Pro tip: A customer's old photo saved me a ton of crawl space work

I was at a house in Springfield last month trying to find the old cable line for a new install. The crawl space was a mess and I was about to start digging. The homeowner found a picture from when they built their deck, and it clearly showed the old line's path under the patio slab. I went around the house and found the cleanout point in about ten minutes. Anyone else ever get saved by a random picture or note from a past job?

3 comments

3 Comments

robert5821mo ago

Actually, it's a cleanout point, not a clean out point. One word. Common mix-up. I see it all the time on work orders. The little plastic cap in the yard is a cleanout. It's the access point for the line. Saves a lot of headache when you find it.

faith_thomas1mo ago

My last homeowner's only photo was of their cat sitting on the cable box. The cat was cute, but it didn't help me find the buried line at all. I still had to crawl through three feet of spider webs. Some people just have all the luck.

xenaf511mo ago

Man, I wish my past self was that helpful. My old photos are just blurry pictures of my lunch.