I'm located in France
For a house I have to pull new cables through the garden (about 20m – 30m)
The cable has to avoid certain trees, bushes, obstacles and arrive at a certain point.
Earth is rather hard (clay) and I considered renting a tiny soil trencher
However there are existing electricity cables, telephone cables and water pipes (non metal)?
I don't have any confidence that the previous owner respected the 'officialy' required depths and that he used marker tapes, which should normally be placed a few centimeters above the actual cables / pipes to avoid digging in to them by accident.
I know where each one arrives at the house (so I know the starting point), but I do not know where exactly they are going.
Is there any equipment (to buy / to rent) , or are there any specialists who can help locating the existing wires / pipes.
Are metal detectors good enough for thin electricity cables / phone wires? How to detect water pipes without metal?
Any other tricks / recommendations of how to avoid breaking the existing 'connections'?
P.S. This is my first question. So also any feedback in improving this question is welcome.
Best Answer
In most parts of the world, official utility connections will be marked if you contact a "call before you dig" number that coordinates contacting all the utilities that might have buried service lines under your lawn/garden.
I don't know if France has that, or not.
Those services do NOT mark/locate private utility lines (i.e. if you have a line running from your house to an outbuilding/shed/garage.) They only mark service lines and underground distribution lines if they pass through your property.
There are locator services that can be contracted with (possibly the very same ones hired by the utilities in the above scenario) and there are also tools that can typically be rented through a tool rental store/service.
Standard "metal detectors" do not normally work well, you want a specialist tool for locating wires/cables/pipes.