Posted: 10/4/2011 8:49:25 AM EDT
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Not that it would done me much good in this instance as the location of our home's sewage outflow pipe is not accurately mapped anywhere.
But found it I did! 
With a pick axe, while digging a trench for a French drain. 
Looked like I struck black gold for a moment, but I immediately realized what it was. 
Our home is situated on a slope, with the city main beneath the street above us on the crest of the hill. As such, we have a holding tank with an ejector pump that pushes the sewage past a check valve and up what is a about a 20' rise to the sewer main. So I got everything in the line between the check valve and the sewer main. Yay. 
Fortunately, being the handy guy that I am, I devised a quick fix! 
Seriously, this is just a joke not even a short term fix. I won't be denied a hot shower before heading to the hardware store to get parts for a permanent fix, however. I'll just turn off the breaker for the ejector pump. Anywho, moral of the story, be aware of what might be in an area where you are digging. I knew we had this outflow pipe somewhere in our front yard, I just did not exactly where. Well, now I know. 
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I'll call BS on that, simply because I did call and the .gov and .utility refused to provide me with any info or come out.
I had a water leak and asked if either one could come out and draw a line where the water line was, "no sir, we can't do that because we'd be liable if you hit a power line." Well that's a lot of help, my response was "fine, record this converstation, you are not liable no matter what, now tell me where the line goes," "I'm sorry sir it doesn't work that way, we'd still be liable." Nice duct tape job though! |
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Quoted: I'll call BS on that, simply because I did call and the .gov and .utility refused to provide me with any info or come out. I had a water leak and asked if either one could come out and draw a line where the water line was, "no sir, we can't do that because we'd be liable if you hit a power line." Well that's a lot of help, my response was "fine, record this converstation, you are not liable no matter what, now tell me where the line goes," "I'm sorry sir it doesn't work that way, we'd still be liable." Nice duct tape job though! That doesn't make any sense. Here, it's against the law to dig without calling.  Did you cal the utility directly, or did you call 811? |
NOw that right there is what I would call a shitty job! Nice repair though. You obviously dont know how to use divining rods, FYI a steel filler rod for TIG welding cut in half works great! Hasnt failed me yet. Ive found water lines, drain lines, phone lines, underground power lines, I can usually get it to within less than 6 inches of where it actually is. Saves me from calling xxxx utility. Im sure someone will be along shortly to tell you its black magic and doesnt really work  |
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Quoted:
I'll call BS on that, simply because I did call and the .gov and .utility refused to provide me with any info or come out. I had a water leak and asked if either one could come out and draw a line where the water line was, "no sir, we can't do that because we'd be liable if you hit a power line." Well that's a lot of help, my response was "fine, record this converstation, you are not liable no matter what, now tell me where the line goes," "I'm sorry sir it doesn't work that way, we'd still be liable." Nice duct tape job though! It's called Miss Dig or something like that and it's available in every state. It's a centralized call center that covers all utilities except your own privately owned ones. [IE, your buried electric run to your garage and things like that because of liability] Locally, it's 1-800- MISS-DIG. In Texas it's call "Universal One Call". |
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When I did my sprinkler system, all of the utilities came out and marked. Four of them (cable TV, water, sewer, and telephone) just walked up, eyeballed the lot, painted a line, and left. I knew for a fact that the water and sewer were marked wrong, but since I knew where the lines were, it was easy to avoid them.
Cable TV and phone, however... it seems that the lines for half of my neighborhood go through my side-yard, and the trencher happily ate all of them. I took pictures showing that they were > 4' from the marked lines, called the companies, and told them to fix it all on their dime. They threatened to charge me for repairs, but after the pictures, they didn't charge me at all. |
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When I ran new power underground, re-routed the line coming from my well, and the tie in the the septic from an addition of a bathroom.....I was lucky and had a 60 ft man lift on the property....I took birds eye shots of everything....had a couple 4 ft levels laid out for scale bars....it worked well.
The Miss Utility folks around my area are lacking IMO.... 
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Quoted: When I did my sprinkler system, all of the utilities came out and marked. Four of them (cable TV, water, sewer, and telephone) just walked up, eyeballed the lot, painted a line, and left. I knew for a fact that the water and sewer were marked wrong, but since I knew where the lines were, it was easy to avoid them. Cable TV and phone, however... it seems that the lines for half of my neighborhood go through my side-yard, and the trencher happily ate all of them. I took pictures showing that they were > 4' from the marked lines, called the companies, and told them to fix it all on their dime. They threatened to charge me for repairs, but after the pictures, they didn't charge me at all. Best reason to call right here. If you hit anything, it's on them. |
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To the OP:
I completed about 130 linear foot french drain back in March. I'm glad it's over and never want to have to do it again. My home sits up on a slight hill, so the drainage to the street required going downhill, so the overall depth of my pipe ranged from 15" to 36". That one portion where it was 3 feet deep was a real pain. I rented a trenching machine, but that was only able to get me started. I had to widen it, dig it deeper in some spots, level it, etc. Truly back breaking work in some areas. Anyway, to make a long story short, I have a couple of suggestions for you to help make your project a little easier. First, I was surprised you're using a pick axe for digging. I only used the pick axe to help level out the trench once I was close to the degree of declination I needed for the pipe. I didn't use the pick axe to dig precisely because of what you posted can happen...you get to swinging even just a little hard and bring it down at just the right spot is enough force to cause accidents. A drain spade is easier to control how deep and how much force you need. Second...as I was digging my trench I would lay sections of drain pipe. Nothing final, just a rough-in to see how things were going. With each section of drain pipe I had one of those digital levels that tell you exactly how many degrees something is. A drain like this only needs 1 degree for the water to flow..I went with 1.5 to 2 degrees in a couple places. The thing that was a real pain in the ass though was leveling out the trench all nice and fine, stop to put in the pipe section, get my level out to check it and it's still not showing 1 degree in the direction I need. Inevitably it was because some dirt clod or small rock was throwing everything off and I had to find where in that 10 foot section it was. It was a real pain in the ass and wasted so much time. The solution: Get one section of pipe at the decline you need and make sure it remains steady and nothing else gets in the trench to screw it up. This section of pipe will act as your baseline. Now get a laser pointer and leave it turned on and insert it into the drain pipe pointing in the direction you need the water to flow. You'll easily see the laser when it hits some obstacle that you can clear away quickly, and what's even better is that since you've got that pipe on a decline, the laser will also be on a decline. So if the laser is hitting dirt, you need to dig more. This little setup saved me a lot of time. |
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When I called I called the management co of the subdivision, they had me call their maintenance line, who called me back and told me to call the city; called the city who had me call the county/municipality. I got the same answer from each and every one, they all knew where the line was but no one would tell me where it was nor come out and mark it.
If you don't live in Austin, the ground 8" to 12" down is solid rock. They use trenching machines to dig and then run the lines, then backfill with the broken up rock; it took hour and hours to dig up my yard in order to trace the line to the house. So, the fun part was using 46K gallons of water one month and 52K gallons the next and retarded high water bills. Can you guess what the builder forgot to do? 
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Quoted: When I called I called the management co of the subdivision, they had me call their maintenance line, who called me back and told me to call the city; called the city who had me call the county/municipality. I got the same answer from each and every one, they all knew where the line was but no one would tell me where it was nor come out and mark it. If you don't live in Austin, the ground 8" to 12" down is solid rock. They use trenching machines to dig and then run the lines, then backfill with the broken up rock; it took hour and hours to dig up my yard in order to trace the line to the house. So, the fun part was using 46K gallons of water one month and 52K gallons the next and retarded high water bills. Can you guess what the builder forgot to do? http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/seattleducati/Noticenoglueon90degreejoint.jpg Why didn't you just call 811? You just tell them where you're digging, and they contact all the utilities. |
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Quoted:
When I called I called the management co of the subdivision, they had me call their maintenance line, who called me back and told me to call the city; called the city who had me call the county/municipality. I got the same answer from each and every one, they all knew where the line was but no one would tell me where it was nor come out and mark it. If you don't live in Austin, the ground 8" to 12" down is solid rock. They use trenching machines to dig and then run the lines, then backfill with the broken up rock; it took hour and hours to dig up my yard in order to trace the line to the house. So, the fun part was using 46K gallons of water one month and 52K gallons the next and retarded high water bills. Can you guess what the builder forgot to do? http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/seattleducati/Noticenoglueon90degreejoint.jpg I just fixed aleak in my front yard at 230k gallons. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
When I called I called the management co of the subdivision, they had me call their maintenance line, who called me back and told me to call the city; called the city who had me call the county/municipality. I got the same answer from each and every one, they all knew where the line was but no one would tell me where it was nor come out and mark it. If you don't live in Austin, the ground 8" to 12" down is solid rock. They use trenching machines to dig and then run the lines, then backfill with the broken up rock; it took hour and hours to dig up my yard in order to trace the line to the house. So, the fun part was using 46K gallons of water one month and 52K gallons the next and retarded high water bills. Can you guess what the builder forgot to do? http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/seattleducati/Noticenoglueon90degreejoint.jpg Why didn't you just call 811? You just tell them where you're digging, and they contact all the utilities. I was calling all of the people that I was told to call; all of them had the information but no one would tell me because they didn't want to be "lialbe" somehow. Next time, and I hope there's not a next time, I'll try 811 and see what happens. |
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Quoted:
When I called I called the management co of the subdivision, they had me call their maintenance line, who called me back and told me to call the city; called the city who had me call the county/municipality. I got the same answer from each and every one, they all knew where the line was but no one would tell me where it was nor come out and mark it. If you don't live in Austin, the ground 8" to 12" down is solid rock. They use trenching machines to dig and then run the lines, then backfill with the broken up rock; it took hour and hours to dig up my yard in order to trace the line to the house. So, the fun part was using 46K gallons of water one month and 52K gallons the next and retarded high water bills. Can you guess what the builder forgot to do? http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/seattleducati/Noticenoglueon90degreejoint.jpg Builder didn't inspect plumbers work. That's why primer has a color to it, ease of inspection. Better check some other joints. |
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Quoted:
When I called I called the management co of the subdivision, they had me call their maintenance line, who called me back and told me to call the city; called the city who had me call the county/municipality. I got the same answer from each and every one, they all knew where the line was but no one would tell me where it was nor come out and mark it. If you don't live in Austin, the ground 8" to 12" down is solid rock. They use trenching machines to dig and then run the lines, then backfill with the broken up rock; it took hour and hours to dig up my yard in order to trace the line to the house. So, the fun part was using 46K gallons of water one month and 52K gallons the next and retarded high water bills. Can you guess what the builder forgot to do? http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y97/seattleducati/Noticenoglueon90degreejoint.jpg Run a tracer wire with the plastic. |
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That pipe is only 1.5" ? I thought that the "ejector" (grinder) pump was usually outletted into the bigger 4" "main" sewer pipe? ...and the connection is usually in the house? Force main sewers are small. So if it is feeding a city line that is force main, it may go into a 2-4inch main depending on the amount of houses hooked to it |
| Unless there is a tracer wire over the PVC (or any non-metallic pipe), it will not be identified by traditional and normal utility locating equipment. Generally, those are eyeballed based on clean-outs or manholes. Generally (at least in TX, AR, LA, NC, SC and VA) from an 811 call for work on private property, you can expect that gas, electric, and phone will be marked (most or part of the time) up to the meter or building. Water is usually just marked to the meter. Sewer and stormwater drains are sometimes marked, but usually the marks are made by eyeballing. PVC water or sewer lines on private property will never be marked when you call whatever one-call number. In all cases you have to double check what is marked based on the one-call. If you don't see something marked you can follow up with that utility. If it's a big or important project you would be well advised to hire a private utility locater to verify the one-call. |