I read about the guy doing the fence post a few days ago, to be honest I would tell the supply company to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. A service cable that shallow on private property cannot possibly be legal. What if the guy had been killed, would they recover money from his estate? I would let them take me to court and fight it, perhaps a crowd fund to assist, the cable should not be that shallow and should have had tape or tiles above it.
On a job we dug a trench for gas across a drive to the path, super deep, added stones, loads of tape, mud, then warning tape ( it was a long time ago I can't remember) gas lads turn up and lay it 4 inches deep down the grass near the path and connect it up.. I love how the safety goes out the window when they're paying.
The cable in question _may_ have been laid shallow when it was installed, so the DNO would likely find it difficult to justify recovering all their costs. However, it’s not at all unusual for ground levels to change over many years, particularly in private gardens and a cable that was installed correctly ends up being shallow but no-one realises it until they strike it. Similarly, I’ve seen cables, again installed at the correct line and level, that end up being over 2m deep because the land was built-up. Like Roger says, contact the utilities before digging to get as much information as you can.
Agreed. This wasn't 240v this was 11000 volts, and he reckons it was about 4 inches deep. You would of thought they'd be straight out to sort their mess out and say sorry for nearly killing him, not send him a bill. To follow a fence/ property border where home owner may have work done with this type of cable is wrong.
Also if your on a digger and you hit electric take your hands of the controls and do not step off the machine as it is insulated on rubber tracks if you stepped off it’s going through you call dno explain the situation and they will attend
If you suspect the ground may have become live due to a cut cable, dont panic and run, shuffle your feet away from the source, if 400v is travelling into the ground and the sub station fuse didn't go bang, if you take large steps, or try to crawl out a trench with your hands there can be a potential difference between your 2 feet or your hands and feet and you can get a shock accross your body between your legs or from your muddy leg to your hand. Only move small amounts at a time and try to get onto something insulating such as wooden plank or roll away from the danger.
On the note of electrical safety: Important note: **Do not do a bunny hop** with your feet together like has been taught in some places. This makes you more likely to fall while hopping, raising the danger level. Instead, "shuffle your feet" means to slide one foot past the other WITHOUT EXTENDING PAST THE OTHER FOOT. Your two shoes are ideally always contacting each other as much as possible while moving away from the live wire. This means that it's more likely for current to flow mostly between your two shoes and back to the ground instead of current flowing mostly up one shoe, then the leg, then the groin, then the other leg, then the foot back to the ground. If current did so (flowing up and down the legs), besides possible electric burns and muscles tearing themselves apart due to sheer amount of electricity, this may throw you on the ground, which would expose the rest of your body (including your heart, which depends on a very ordered pace of electricity) to the dangerous electricity. Keep in mind that wet skin is a lot more conductive than dry skin. If you can avoid being/getting wet in any way whatsoever, take that route. This may include reaching an area with dry gravel or patch of dirt with no wet grass.
My son works for an electricity utility company. Lots of his call outs are because of builders and DIYers. Sometimes other companies such as gas suppliers also hit cables, so they're all at it.
I am doing a complete dig up of my driveway, service supply moved (all of them) and a new garage etc etc (1964 house, Pitch fibre foul pipes etc, you know the ones Roger, they have asbestos in them)... all but one of the services (Water) were at 150 mm from the surface, they should be 600 mm min according to my Suppliers, so I dug trenches to 700 mm and did it all beyond spec, tile tape, ducting .... the utilities sub contractors came along and did a great job, because all their jointing pits in their words, were "The best they have worked in" .... If a job is worth doing once for good reason, do it even better, belt, braces and wellies i say ! .... top job Roger ... common sense can't be taught ! ... bloody exhausting, but worth it.
In the Netherlands we have a database that all utilities companies must give information to about active lines/pipes.that gives maps for all the different utilities. So you pay for a digital 'survey' of a given area that you want to dig in, and shortly afterwards you get a map showing all the gas, water, electricity, internet cables/pipes in that area. And it has to be accurate to within a few CMs.
On one job, my groundmen hit the gas and electric cable at different locations. The gas cost me £200 as we know a guy from Cadent. The electric cable blew the fuse at a substation cutting off a street. 3 years after thank god didn't get a bill from Western Power.
Some years ago I was clearing some bricks and concrete on the surface of my back garden so only breaking through the surface lightly chipping away with a pick axe and suddenly there was a flash ,crackle and some smoke. The incoming electricity supply was about 4 inches below the surface. The electric board came out and fixed the cable. They didn't charge me because the cable should never have been so close to the surface but it ruined my pick axe - left the end with a dog leg in it !
I wish to lay my cards on the table right at the beginning. I have spent my entire career (at 39 years and counting) dedicated to the detection of underground pipes and cables. Please be aware that all too often the cable or pipe that is hit is in an 'unexpected' place or at an 'unexpected' depth. If you read through the other comments you will see reasonable evidence of that. Now, something only becomes unexpected if you allow yourself to make a presumption about the route that a cable or pipe takes. So, please always keep an open mind about the routes that they take. DON'T presume that the cable runs in a straight line, it might not. 'Expect the unexpected', as they say. Hire a good quality Cable Locator and Signal Generator, just as is suggested in the video. If you are not sure about how to use them to best effect, then contact the manufacturer. They tend to be staffed by folk who are only too happy to share with you their expertise and knowledge if you speak to them on the phone.
Hi Paul, I am having my lead water pipe replaced with new ones. My contractor told me that he did an utilities search and "nothing" came up. I find it unbelievable and am thinking maybe I use someone else. What do you think? If they dig the front drive, and break a rainwater pipe (lateral, carrying water along the street), would I be in trouble?
Hand digging, trial holes are one of the most effective ways of locating services. Most utility drawings stop at the property boundary but I've come across gas,water and electricity supplies in gardens before.
Done it 🤬digging to put a post in. Noticed the electric so went very carefully but just nicked a gas main. It wasn’t very deep in between the properties, about 10 inches. Gutted, never done that before. But it’s a learning curve
I watched a 360 digger go through a mains gas pipe where a new build housing site joined an existing road and that ignited straight away and there was a lovely tower of flame leaping into the air, the site manager rung the fire brigade who came over had a look at it, put a cordon in place to stop the groundworkers from toasting their butties on it and then refused to touch it, they just rung the gas board and got them to disconnect the entire main so that the fire died out and the pipe could be repaired.
My father in law was on the digger when making a new entrance to our plot of land. But had installed a cable with about 100 wires just below the turf. I took a picture and insisted it was their fault. They want to charge me initially but I didn’t pay a penny in the end because they excepted responsibility. Did make me unpopular with half the village though that was cut of for a week.
1 (and a half) time for me. First time I was on the digger and I had the bucket on what I thought was a tree root, I was yanking yanking yanking on this tree route when I said to my bro ffs see what it is, he got in the hole and discovered I was yanking on a main’s electricity cable, luckily no one died. The cable I was yanking on was actually for next door, it was in the wrong garden. Second time, similar thing, I was on the digger; a diagonal mains cable across the front garden, yank, power off. Luckily the electricity firm came out within 2 hours and sorted it out. Haven’t gone through a drain or gas pipe(yet). Did have someone ring me up as they had sewage over their garden. Turns out they had new fences installed and they’d collapsed the drainage when putting in the fence posts. Sometimes you can be as careful as you want but utilities are in the most unexpected places.
if your going to hit a service on your land ,hit the water usually 25mm blue mdpe pipe a doddle to repair, even live if you cant find the stop tap and everything you need can be acquired from most builders merchants, gas, electric and fiber can be a little more problematic
Good content 👍 It Annoys me so much that the most utilities companies sub contract out the installation works, So their Subbies throw them in at shallow depths for a start 🤬 Drains - You can Use a Sond attachment to a cobra and detect the drain runs using the CAT 4 + MDPE pipe, ie. gas-water cannot be detected with a CAT unless a steel embedded service Marker tape has been installed above the service. Stats drawings are indicative only so cannot be taking for Gospel by the Asset providers. Best Just to carefully trial hole by hand using an insulated grafter/Shovel along your designated route. If unsure dig the whole way without the use of a excavator.
My front garden is about a foot above pavement level, had a close call this weekend when we noticed our electric cable comes up in the middle of our privet and was about 6 inches below the level of the grass
It might be worth freeing off the water stopcock before starting, they are often very stiff and you don't want to be fighting to free it off once you've already hit the pipe.
Previous owner/someone had black cable 4 inches down, no warning tape etc, diagonal across the garden then running through a border. Fortunately I was using a wooden handled fork when I "discovered" it!
I'm wary of digging now. A few years ago when renting, found a black cable on my raised front yard thinking it was roots. Moved to different home and just recently dig an area of my back garden which previous home owner covered with 3 foot of soil and the tenant placed a shed on top only to find a pipe fulled with dirt. I've yet to investigate and just covered it with a pot for now. Don't want to be opening Pandora's box and money will start leaking from my bank. 😅
Believe it or not, i dig fence post holes using a hand trowel in areas im not sure of. Iv come across all utilities and so far never had a problem, phone and tv are the worst. But touch wood all good so far😊
great video roger. Could you cover a video on the cable and hose protectors like little rubber linkeable ramps with top yellow flaps to insert cables or a hose. workmen did a big woopsy recently and i think during work they are a great idea to keep cables safe and not trip hazards. mine arrived today and not put them in on the site till tomorrow but i dont know why its not a standard site thing. how many times do you see wheel barrows running over extension leads all day long. accident waiting to happen. you do a great job!!!!!!
We had new fencing put out the front of our house including new concrete posts. After it was done we could smell gas. We contacted the relevant people and let our fencing bloke now. He was a very conscientious worker and came straight over to speak to the gas workers while they were here. I felt really sorry for him actually because he (or his young helper) must have just nicked the gas pipe as he was digging down. There was no ill feeling between us and we had him back again to do some more fence too.
@@Oli_HudsonThat I don't know. He never said and I didn't want to press it. He made himself known to the gas board while he was here and they were working so he didn't shun away from anything.
Rodger your content is great but after 1 minute in the video and you've said probably twice, from my experience the only probably, usually and logically when it comes to buried services is never assume, guess or trust. You should contact utilities(linesearchbeforeyoudig) use a cat and genny (if qualifiied or experienced) always dig trial holes by hand, follow hsg47 and if you are doing a big job use non contact excavation such as vaccum excavation if at all possible.
That is all good advice but I am realistic. Most people putting in some fence posts etc are not going to call in a bloody great vaccum truck. We have to keep it real.
i've kept my eyes open roger, so what's going on with that pointing behind you at the end? other than that though, all very good advice, just had our extension done so we know where all the incoming services are because we made sure we knew
My digger driver hit the mains electric cable. It snaked across the house, no chance of knowing where it was. It cost me £750 to have it repaired & they showed me there plan, which was nothing like the real location.
Working on a house on Egham hill I was telling the digger driver about the driver on the extension we built on the greenford driving range who hit every service as we dug across the front of the building, Dave said that a good driver can feel cable in the ground.... 😂 To be fair to dave who was digging a footing along the boundary the cable was only 6" below the ground and the guy on the golf range the phone lines were in the type one just below the tarmac in the carpark
I’ve put a spade straight through tv cable where they literally peeled the turf and laid it then stomped the turf back down (bet they made a lot of money) but there was no charge as it was installed wrong👍
If you have a water leak and try to turn off the water at the paving/ road side stop tap, only to find its rusted up - is it the water board since the tap is under the paving but also partially straggling onto your property? How about showing tools / techniques to loosen / unseize water stop cocks 1 metre under ground- accessed via a 4" pipe!
Anything that isn't on your property isn't your problem had this argument with Anglian when my mum had a leak and estimated she was using thousands of litres a day I think the bill was £800 for a few months 😂
Fence fitters came this week to replace next doors fence... within the hour they had gone through both houses fibre supplying internet, tv and phone...
Then you already do much more than most do! Won't find the plastic, but water ain't a big issue and a gas service will only be about 21mbar of pressure - you can literally shove some dirt in it as a stop-gap.
Frost is a huge reason, as ground temperatures are insulated by the... ground, so the pipes contained deep underneath aren't as affected by cold air temperatures. Same goes with heat on plastic pipes for really hot days. Electric utilities can tolerate heat as wires can expand, contract, and dissipate excess generated heat to the wind. Water pipes cannot tolerate excessive heat. Also, water pipes are always heavy, and gas pipes can be too. Adding stronger support structures (or simply reinforcing the structures) for vertical posts to carry literal pipes instead of only cables is very costly.
@@SkillBuilder I work for a DNO. This is true. It may have been buried at a regulation depth & over the years there has been various landscaping jobs that leave it near the surface. On the other hand, it's possible it was installed negligently. I agree there shouldn't be a charge in that instance but if you're dead or injured, that's small concellation. A CAT scanner & maps from your regional DNO is the best idea, then some hand digging until you locate the cable, before going at it with a digger.
I'd like to ask a question regarding pipeworks. I think ive got a water pipe leak on my driveway (through natural causes rather than any ground works). What sort of plumber would i be looking for to do this type of work? Someone who deals with blocked toilets and centrall heating isnt going to want to be digging up a driveway. Any advice would be useful.
I used to love doing water mains but you may find you are better off with some ground workers. Repairs to underground pipes are much easier than they used to be.
Never met a digger driver that couldn’t peel an onion with the bucket or so they tell me. I also generally meet them whilst repairing pipes they’ve dug up. Funny that isn’t it.
Hit gas twice while digging for water once at 1.2m second time at .3m, then drilled threw my lead water main with auger moving my fence half a meter on niegbours propety (got permission)
Worked at a house where the gas main branched off to serve a gas fire in the front room, thereby avoiding the meter. The guy must have had free gas for years
I read about the guy doing the fence post a few days ago, to be honest I would tell the supply company to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. A service cable that shallow on private property cannot possibly be legal. What if the guy had been killed, would they recover money from his estate? I would let them take me to court and fight it, perhaps a crowd fund to assist, the cable should not be that shallow and should have had tape or tiles above it.
On a job we dug a trench for gas across a drive to the path, super deep, added stones, loads of tape, mud, then warning tape ( it was a long time ago I can't remember) gas lads turn up and lay it 4 inches deep down the grass near the path and connect it up.. I love how the safety goes out the window when they're paying.
The cable in question _may_ have been laid shallow when it was installed, so the DNO would likely find it difficult to justify recovering all their costs. However, it’s not at all unusual for ground levels to change over many years, particularly in private gardens and a cable that was installed correctly ends up being shallow but no-one realises it until they strike it. Similarly, I’ve seen cables, again installed at the correct line and level, that end up being over 2m deep because the land was built-up.
Like Roger says, contact the utilities before digging to get as much information as you can.
Agreed. This wasn't 240v this was 11000 volts, and he reckons it was about 4 inches deep. You would of thought they'd be straight out to sort their mess out and say sorry for nearly killing him, not send him a bill. To follow a fence/ property border where home owner may have work done with this type of cable is wrong.
Also if your on a digger and you hit electric take your hands of the controls and do not step off the machine as it is insulated on rubber tracks if you stepped off it’s going through you call dno explain the situation and they will attend
A few inches ! I’ve lost count of the Virgin cable ducts I’ve found chucked on the deck behind a few bushes 😫🧱👍🏼
If you suspect the ground may have become live due to a cut cable, dont panic and run, shuffle your feet away from the source, if 400v is travelling into the ground and the sub station fuse didn't go bang, if you take large steps, or try to crawl out a trench with your hands there can be a potential difference between your 2 feet or your hands and feet and you can get a shock accross your body between your legs or from your muddy leg to your hand. Only move small amounts at a time and try to get onto something insulating such as wooden plank or roll away from the danger.
On the note of electrical safety:
Important note: **Do not do a bunny hop** with your feet together like has been taught in some places. This makes you more likely to fall while hopping, raising the danger level.
Instead, "shuffle your feet" means to slide one foot past the other WITHOUT EXTENDING PAST THE OTHER FOOT. Your two shoes are ideally always contacting each other as much as possible while moving away from the live wire. This means that it's more likely for current to flow mostly between your two shoes and back to the ground instead of current flowing mostly up one shoe, then the leg, then the groin, then the other leg, then the foot back to the ground. If current did so (flowing up and down the legs), besides possible electric burns and muscles tearing themselves apart due to sheer amount of electricity, this may throw you on the ground, which would expose the rest of your body (including your heart, which depends on a very ordered pace of electricity) to the dangerous electricity.
Keep in mind that wet skin is a lot more conductive than dry skin. If you can avoid being/getting wet in any way whatsoever, take that route. This may include reaching an area with dry gravel or patch of dirt with no wet grass.
We ended up calling the digger driver the "Vicar" because he never missed a service!
That is brilliant
Classic
I hit a gas pipe last year. It was only about 6 inch down and in a weird place. Luckily they didn't charge me and I didn't die.
My son works for an electricity utility company. Lots of his call outs are because of builders and DIYers. Sometimes other companies such as gas suppliers also hit cables, so they're all at it.
I am doing a complete dig up of my driveway, service supply moved (all of them) and a new garage etc etc (1964 house, Pitch fibre foul pipes etc, you know the ones Roger, they have asbestos in them)... all but one of the services (Water) were at 150 mm from the surface, they should be 600 mm min according to my Suppliers, so I dug trenches to 700 mm and did it all beyond spec, tile tape, ducting .... the utilities sub contractors came along and did a great job, because all their jointing pits in their words, were "The best they have worked in" .... If a job is worth doing once for good reason, do it even better, belt, braces and wellies i say ! .... top job Roger ... common sense can't be taught ! ... bloody exhausting, but worth it.
In the Netherlands we have a database that all utilities companies must give information to about active lines/pipes.that gives maps for all the different utilities. So you pay for a digital 'survey' of a given area that you want to dig in, and shortly afterwards you get a map showing all the gas, water, electricity, internet cables/pipes in that area. And it has to be accurate to within a few CMs.
On one job, my groundmen hit the gas and electric cable at different locations. The gas cost me £200 as we know a guy from Cadent. The electric cable blew the fuse at a substation cutting off a street. 3 years after thank god didn't get a bill from Western Power.
Some years ago I was clearing some bricks and concrete on the surface of my back garden so only breaking through the surface lightly chipping away with a pick axe and suddenly there was a flash ,crackle and some smoke. The incoming electricity supply was about 4 inches below the surface.
The electric board came out and fixed the cable. They didn't charge me because the cable should never have been so close to the surface but it ruined my pick axe - left the end with a dog leg in it !
I wish to lay my cards on the table right at the beginning. I have spent my entire career (at 39 years and counting) dedicated to the detection of underground pipes and cables. Please be aware that all too often the cable or pipe that is hit is in an 'unexpected' place or at an 'unexpected' depth. If you read through the other comments you will see reasonable evidence of that. Now, something only becomes unexpected if you allow yourself to make a presumption about the route that a cable or pipe takes. So, please always keep an open mind about the routes that they take. DON'T presume that the cable runs in a straight line, it might not. 'Expect the unexpected', as they say. Hire a good quality Cable Locator and Signal Generator, just as is suggested in the video. If you are not sure about how to use them to best effect, then contact the manufacturer. They tend to be staffed by folk who are only too happy to share with you their expertise and knowledge if you speak to them on the phone.
Remember too that the "100 year old maps" aren't always accurate. Roads also change widths to take over the verges.
Hi Paul, I am having my lead water pipe replaced with new ones. My contractor told me that he did an utilities search and "nothing" came up. I find it unbelievable and am thinking maybe I use someone else. What do you think? If they dig the front drive, and break a rainwater pipe (lateral, carrying water along the street), would I be in trouble?
Hand digging, trial holes are one of the most effective ways of locating services. Most utility drawings stop at the property boundary but I've come across gas,water and electricity supplies in gardens before.
Done it 🤬digging to put a post in. Noticed the electric so went very carefully but just nicked a gas main. It wasn’t very deep in between the properties, about 10 inches. Gutted, never done that before. But it’s a learning curve
I watched a 360 digger go through a mains gas pipe where a new build housing site joined an existing road and that ignited straight away and there was a lovely tower of flame leaping into the air, the site manager rung the fire brigade who came over had a look at it, put a cordon in place to stop the groundworkers from toasting their butties on it and then refused to touch it, they just rung the gas board and got them to disconnect the entire main so that the fire died out and the pipe could be repaired.
My father in law was on the digger when making a new entrance to our plot of land. But had installed a cable with about 100 wires just below the turf. I took a picture and insisted it was their fault. They want to charge me initially but I didn’t pay a penny in the end because they excepted responsibility. Did make me unpopular with half the village though that was cut of for a week.
1 (and a half) time for me. First time I was on the digger and I had the bucket on what I thought was a tree root, I was yanking yanking yanking on this tree route when I said to my bro ffs see what it is, he got in the hole and discovered I was yanking on a main’s electricity cable, luckily no one died. The cable I was yanking on was actually for next door, it was in the wrong garden.
Second time, similar thing, I was on the digger; a diagonal mains cable across the front garden, yank, power off. Luckily the electricity firm came out within 2 hours and sorted it out. Haven’t gone through a drain or gas pipe(yet).
Did have someone ring me up as they had sewage over their garden. Turns out they had new fences installed and they’d collapsed the drainage when putting in the fence posts. Sometimes you can be as careful as you want but utilities are in the most unexpected places.
if your going to hit a service on your land ,hit the water usually 25mm blue mdpe pipe a doddle to repair, even live if you cant find the stop tap and everything you need can be acquired from most builders merchants, gas, electric and fiber can be a little more problematic
There are plenty of lead, iron and copper water services out there. I have repaired them all over the years. I agree that blue MDPE is a doddle
In Jamaica all the water pipes are in plastic PVC and very often just below the surface.
Good content 👍
It Annoys me so much that the most utilities companies sub contract out the installation works, So their Subbies throw them in at shallow depths for a start 🤬
Drains - You can Use a Sond attachment to a cobra and detect the drain runs using the CAT 4 +
MDPE pipe, ie. gas-water cannot be detected with a CAT unless a steel embedded service Marker tape has been installed above the service.
Stats drawings are indicative only so cannot be taking for Gospel by the Asset providers.
Best Just to carefully trial hole by hand using an insulated grafter/Shovel along your designated route.
If unsure dig the whole way without the use of a excavator.
My front garden is about a foot above pavement level, had a close call this weekend when we noticed our electric cable comes up in the middle of our privet and was about 6 inches below the level of the grass
At least you noticed it before chopping through it.
It might be worth freeing off the water stopcock before starting, they are often very stiff and you don't want to be fighting to free it off once you've already hit the pipe.
Previous owner/someone had black cable 4 inches down, no warning tape etc, diagonal across the garden then running through a border. Fortunately I was using a wooden handled fork when I "discovered" it!
As astute as ever with excellent advice. Good on you, Roger.
I'm wary of digging now. A few years ago when renting, found a black cable on my raised front yard thinking it was roots. Moved to different home and just recently dig an area of my back garden which previous home owner covered with 3 foot of soil and the tenant placed a shed on top only to find a pipe fulled with dirt. I've yet to investigate and just covered it with a pot for now. Don't want to be opening Pandora's box and money will start leaking from my bank. 😅
Believe it or not, i dig fence post holes using a hand trowel in areas im not sure of. Iv come across all utilities and so far never had a problem, phone and tv are the worst. But touch wood all good so far😊
finding pea gravel is a warning,
Good tip!
Yep or sand or tile tape
great video roger. Could you cover a video on the cable and hose protectors like little rubber linkeable ramps with top yellow flaps to insert cables or a hose. workmen did a big woopsy recently and i think during work they are a great idea to keep cables safe and not trip hazards. mine arrived today and not put them in on the site till tomorrow but i dont know why its not a standard site thing. how many times do you see wheel barrows running over extension leads all day long. accident waiting to happen. you do a great job!!!!!!
We had new fencing put out the front of our house including new concrete posts. After it was done we could smell gas. We contacted the relevant people and let our fencing bloke now. He was a very conscientious worker and came straight over to speak to the gas workers while they were here. I felt really sorry for him actually because he (or his young helper) must have just nicked the gas pipe as he was digging down. There was no ill feeling between us and we had him back again to do some more fence too.
Did he have to pay anything to the gas company?
@@Oli_HudsonThat I don't know. He never said and I didn't want to press it. He made himself known to the gas board while he was here and they were working so he didn't shun away from anything.
I work for a gas distribution network, I can tell you honestly unless it’s a ridiculous damage we usually brush it under the carpet.
Rodger your content is great but after 1 minute in the video and you've said probably twice, from my experience the only probably, usually and logically when it comes to buried services is never assume, guess or trust. You should contact utilities(linesearchbeforeyoudig) use a cat and genny (if qualifiied or experienced) always dig trial holes by hand, follow hsg47 and if you are doing a big job use non contact excavation such as vaccum excavation if at all possible.
That is all good advice but I am realistic. Most people putting in some fence posts etc are not going to call in a bloody great vaccum truck. We have to keep it real.
i've kept my eyes open roger, so what's going on with that pointing behind you at the end?
other than that though, all very good advice, just had our extension done so we know where all the incoming services are because we made sure we knew
great vid. really helpful roger.
thank you Roger
My digger driver hit the mains electric cable. It snaked across the house, no chance of knowing where it was. It cost me £750 to have it repaired & they showed me there plan, which was nothing like the real location.
Working on a house on Egham hill I was telling the digger driver about the driver on the extension we built on the greenford driving range who hit every service as we dug across the front of the building, Dave said that a good driver can feel cable in the ground.... 😂 To be fair to dave who was digging a footing along the boundary the cable was only 6" below the ground and the guy on the golf range the phone lines were in the type one just below the tarmac in the carpark
I’ve put a spade straight through tv cable where they literally peeled the turf and laid it then stomped the turf back down (bet they made a lot of money) but there was no charge as it was installed wrong👍
If you have a water leak and try to turn off the water at the paving/ road side stop tap, only to find its rusted up - is it the water board since the tap is under the paving but also partially straggling onto your property?
How about showing tools / techniques to loosen / unseize water stop cocks 1 metre under ground- accessed via a 4" pipe!
Anything that isn't on your property isn't your problem had this argument with Anglian when my mum had a leak and estimated she was using thousands of litres a day I think the bill was £800 for a few months 😂
Fence fitters came this week to replace next doors fence... within the hour they had gone through both houses fibre supplying internet, tv and phone...
I always site survey my driveway installs with the cat and genny
Good luck finding the PE
GPR is god
Then you already do much more than most do! Won't find the plastic, but water ain't a big issue and a gas service will only be about 21mbar of pressure - you can literally shove some dirt in it as a stop-gap.
Why don't they have pipes running above ground? Wouldn't you avoid rust/degradation/tree roots. It would be so much easier to repair🤔
Trip hazards?
Frost
Frost is a huge reason, as ground temperatures are insulated by the... ground, so the pipes contained deep underneath aren't as affected by cold air temperatures. Same goes with heat on plastic pipes for really hot days. Electric utilities can tolerate heat as wires can expand, contract, and dissipate excess generated heat to the wind.
Water pipes cannot tolerate excessive heat. Also, water pipes are always heavy, and gas pipes can be too. Adding stronger support structures (or simply reinforcing the structures) for vertical posts to carry literal pipes instead of only cables is very costly.
great advice
450mm or deeper for electric cables. Anything more shallow shouldn't be charged
That is true but they sometimes say the ground levels have been altered
@@SkillBuilder I work for a DNO. This is true. It may have been buried at a regulation depth & over the years there has been various landscaping jobs that leave it near the surface.
On the other hand, it's possible it was installed negligently. I agree there shouldn't be a charge in that instance but if you're dead or injured, that's small concellation. A CAT scanner & maps from your regional DNO is the best idea, then some hand digging until you locate the cable, before going at it with a digger.
I'd like to ask a question regarding pipeworks.
I think ive got a water pipe leak on my driveway (through natural causes rather than any ground works).
What sort of plumber would i be looking for to do this type of work? Someone who deals with blocked toilets and centrall heating isnt going to want to be digging up a driveway.
Any advice would be useful.
I used to love doing water mains but you may find you are better off with some ground workers. Repairs to underground pipes are much easier than they used to be.
Just make sure you have some denzo to hand 😂
Never met a digger driver that couldn’t peel an onion with the bucket or so they tell me.
I also generally meet them whilst repairing pipes they’ve dug up.
Funny that isn’t it.
Hit gas twice while digging for water once at 1.2m second time at .3m, then drilled threw my lead water main with auger moving my fence half a meter on niegbours propety (got permission)
Have you considered a new profession?
@Dandodod1 poo happens learn from it don't repeat, as rocky said ain't about how hard you hit about can you get back off that ground
@Dandodod1 you should consider a new profession ya rent boi
Worked at a house where the gas main branched off to serve a gas fire in the front room, thereby avoiding the meter. The guy must have had free gas for years
I have seen similar. A house converted into flats. One flat using the neighbour's supply.
👍👍👍
This video would be good for colin furze at the minute
what about the sewers pipe?
Did you watch the video where I mentioned the drains?
But i thought you were talking about rain water pipes. I live in cumbria and i dont see any of those man covers.
2:20 Wow, here at the colony we have 1 double yellow line in the middle of the road, but the British have 2, on the sides? What's going on?
What is your single yellow line for? The double yellow is No Parking
@@SkillBuilder Cars go in one direction on one side of the line, in another on the other. Plus, you can't park next to that line too 🙂