end point has been lost ! (it was all in place before I bought the house).

Are there any easy ways to locate the pipe, short of just digging over the whole potential area the it may be in !

I's apparently about 2.5 feet down, and is 4 inch plastic pipe.

Regards

Alistair C

[84-1089053830]

There's a gadget you can hire at some Hire Shops which can be used for just this job. Basically, you attach a little radio transmitter to the end of a drain rod, and then get your glamourous assistant to extend the rods up the spur until they reach the end. Meanwhile you, using a receiver gadget with earphones a bit like a metal detector, trace the path of the transmitter as it passes along the pipe and dig down when you've located the end.

At 2½ feet deep (750mm) the radio transmitter should work, but, if you do have access to a metal detector, they can sometime be used to do the same thing, by tracking a brass wheel fitted to the end of the drain rods. However, some metal detectors are only capable of penetrating the firrst 300-450mm of ground, which is no use to you.