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Video · Drains and Underground Lines

How to Locate Underground Pipes, Nature Documentary Style

Plumbers locate underground pipes with an electronic locator: a transmitter puts a signal on the pipe, or on a sonde fed inside it, and a wand picks it up from the surface. Here, it's narrated like a wildlife show.

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What you’re seeing in this video

The narrator goes full nature documentary, observing the creature from a distance so it doesn't turn hostile. The creature is a SwiftPro tech in a dark jacket and khakis, head down, sweeping a pipe-locating wand back and forth across a front lawn.

He's working beside a parked car and a detached garage, reading the signal through the grass to trace where a buried line runs. Find the pipe first, and digging becomes one hole in the right spot instead of a trench across the yard.

Job footageSwiftPro
Topic
Drains and Underground Lines
Length
0:19
Posted
September 23, 2026
Shot by
The SwiftPro crew, Northern Virginia

Why it matters in your house

  • Call 811 before anyone digs in Virginia. It marks public utility lines, but private lines, like your water service past the meter and your sewer lateral, are on you.
  • A wet patch in the yard that never dries, or a water bill that jumps with no change in use, can mean an underground water leak. Locating it first saves digging up half the lawn.
  • Plastic pipe doesn't carry a signal on its own. That's why plumbers send a small transmitter down the line or use tracer wire buried with it.

How do plumbers find underground pipes?

With a locator. On metal pipe, a transmitter clamps on and sends a signal along it. On plastic or clay, a small transmitter called a sonde rides in on a camera or cable, and the wand finds it from above, often with a depth reading. Some lines have tracer wire buried alongside. Either way, it beats guessing with a shovel.

Want it done at your place? See Drains and Underground Lines at SwiftPro or call (703) 997-9757.

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SwiftPro Heating, Cooling & Plumbing
4230 Lafayette Center Dr N, Chantilly, VA 20151
44679 Endicott Dr, Suite 211, Ashburn, VA 20147
Virginia Class A contractor license #2705192276

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