Tracking Lead Pipe

[cosmarchy]

Hi,
I have a property with a piece of lead pipe which goes from the stopcock at the front right
through to somewhere at the rear.

At the front where the stopcock is the lead pipe is sitting on the ground under the suspended floor so it's route is easy to follow. Around half way though, it disappears under a concrete floor as it makes it way to the rear.

I'd like to trace this lead pipe as I am going to replace with plastic and my theory is that as I'll have to cut in to the concrete floor in order to put in a plastic pipe, I'd might as well use the channel created by removing the lead pipe.

So, how do you trace a lead pipe under concrete? Are there any special tools which I can hire or are there easier ways to do this. I recon it is approx 300mm deep looking at where it enters the concrete floor so I'm not sure a pipe detector would work!!

Thanks

 

[sircerebus666]

Personally I wouldn't bother , just cut the lead pipe off and leave it in situ , there's no point digging down to 300mm to remove a dead pipe

Run the new pipe the easiest way you can , using an existing run could be an utter ball ache

 

[cosmarchy]

Ordinarily I'd be leaving it but the problem is that in order to run the plastic pipe in, I have no choice but to cut through the concrete the lead pipe is under as there is no other route. My thinking is if I have to cut through the concrete to lay a new pipe, I'd might as well remove the old pipe and use it's previous path rather than creating anything new!!

Unfortunately I have to cut through this concrete, there is no other way to get to the rear.

 

[sircerebus666]

But you don't need to cut through the concrete , you can lay the pipe in the concrete , from memory it's a minimum of 40mm deep and it's a good idea to sleeve it so you can pull it out later in case of any issues

What would you rather do , dig down 300mm to a lead pipe , pull it out after finding how it's run and lay the new pipe or dig down 100mm and run the new pipe choosing the route you want to go to make it the easiest for you ?

 

[ianmcd]

Have a look at Moling, you can hire the equipment or get someone in to do it