Electricity detector

[johna.clements]

Well the plans showed it as being roadside- but it most certainly wasn't...
(the original building where i was working (originally a workshop, then converted to admin as the workshop had become too small) the path, and the 'new workshop' were decades apart in construction dates and were all separate concrete pads
The thing was the plans showed it roadside- but it was well inside the property boundaries (which wouldn't have been done) and it was disappearing directly towards the old building (over a century old) and built well before the telephone line installation...
This area was several layers of clay, with some other soils inbetween (I remember that it caused issues for the new building as they wanted a more expensive 'raft' concrete floor/foundations rather than just a 'slab' because of the soil conditions)
It was also noticable that depending on the soil moisture levels, you could see the powerpoles outside either leaning towards the road, standing upright, or leaning away from the road- depending on whether we had had a drought lately or not lol
So there was a lot of movement going on there...

Maybe when the telephone line was laid towards the old building there was a track there. The telecoms drawings were never updated when the road was built in a different position. The people marking out the cable could have assumed that the bend in the road where it headed towards the old building was wrong on there drawing rather than the road having moved.

The higher permability soil will deposit water into the top surface of the clay layer below. Making it wet and shear. The landslip most make the land cheap but rafts will make it expensive to build on.

 

[Dabop]

Maybe when the telephone line was laid towards the old building there was a track there. The telecoms drawings were never updated when the road was built in a different position. The people marking out the cable could have assumed that the bend in the road where it headed towards the old building was wrong on there drawing rather than the road having moved.

The higher permability soil will deposit water into the top surface of the clay layer below. Making it wet and shear. The landslip most make the land cheap but rafts will make it expensive to build on.

I think you aren't quite getting how it was... the road was in front of both (well all the properties)- the phone line (master cable 100 pairs or more) was supposed to (and would have been originally) run along the verge of the road as was always done and is what the plans showed (between the road and the footpath), but the cables were still running 'along the road' but either the road, and the old general store next door (which predated the installation of the cables) had moved, or the cables had moved, or both- to the extent that the cables were now well inside the property boundaries- in fact right where the new workshop shed was being built and they were now running under the old store next door that predated their installation...

So they were shown as being down the bottom between the road and the footpath, but in reality were up where the red line was- and digging for the new shed- cut the cable that fed the entire street off...
(I went to see if I could get a google earth shot, but the entire area is now a housing estate... )
:-(

 

[johna.clements]

Thanks for the diagram.

I assume that the the road is down hill.
The old store and workshop have very shallow foundations.
The cable was laid below a slip plane produced by the more permeable layers in the clay.
The old store, workshop and road have all slid down the hill on the surface layer leaving the deeper cable behind.

 

[Dabop]

Thanks for the diagram.

I assume that the the road is down hill.
The old store and workshop have very shallow foundations.
The cable was laid below a slip plane produced by the more permeable layers in the clay.
The old store, workshop and road have all slid down the hill on the surface layer leaving the deeper cable behind.

Correct- (which leaves me to wonder about property boundaries legally- are they the surface features (old way) or the gps coordinates (new way) and what happens when things like this happen????
Eventually, someone, somewhere is going to be losing land lol...
But in this case, it was a rather large financial cost to the business owner (my old boss) who did his due diligence, but still did damage the lines- but they weren't where the owners said they were...
(he won in the end, but it had to go through the courts to be settled, and took years)

 

[johna.clements]

Correct- (which leaves me to wonder about property boundaries legally- are they the surface features (old way) or the gps coordinates (new way) and what happens when things like this happen????
Eventually, someone, somewhere is going to be losing land lol...
But in this case, it was a rather large financial cost to the business owner (my old boss) who did his due diligence, but still did damage the lines- but they weren't where the owners said they were...
(he won in the end, but it had to go through the courts to be settled, and took years)

I don't know what the law is.

But if it moved with the slide he could send the telecom company a bill for using his land.

 

[Spectric]

and hence ever more difficult to locate precisely

But if details were kept for the home owner then these issues could be a thing of the past. All my work is drawn up with measurements so in the future I know where studs and pipes are located, nothing special but enough info like this

 

[Jacob]

But if details were kept for the home owner then these issues could be a thing of the past. All my work is drawn up with measurements so in the future I know where studs and pipes are located, nothing special but enough info like this

View attachment 144673

If anything that demonstrates the problem.
It'd be a large and complicated file to include the same for all walls and ceilings in a moderate sized building. It presupposes that it is accurate in the first place and includes any deviations during the work, or later changes. It also presupposes that a later operative even knows of the file, could interpret it and could amend it.
If I ever do another conversion I'll be looking at all surface mounted, or visibly accessible mounted. Just a bit of a design challenge!