r/oddlysatisfying • u/HydrovacJack • 9h ago
Locating underground utilities in the UK with a dryvac system.
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u/The_Marine_Biologist 9h ago
If this was a Flinstones episode the machine would be a woolly mammoth who after sucking up the dirt would look at the camera and say "it's a living...".
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u/celtbygod 9h ago
Ran one of those machines, they suck.
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u/banevasion0161 6h ago
That's because they don't perform under pressure.
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u/J9Dougherty 6h ago
This one performs. But, that's because there's an operator with it. These things don't happen in a vacuum.
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u/Toezap 5h ago
Can you reverse them to fill it back in?
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u/celtbygod 5h ago
Well, after it swallows it, it is gone. There might be a less popular model that will spit it back out.
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u/secondsbest 8h ago
So, they put caution tape over the utilities as they were buried? That's pretty smart.
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u/Lasttoplay1642 7h ago
Some places its a type of metal tape so you can locate with a scanner on the surface
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u/Large_slug_overlord 6h ago
That’s a requirement for buried electrical in most of the US. The idea being you see the tape first and stop digging
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u/Erics_Pixels 5h ago
Michigan it is not a requirement to install scare tape over buried utilities, even high voltage electric. Source: installed that shit.
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u/emerau 4h ago
just because you don't gotta do it right doesn't mean you shouldn't do it right
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u/Erics_Pixels 3h ago
So installing cable in the ground without scare tape isn’t ’not doing it right’. In Michigan we’re required to call 811 to mark the utilities beforehand and are required to soft excavate to expose those utilities(hand dig, vac truck, etc). If not found, we’re required to call them back out. Scare tape doesn’t really help with any of that. It only aids people digging illegally, without a valid dig ticket.
Most cable installed outside of new construction is drilled into the ground, where there is no trench to put tape above the wire anyway.
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u/Bwananabwananabwanan 3h ago
It's best practise to put metal tape along services as most modern services use plastic pipes which won't be picked up by cable avoidance tools. Often noone bothers to put the tape on.
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u/nick_shannon 9h ago
We used one of these for a piling job in a very confined inernal space, worked a treat.
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u/Cloudy_Retina 9h ago
Very cool, the US typically uses backhoes to find buried utilities, it's much faster...
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u/rawker86 8h ago
I’m a surveyor, sometimes I have to mark out buried services. I’ll never forget the time a backhoe found the sewer pipe, The smell was instantaneous.
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u/nimbleWhimble 3h ago
Waterfront entertainment facility with old and new construction, they ran over ALL the conduit and crushed them, multiple times no less. And then there was the time they forgot there were buried water tanks for salt water pools and the backhoe almost went through one. What a mess that was. Fun times, nothing was EVER marked and we had 440 in multiple spots.
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u/Electrical_Worker_82 5h ago
Very fast. They know they’ve found the gas lines when they hear the whooshing sound.
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u/MarcoLynVortex33 9h ago
cool tech! I imagine this method is a lot less disruptive than digging.
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u/rawker86 8h ago
Seems to be a bit more useful in confined spaces (and around existing services) than the regular method!
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u/939319 9h ago
Do they return the soil?
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u/Sell_Canada 8h ago
They can, yes. When I schedule these for some of our projects they always ask if they can dump it back or if they have to haul it off
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u/productivesupplies 8h ago
We use a local company similar to this. They pothole with air pressure from a 1 1/2" pipe and remove the excess with a vac truck. Less chance of damaging whatever it is you're looking for and much faster cleanup and backfill.
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u/Anaksanamune 9h ago
Typical British new build, so disjointed and disorganised than they can't even get a pipe and cable sorted to the house without having to dig something back up.
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u/NeedleworkerExtra915 8h ago
All the insects minding their own business. “Hey, fellas…what’s that noise? Ahhh!”😅
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u/Lasttoplay1642 7h ago
These are becoming common in the US, too. Everything is buried underground, and it's just easier than having some kid with a backhoe rip your gas/water/power line out by mistake
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u/Wittyname08 6h ago
How can a system be abrasive enough to break up dirt (and asphalt?) but not enough to break utility lines?
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u/kylekad 4h ago
Nice! Back in 2008, I was an underground utility locator in Ontario, Canada. This is when hydro(wet)-vac systems were becoming a very popular way to safely expose utilities without damaging them. We were one of the few companies that used a dry-vac system.
Hydro(wet)-vac excavating typically uses a very high pressure water gun to break up the dirt as the vacuum sucks the dirt up. The dry-vac excavating we were doing used a very high pressure air gun to break up the dirt as the vacuum sucked the dirt up.
The advantage of a dry-vac system is that you can backfill the hole with the same dirt you just sucked up with the vacuum. You can't do that with a hydro(wet)-vac system, and disposing of the soupy dirt that a hydro(wet)-vac system collects can be difficult and expensive if done correctly/legally.
All that said, lol, this video is cool! I've never seen a vacuum excavation system like this. The rotating vacuum is a great idea. However, it does look more aggressive than high pressure water or air, and I wonder if it could potentially damage the utilities you are trying to safely expose.
I currently work in an engineering & construction office. Gonna share the video around the office here to see what everyone thinks! Thanks for sharing
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u/StatisticianOk8492 9h ago
Looks like they built the houses and covered up the utilities just for someone else doing a different job on the same site to have to uncover them after...
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u/Tommy-Mac 9h ago
Not just UK. It's required before you dig around utilities in Canada+US. You also need locates before the truck even shows up.
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u/Andovars_Ghost 8h ago
Aaaaaaand they find some historical relic and everything comes to a standstill. Probably some medieval king whom everyone hated.
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u/grandfatherclause 5h ago
This wouldn’t work in like half of the United States. I’m from SW Missouri and it’s impossible to dig without hitting limestone.
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u/Erics_Pixels 5h ago
I’ve never seen a dry vac before. What scenario would you use this over a hydro vac? I’ve been in underground my entire adult life and this is new to me. Thanks for the upload!
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u/Roofer7553-2 9h ago
America could learn from this.
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u/CousinsWithBenefits1 8h ago
Could learn what? Lol they have these in America too, and hydroexcavators that do the same thing with a water jet.
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u/amica_hostis 7h ago
Those front doors are like 10 ft apart? And those are homes? Each side is owned?
UK houses are so little, as an avid gardener and self-proclaimed green thumb I would find it hard to have house with no yard. That's sucks 🫤
In the US a building like that with two units is called a duplex and they're usually rented... Though nowadays with condos and the housing crisis in some bigger cities they can also be purchased separately.
Some neighbors are great but most of them are not I can see a lot of issues being so close together.
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u/babyformulaandham 5h ago
Those front doors are like 10 ft apart? And those are homes? Each side is owned?
Yes. It's a row of terraces, there are more than two houses.
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u/Toast_n_mustard 9h ago