DIYbanter - View Single Post - Copper cable going into the floor, cannot be pulled out

Doc

Ignoramus5974 wrote in news:X_-
:

I entered into a business transaction of the sort "you buy two
compressors and whatever else you find in the building, including
wiring, for $500".

The building, a former car body shop, is to be demolished next week.

But here's a problem: one of the cables, I am guessing 2-0 gauge, four
conductors, is going into the conduit in the floor concrete.

Snippage

We cannot find the panel that they are going to and we cannot pull
them out, as they are attached on their other ends. I am beginning to
think that perhaps they are extremely long and valuable.

Is there some low-tech way to trace where that conduit is going?

The air compressor is a good one or even playing sound through a speaker
can work really well. If the building is that old, be careful of jack
hammering conduits. There are several cases (inluding one on a Navy
base) of unlabled LIVE cable runs under floors to other buildings. So if
the building was built after those around it or if the transformer vault
is located (or ever has been) in the interior of the building, you could
have a live feed sitting in a condiut under the slab. I had the
experience of opening a single phase panel in a three phase system and
having two conductors almost hit me in the face. They were the original
single phase feeders and when the building had the service upgraded,
they never bothered to pull the feeders out. The only problem.. they
were still live.

So, be careful of old building wiring as you cannot depend on people to
have followed reasonable procedures in making changes.