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Todesco Todesco is offline
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Default Help finding underground wire/box

On 6/7/2020 4:22 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 7 Jun 2020 06:37:54 -0400, Todesco
wrote:

On 6/5/2020 8:14 AM, Todesco wrote:
On 6/3/2020 3:45 PM, Todesco wrote:
10 years ago I installed a post lamp in the front of my property.Â* The
house builder left a 2" plastic conduit (maybe 100 feet) from the
house to the area where the post light was to be installed.Â* I put a
4" square plastic box at each end of the conduit as ground level.Â* The
house end is no problem as it is in the asphalt driveway.Â* At the
house end, I connected an underground "romex" to a breaker on the
panel.Â* At the other end, I connected 2 underground "romex", one to
the post light and one to an outlet, some 25' away.Â* Through the
years, the outside box has disappeared and I can't find it.Â* I've
tried raking up the leaf mulch. Nope.Â* I've also tried one of the non
touch voltage testers.Â* Nope. I've tried a tracing unit connecting a
signal to the power line and snooping with the other end.Â* Nope!Â*Â* I
don't have a metal detector. Not sure where to go from here.Â* Any
great ideas out there?
Here's an update.Â* When I built the house I took tons of pics.Â* I didn't
remember taking pics of the orange plastic conduit, but actually, I did.
Â*The pictures helped a bit.Â* Haven't found it yet, but I feel I'm
closer.Â* Originally, I was looking in a different spot.Â* It's amazing
how much growth occurred in 10 years.Â* Yesterday I put my signal unit on
the turned off lamp post outlet.Â* I can trace it even to the 2nd outlet
some 25' away without even getting right on that outlet.Â* But in the
ground there seems to be lots of attenuation (ground).Â* I was getting
close in a big patch of some "weedy flowers" but had to give up as my
back couldn't take any more (recent back surgery).Â* Today it's supposed
to rain all day, so it will have to wait.

Next update. Yesterday, I used my sounder/receiver, but this time only
the receiver. It works very well to pic up 60Hz. Connected an electric
heater to the outlet on the post lamp. It provided lots of 'hum'.
Still didn't find the plastic 4x4 box in the ground, but I think I'm
close. My back got tired again, so I quit after a short time. BTW, the
area in front of my house is au-natural ... no grass, just wild stiff.
We've even planted some wild flowers. More later.


I suppose a pedantic old inspector might point out you should have
never buried a box in the first place but now you have a chance to do
it right.

Well actually, it was never really buried. The box cover was at ground
level. However, being in an area where plant growth is rampant, there
is lots of leaf mulch, etc. I think some of the new plants are growing
in the leaf mulch on top of the box cover. When I find it, I will
probably glue on another box extension and put some kind of a marker.