How to Find Underground Pipes & Cables

Following many questions about where a water pipe goes in a recent video, I'll show you how to use a CAT & Genie cable detector to find underground services around your property.

[Mikey-nsnz]

Seems like you have found a free water supply. Expect a swimming pool build series will be coming up.

[garybroomfield]

Now that's dedication for you Stuart. Digging up your garden just for our entertainment !
Appreciate the effort. Keep up the great work !

[lewisbrown]

He says he doesn't care about finding the end of that pipe but don't believe him, he's an engineer 😂.... this man will be back out with a mini digger and a trench box in a couple of videos... 😂

Great videos Stuart, thank you!

[fjrkev]

One your most amusing videos yet. How I laughed that you didn't press the depth button BEFORE you decided to dig a great big hole in an otherwise perfect lawn. Great vid. Well done

[emielhoffer]

Well done Stuart. And at least a lot of people now know how a CAT en Genny work!
Thanks as always for your insightful videos.

[dctuqdx]

You pressed the depth button on the CAT and held it to get the depth reading and it displayed 'M', this is for a Sonde (Mouse). You should have pressed the depth button and let go and it would have given you an accurate reading and displayed 'G' for Genny which you were using at the time. 🙂

[niwty]

One other little tip for those not conversant with these things that we learned at work a few years ago (I worked in the electrical distribution industry so we actually already knew it but the new apprentice didn’t.😉) Take care if using it on “radio” mode, that you’re not picking up your metal toe caps in your protective footwear! 😂😂😂

Great video as always Stuart.👍

[martinhunt]

Good stuff Stuart, your belt and braces approach brings us all huge confidence! Most splendid indeed.

[David-xcus]

I’ve used a CAT and Genny a lot and I’ve got a couple of tips….1. If ur tracking a cable inside to out don’t be tempted to use electric or gas as an earth otherwise u will track that service and not ur cable 2. U need a good earth so if u turn the Genny on and then connect ur earth you will hear ur Genny change in noise, if it doesn’t then it’s not a good earth 3. When u first start to track with ur CAT then do at least a 90 degrees sweep as if the cable is damaged it can bleed noise with the earth but ur cable should always be the loudest 4. If ur CAT doesn’t have depth detection then u can gauge it with the sensitivity toggle as the more u have to wind it up to hear it the deeper it will be….hope this helps

[Quaker]

I found that quite interesting as we have one at work. Not that I've used it but I do send it off each year for calibration! Thanks for all of the hard work digging a hole. As a Brit, I enjoyed sitting here watching you dig! 😂😂

[rorymakesstuff]

Just amazed you’ve got that much top soil in a new build! Every time I dig more than a spade deep, all I find is rubble…

[bill]

Fascinating. Watched the first video so was looking forward to the mystery being solved. I take it the leak that you fixed is no part of the redundant pipe.

[andrewofford]

The Old Cat & Had many a goodtime using these, looking for 11KV

[totherarf]

I use a Cat and Genny regularly at work.
Mine is a bit older being a Cat3 and the genny is a little different too.

The main difference in the Genny is that it sends a pulse that is echoed in the Cat (a rapid Beep Beep Beep) but it is only detectable as such on the correct setting on the Cat!
If you just use it to find an underground mains cable (say your service cable feeding your house that you don't want to build an extension over) it comes across as a humming. For additional ease of detection we have an induction loop that you can clamp, like a clamp meter, round the cable (say under the cutout) so there need not be any electrical contact! When you connect eather the induction loop or the direct connections the beeping tonne changes so you know you have a good signal.

This is an essential tool if you are doing any kind of regular digging .... installing fences and gates or you are a builder and will pay for itself the first time you do not dig through a cable!
It does pick up Gas pipes too! ;o)

[earlyriser]

Stuart,
We had exactly the same problem trying to find a 70 yr(?) old septic system. We used a CAT system and pushed a wire 20 ft down the line and the pipe was so deep that it lost it ~10 ft from the house. In the end we dug a big hole with a backhoe to find the line and tanks that had been 'over buried' when they remodeled the house and brought in a lot of fill. The septic had no cleanout in the lid, and had never been pumped out. We changed lids, added a 3 feet of riser, and finally pumped out the septic that had a lot of grease in it.
We were 'so' confident that the CAT system would find it and it just lost the signal.
PS long time Patreon

[BusinessButlers]

Forgive me, Stuart, but I was more interested in where this apparent free-to-use water supply was coming FROM and not where it was going to. It could be junctioned back to either your house supply, your neighbour's or an unmetered lost supply. I cannot recall if you shut off your actual water company stop cock to see if the water from the renegade supply eventually stopped flowing or you politely asked your neighbour to do the same on a different day and monitor it accordingly? The problem is that your channel highlights the issue and unless you use best endeavours, your neighbour or the water company could come after you for additional water usage bills, particularly since it had been discharging into the ground for some time.

I had this issue in my old house when I was doing a lot of improvements and it was a lead pipe that split underground beyond my water authority stop cock and then went 40ft along the length of the house then it split off again, I think one to the old boiler room and another to the back door kitchen sink. The lead pipe must have been leaking for decades but fortunately at the time, I was not on a meter. I got my builders to lay a new alkyd water supply straight to the new boiler house and all new cold water pipework went from there to supply the entire 7 bedroom house. Soon after, the water company enforced the installation of a water meter and so I was pleased that I had solved the matter.

[grahamclayton]

Mini digger £50 a day to hire !! Might make a good video!😂

[videostarish]

If you ever need to thread a cable through an existing pipe or conduit, one way is to get a small plastic bag, & tie it to one end of a long line of string, then push it into the pipe, and at the other end of the pipe, hold a vacuum cleaner hose, & turn-on the vacuum, which will suck the bag & string through in seconds..! then tie the string to cable, & pull it back through the pipe..., ! 👍👍

[olson.pamela]

I actually wondered about the other end of the pipe. Where is the water coming from? Ha ha don't do anything on my account Stuart, we all have bigger things to worry about.

[ralphtaylor]

Pity you could not push the cable the other way to find the source of the water. Not sure if I am dreaming but in the old days cattle troughs were connected without meter to the supply. When your plot was developed the probably capped off the pipe at the tank and left it.