ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Finding underground conduit?

Found it!!!! I went to the last resort and rented a locator. The owner said she didn't want to use the "gate circuit" so I had no option. I started out thinking the conduit was pvc, so I rented the locator thinking I could trace my fish tape through it. After a very confusing morning with the locator, I find out that it is rigid coming out of the 6x6x4 j box, so I just had to touch the conduit with the fish tape with the prob hooked to the fish tape. It led me to the old pipe that was already there. Thinking It may have led me wrong, but hoping for the best, I started digging down to find the old conduit on the other side of the driveway, then to my great surprise, there were both conduits side by side about 18" deep. Well, the conduits were about 8 ft. from the front wall of the house, and went under a bunch of hedges. We started digging again at the wall of the house, and went as far as we could go without taking up her 6ft. hedge:( One last try, I went back to the other side of the hedge at the driveway, and tunneled under the hedge as far as I could go, and Wow!!!!I seen the conduit we were looking for making a 90 up, so I new I had found it. Started pulling the dirt and mulch away, and found another 6x6x4 j box buried under the mulch with both conduits terminated in it and the existing wire that was going out to the other j box in the grass. I stuck my fish tape back in and pulled the circuits I needed out to the j box in the grass. What a relief. I was about to have to "scratch" this project, if I couldn't find it. This was my last option. I think I will make a rough layout of the j box and leave it at her electrical panel in her basement, just in case someone else runs into the same problem down the line. I will have to cover the j box back up under the hedges, I guess, for "looks", but I may stick something there to mark it someway:) Thanks for the input. I guess it was the remark about renting the locator that sent me in the right direction. It pays to share our ideas here. Thanks a bunch for all the input. Steve.....