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Locating Underground Cable
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11-19-2017, 07:01 AM
A week ago Telcom came out to lay fiber from the service drop to the house prior to their installation. I bought the house 2 months ago and the dsl cat 5 cable is in a buried conduit from the service drop to the house, 250 feet or so and 2 feet down. They needed to know where the house end was, and I have no idea, but it appears the last 20 feet or so are under car port concrete. Any suggestions on how to locate underground cable?
Gus 
11-19-2017, 07:10 AM
Where does it enter the house? Can you trace it from that point to the ground? Otherwise, perhaps a very sensitive metal detector might pick up the wiring in the cat 5 cable?
“Facts fall from the poetic observer as ripe seeds.” -Henry Thoreau
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
11-19-2017, 08:12 AM
It enters the house through a box in the carport. Following it back, it goes into a small hole in the house siding, and disappears. I would have to remove the siding to see where it goes from there, and since I think it just drops into the concrete floor and disappears, I'm reticent to do that.
11-19-2017, 08:26 AM
Since your concrete floor probably contains metal screen and rebar, you probably can't use a metal detector to find wiring, unless the metal detector can be adjusted for a specific type of metal.
Here's another method using a signal injector and tracer: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/projects/t...her-means/ “Facts fall from the poetic observer as ripe seeds.” -Henry Thoreau
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
11-19-2017, 09:38 AM
You could use something called fox and hound cable tracer.
Not sure how thick or even if it could detect through concrete. But maybe... I guess you are not the "gus" I use to know from Oregon, or you'd probably know this stuff already. 
11-19-2017, 11:16 AM
The engineer we hired during the purchase of our house couldn't find the cesspool so he used divining rods to locate it.
We later found the cesspool ourselves. Not where the engineer thought it was. The moral of the story is that if an expert can't find the cable.... welcome to Puna! ETA: italics
11-22-2017, 02:20 AM
Locating underground conductors requires an instrument like the Amprobe AT-3500 (>$2000). Wire tracers for exposed conductors like the Greenlee 200EP-G are <$100. Both are two part instruments, a signal injector and signal receiver. Both work great for their intended purpose. The Amprobe can locate deep underground conductors (specs say 16') and will read through reinforced concrete.
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