Finding underground pipes?

[os1kne]

I've been successful using a coat hanger before, not sure why. I was convinced when I saw an old water well driller do it (he swore by it).

[catta12]

Ditto on "it works-just don't know how". I've used to brazing wires for years, works every time for me. But neighbor of mine couldn't get the wires to even wiggle! Some have it and others don't.

+1 from me on this. My dad first introduced me to water witching when I was about 12yrs old and we were trying to find a buried water line. I thought he had lost his mind. With a couple of brazing wires bent into "L" shapes we had the line found in no time with only the one hole dug. I have no idea how it works but it is worth a try, if nothing else for the novelty of it.

[DaveS]

If you really think that this works for you, I encourage you to apply for JREF "1 Million Dollar Challenge". This is the "James Randi Educational Foundation".

He considers water dowsing to be a "paranormal activity", and if you can do it for him, he will give you a million dollars.

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

[leehljp]

If you really think that this works for you, I encourage you to apply for JREF "1 Million Dollar Challenge". This is the "James Randi Educational Foundation".

He considers water dowsing to be a "paranormal activity", and if you can do it for him, he will give you a million dollars.

http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/1m-challenge.html

Why doesn't he just go to where wells are already working (because it "might" be considered that maybe a dowser got "lucky", so to speak) and pay them a million dollars?

Ahh, we really should watch responses and not let them get out of hand. Let's not let this get into a flaming war.

[jonmulzer]

How old is your house? Do you know what the underground pipes are made from? Do a search for "private utility locates". Chances are they will come out and find whatever you need them to. We have had them out on several private jobs to locate everything from sewer lines to sprinkler systems. If it is in the ground, someone has a way to locate it. The last company even had a listening device that could hear tiny water leaks hundreds of feet away underground. There is some interesting technology out there in this field.

[os1kne]

The old water well driller that I saw do it (he called it "witching") - he was so good at it that he could not only tell when there was water beneath him, but he could also tell about how deep he'd have to drill to hit the water by the strength of pull on the wire. If I didn't see him do it on my FIL's property, I would have thought that it was total BS - but he was very accurate, both in location and depth. I'm convinced that it works, some people can do it very well.

I'm pretty confident that the guy didn't have some big-dollar high-tech device. The guy was an old country driller that showed up in a rig that looked and sounded like it was barely operable. I'm tempted to tell my FIL to call the guy to have him take the million dollar challenge - if he repeats what I saw, he'd easily win the million bucks and leave several witnesses scratching their heads.

[Stytooner]

I use my shirts to douse for coat hangers.
I grab a shirt out of the closet and there is a coathanger there every time.

[mschrank]

I'm with DaveS on this one...call a plumber. He'll be able to pinpoint the locations for you.