08 Nov How To Locate Underground Storm Water Pipes

How to find underground Storm Water Pipes

The most accurate way to locate underground pipes is with an EM locator (electromagnetic cable locator). EM locators transmit a signal along pipe, and you can find that signal with your receiver. See this article for more on how EM locators work. For this method to work however, the pipe you’re interested in needs to be made from a conductive material so the signal can be transmitted along it.

Underground Storm Water pipes are almost always made from non conductive pipe materials like:

• PVC
• vitreous clay / earthenware / terracotta
• Concrete

This makes locating them a little less simple than a copper pipe or cable.

So the solution to this problem is to insert a traceable rod into the pipe. They’re sometimes called a rodder, flexible tracer rod or duct rod. They’re a particular type of flexible fibreglass rod that has a copper wire embedded inside it, making it conductive.

So we can:

1. Feed the rod into the pipe
2. Transmit the signal into the copper wire embedded in the rod
3. Go and locate the rod. Simple.

If you need help locating your storm water pipes, Find The Pipes has a range solutions for different environments and applications. Please give us a call for advice on how this can help your next project.