Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction How do I tap into a big 18" clay tile

Help! I have no idea how to make this work.

I am trenching 50' down hill to the creek head to drain my yard. The farmer who owns the field would like me to tie into the 18" main clay tile. I have no idea how to find the tile without breaking it and I am not sure how I would tap into it with my 4" corrugated pipe once I do find it. I am hoping I wont have to buy another 1000' of pipe to get to where the clay turns to plastic culvert.

Any Ideas?

A clay tile cutter. Kinda looks like a pipe wrench with cutting chain links on it, then buy a boot that slides on to it with a 4" adapter.

You might have to get an adapter tar goes from corrugated to 4" schedule 40 PVC

I will try to find a tile cutter tomorrow. is this something lowes would carry?

how can I find the main tile without breaking it? I have repaired 4" tiles with corrugated patches but I would think an 18" would be pretty tough to fix.

If you can find one of those overhead map sites that will let you zoom in on your property, sometimes you can see a darker green line going through your yard or a lighter tan line going through the fields. Thats how we found ours.

Lowes won't have one. Try to rent one from a plumbing place. You won't want to buy one (expensive). Also the fitting probably won't be cheap. I really can't think of a place that has them, we always had them in shop when I worked fr the state. But the place you get the fitting from will probably be able to tell you where to get the cutter. As far as locating the tile buy a probe while your at it and start probing that's how we do it.

Thanks for your help! I will call the local equioment rental place and see if we can find a cutter and probe.

Have you ever used coat hangers to water witch a tile. I had a contractor do it a couple years back. I thought it was a silly until he found the two tiles on the first try.

Yeah we had a guy who worked with us that did it all the time (witched), they have to be solid copper hangers. Probes are relatively cheap, buy a metal one that is fairly skinny not a big fat fiberglass one. The tile cutter will cut out a 12-16" section of pipe that the plastic booot will fit between then there's band clamps on the ends of the boot that are tightened down to make a seal. Just get a boot with a female 4" on it to tie you pipe into.. The cutter is kinda a big modified version of a copper tube cutter that you tighten diwn and spin, except it's got the wheels on a chain that you wrap around the pipe and turn a little, tighten, turn, tighten until the pipe snaps.

You may be able use a weegee board to find the tile also?

I had a guy show me how to witch a buried electric cable using regular coat hangers. It was eerie watching them point to each other when I was on top of the wire. Regular iron or steel coathangers. No copper used. He could find water lines the same way.

I use 1/8" diameter 308L Tig Rods. Kinda partial to Stainless Steel I am.

Yeah, it works for the right person's, and very accurate. I can usually find most anything pretty quick.

The most surprising one, is I lost my keys (main key set) while snow plowing on my tractor in 07. I did 5 Country driveways that morning and re-did them that evening, because of the snow fall.

Anyway, to make a long story short. We found them in a snow pile I pushed up to create a parking space for four cars, down the road, and across the street.

The rod's took us right to the spot, and with a bit of digging in the piled up snow, MY keys showed up!

Time frame was well less than an hour till I had my keys!

I really should get out and practice with the tip section of my fly rod to determine how deep things are. It's more in how stable you can hold it, and is accurate to within a foot.

Spooky stuff, eh!

If I hadn't have done it myself, I wouldn't have believed it. Spooky is right!

Lots of stories but every blind experiment shows its bunk. I can lead you to the old tiles in many fields because they are where I'd install them if I wanted to drain the field. If you believe in something, its easy to convince yourself. But what the heck, its fun!

I can't do it.

I had a friend, now deceased, who could witch using a willow fork. I've watched him and it once pulled down so hard that the bark split as he was trying to hold it up. When I touched the wood, it stopped.

I thought it was bunk as well....until it worked for me. I tried it and found where my well line went into my house. Because I was a skeptic I decided to have my wife try and she found it too. Now maybe I remembered where the line should be, but my wife had/has no idea where the line is or what she was looking for.

Maybe it was the iron in the water or something else that caused the coat hanger wires to cross, but they did.

We see scientific data presented here to support also sorts of pond managent data, which I greatly appreciate. As a scientist, I understand how much bias can influence beliefs, most often to reach incorrect conclusions. Many studies have been done in an attempt to prove that witching works, all showing nothing better than random chance. If you can witch reliably, then you will be rich when you have yourself tested in a scientific study. See you on Myth Busters - Good Luck!

I don't know if it works or not, but the guy I use to work with could find pipes within a foot he also found the water for my well. I was skeptical until met him and seen him in action.

I must have the touch too. I just pointed to the spot and my well driller found water also.

So now you know, scientific facts are BS.