Locating underground wires

[fredhargis]

Our new-to-us place has some pretty insane landscaping. Part of that is that I estimate there is more wire outside in the yard (4+acres) than there is in the house. So as I remove maybe 2/3 of this landscaping to make life easier, I need to be able to trace some of these outside circuits. There are at least 8 breakers in the main and sub panels labeled as to being for outside "stuff". I'm looking at the underground locators and see a broad price range and wonder is this is something where a cheap one will work, or do i have to just bite the bullet. Also, I'm not sure how these things work, a transmitter on one end and the receiver traces the wire(?). The circuit needs to be off I'm guessing. Any advice?

[Herb G]

Buy or rent a tick tracer. It sends a signal thru the wire & a handheld wand picks up the signal. It will work down to about 4'.
If the wire is in conduit, all bets are off.

[JGrout]

I can find underground stuff with two brass rods. 

That should get the witching disbelievers out in force. 

But it works for me

[Mandrake]

I rented one of these:

Rental locator

Used it for locating about 20 sprinkler valves and a derelict power line. Worked well.

I am local to this vendor, but I believe they rent via UPS as well.

~M

[meackerman]

don't do it like I did at our place and find the electrical line with the backhoe.

[fredhargis]

Actually, we already found one with a trencher. I had electrical guys here doing other stuff so they ran a line to my shop building for the subpanel and cut one of the underground cables. That Greenlee thing above looks just like what i need. I'll have to check with some of the rental places and see if there's one around here. Even so, I'd still like to have one of my own since I've got so much to trace.

[meackerman]

I've got to cut a trench that's crossed by telephone line, propane line, and an electrical line ...that I know of.  Just don't know exactly where they are.

[fredhargis]

Mark, even the pros screw this kind of thing up from time to time. I just had a new geo furnace installed, with vertical loops. We marked everything (the law in Ohio) and the well driller still cut the phone line. Then the guys who connected the wells to the geo cut the power line. These guys knew where things were....it's definitely a lot tougher when you don't know where they are. But what you are facing is worse than what I have (especially the LP), I need to trench to get a drain line to the pond, but only have to worry about all the wiring (120V) the house has in the yard (besides the stuff I want to rip out).

[Cooler]

Sometimes it is better not to find the wires.

Local code calls for 110 volt to be buried 36" deep.  I was cultivating the garden and dug down about 8" and found the wire.  (I decided to plant the bush elsewhere).

[Snipe Hunter]

Most areas have a service who comes out to locate wires before you build. Here in MD it's Miss Utility. Not sure who does it in your state but it's usually free.