Re: [OT] Mystery Buried Cables - SOLVED...

[Philip Coombes <philip.coombes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  ...well, at least partly.

I followed the cables off in both directions (having to move my spoil
pile to do so) and both curved back round under a wall, so essentially
in overlapping D shapes, coming out from under the wall, going a couple
of metres into my garden and then curving round and going back under the
wall, almost into a circle. There is nothing but neighbours garden on
the other side of the wall in both places.

I had a last effort and gave one of them as hard a tug as I could, and
it came out of the ground! It was hollow, thick wall plastic pipe, about
25-27mm external size and 16mm or so internal bore. It looks more
designed for high pressure water or gas than protection of wiring or
anything like that but the walls are thicker than anything I've come
across while researching it.

So at least I could be sure that one of them was not connected to
anything. This gave me enough confidence to have a probe round the other
one and I did an experimental incision and found that it was empty also.
So I took the plunge and have chopped that one out too. Hopefully that
one wasn't something that gets switched on or off somewhere else!

As I was clearing up I did notice something sticking out of the soil on
the other side of the pond hole, a foot or two away from the nearest
pipe. It was a bit of yellow tape (I think) but all that was on it was

...ON
BELOW

I think the 'on' is from CAUTION but it looks like yellow tape can be
used for anything and there was nothing below it at all. I suspect this
was another bit of scrap, along with the pipes and all the various
bricks and carrier bags etc we have found in the hole.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. I would still like to have known what
they were doing there though!

Phil

On 10/10/2010 21:32, Philip Coombes wrote:
>    Hi everyone, hope you all had a good weekend!
>
> I spent my Sunday digging a hole for a pond but have been somewhat
> stymied by coming across a couple of buried cables or pipe. They are
> about an inch or so across (maybe 2.75cm) and pretty stiff. I have
> uploaded a picture at http://flic.kr/p/8HWk5q
>
> So my question is, what are these likely to be? I am having trouble
> thinking that utility cables would be buried only 2 inches deep under
> turf, we had a mini JSB here doing a patio in a different part of the
> garden in Summer and that would have ripped them to shreds (which it
did
> do to our Sky cable). However I can't be 100% sure. I have tried
putting
> a clamp meter on them and that didn't come back with anything, not
that
> I have a huge amount of confidence in the meter. The house if about 25
> years old and we keep finding bricks and various other artefacts from
> the original construction whenever we dig in the garden so I am half
> wondering if they might be old cables used in the builders yard, one
of
> them appears to just loop back round in the direction it came from.
>
> Needless to say they are a PITA as the pond will not sit in the hole
> with them there. They are too stiff to reroute so I would like to cut
> them out but until I know what they might be obviously that is a risky
> option.
>
> If anyone has any ideas of what they are, or how to check or find out
I
> would be very grateful.
>
> Cheers
>
> Phil
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
--
Philip Coombes
Triornis Ltd

email: philip.coombes@xxxxxxx
phone: +44 117 230 0566
skype: triornis



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