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A word of CAUTION

Marten

New Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2020
Messages
10
Location
South Ms.
Though I have not been active on the forums lately I have noticed what looks to be a fair increase of New Diggers. I may have missed it being mentioned, and even over the years I have not seen it discussed as much as maybe needed.! "Underground Power Sources"! I know, Common Sense tells us that everyone with an ounce of brains always considers the possibility of digging into such! Common sense also should tell us that in the Fever and Excitement of" the Dig," that common sense sometimes takes a break in the shade while we flail away with our diggers heading for that " goodie"! So "Caution Up Folks", and especially you "Noobs."! Learn all you can about the different underground hazards and apply them to your digging environment. Old days and old ways are going fast now and everything is being moved underground. Be a bad day to cut a phone line of one of your best Permission sites! Or Much Worse to punch into a really hot line and have us one less digger! So keep your Common Sense on hand at all times to Calm the Fever for the Goodies! HH Marten
 
I have dug up my fair share of power lines. Mostly 110 but I always seem to see it before i get it. Lol I thought I got one a few months ago but it was just junk wire in the hole lol. But I just moved lol hoping it wasn’t hot.
 
Be careful around private homes, especially.
Some owners think they are handy and know it all, to proud to ask for advice or to cheap to get an inspection even for major jobs.
Under the radar types of guys.

I used to work as an electrician and we did a job at a guys home once, added some lights and plugs in his garage for him which was a separate building in his backyard outside his house.
We asked about power he said no problem, he ran power to the thing from his house under his lawn years ago to run some small stuff he had set up in there.
Turns out he used underground romex and he barely buried it 2" deep.
He watered that yard, his kids played in that yard and I noticed among the toys back there were some buckets and small shovels.
If one of those kids happened to be playing and busted into that line, especially if the ground was wet, could have been nasty.
Idiot.
We ended up digging a deeper trench and buried that line inside a small pipe for him that day, charged him for it too.
He didn't want to do it or pay for it but when we explained how crazy dangerous that situation was he agreed.
As far as I know his kids are probably still alive today.
 
I detected around a ballfield in a park years ago (maybe 12 or so). Chainlink backstop, chainlink short fencing outside the baselines to shield the player benches. I didn't detect on the field, just in foul territory. Several years later a kids league was playing there and a young girl (about 10, I think) grabbed hold of a fence rail and was electrocuted. Apparently the underground wiring was in contact with one of the steel fenceposts. They totally rebuilt the field after that. The family won a large settlement.
 
Good thread !!!!

Look to see if there are overhead power lines going to a house, but to be sure I'd still ask the homeowner you got permission from if they have any underground wiring for outdoor outlets or lighting or if they have a sprinkler system.

Also some homes have a PVC water supply pipe underground so you need to watch for where that might be also in case there is a target close enough to the PVC pipe.
 
I have been at this since 1976 -ish (since I was a pimple-faced-teen), and don't EVER recall bumping into any sort of power lines. At least-not-so-far as I would have hurt them or whatever. Am I just lucky ? :?:
 
Also cable lines along with the phone lines mentioned. Some use coax cable as their phone service - VOIP, so just because the phone line may be aerial doesn't necessarily mean a cable isn't underground. Good to check at the house.
 
I cut a 120v wire with my Sampson, the arc took out a piece from the edge of the blade.. Don't get me wrong, it's dangerous, but the power is looking for ground, in most cases it's grounded right there and won't necessarily travel looking for a longer path to ground when it's right there..
 
I have been at this since 1976 -ish (since I was a pimple-faced-teen), and don't EVER recall bumping into any sort of power lines. At least-not-so-far as I would have hurt them or whatever. Am I just lucky ? :?:

You and I pee in the same toilet !!! I’ve never run into this problem either !
 
My AT Pro goes crazy whenever I'm over pipes from a sprinkler system or any underground wiring. I just avoid them and move on to the next spot.
 
We were volunteering at the park one Saturday doing land scaping. I'm a decent sized guy and in the hard soil around here, I treat a shovel like a giant pogo stick and pile drive it. While standing on the blade as I forced it deeper, I hear an odd scraping noise then notice smoke coming from the ground around the blade. Turns out the field drawings were wrong, the 460 main power feed for the multi ball field complex was NOT on the other side of the road as the drawings showed.


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Don't forget about, copper propane gas lines,
Look for the regulators on the side of a house or building.....
is it in line with the LP tank behind you or are you between them ? :shock:
 
Nor have any power lines hurt you Tom , so I would consider that more of a Blessing rather than Luck ! HH Marten
 
I'm more worried about big dog poo in tall grass. That's worse than some electric tickle !
 
Locating has been a part of my profession for the past 15 years. I once stuck a 4mm probe in to a 3/4" private gas service clean. Both sidewalls were intact! I should have bought a lottery ticket that day. It happens!

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Let me add one more cautionary tale...

I work for a utility company. On one late night excursion, I was searching for a buried valve (we use cheap "pinpoint" style metal detectors).

I had a drawing and got a hit near where the valve should have been. I dug it up and found a HYPODERMIC NEEDLE around 6" deep!

Being surgical stainless, it looked like it just came off of the assembly line. Stay sharp out there! (No pun)

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Just from observation I would say the most common one to hit is the one from the cable company or the satellite TV. I have watched them put them in with their trenching machine and they are usually independent contractors. the quality of their machines will vary. One time they put a cable line across my driveway gravel and you could still see the coax in the gravel after they left. The phone company usually does much better and the power company has theirs much deeper. You would really have to do some digging to get to the 250V supply for a house. These new plastic gas lines worry me. They are about 18 inches deep and are made of plastic. My neighbor his one with a post hole digger and the gas company was out there all day. I don't know if they charged him for it or not. It didn't catch on fire so I guess he had some degree of luck. The well pump wire worries me also. It seems to be buried with the well piping and without being inside a conduit. The code for the depth of it seems to vary from state to state. An older house in the south where the frost line is shallow might not be very deep especially in an older home.
 
I was detecting a friend of the families yard one time and got a hit, tried to size it up and sure enough, right from the house to the garage. Asked the owner and he said, sorry should of warned you about that, buried romex about 3-4 inches deep tops he put in a few years prior. Had I just plunged the digger in I may of had a rude awakening.
 
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