Mysterious concrete block has put our leveling and installation plans on hold!

[orion2001]

Hi folks,

Firstly, a big thanks to everyone on the forums for your contributions. I've been lurking for over a week and trying to absorb and learn as much as possible. My wife and I purchased an Intex 16' x 48" Ultra AGP recently and are currently preparing the ground near our house. We have a decent grade so it has been a LOT of work to do this manually. We made the mistake of hiring someone inexperienced with leveling work on Craigslist to pre-prep the ground and level it, so we ended up doing a lot of the work ourselves today.

We're almost done with the leveling, but we've currently hit a roadblock... quite literally.

Here is a picture of a concrete block that we unearthed during the leveling process - https://i.imgur.com/AwlrRv8.jpg

I was able to pry it up gently and I noticed what appears to be soft piping (kind of like garden hose piping) running up to the bottom of this concrete block. The green pipe like thing buried in the concrete block appears to be made of plastic. Is this a gas line? I really don't want to do anything stupid, but the local dig number has only ever marked spots in my front yard for utilities. Should I be worried?


Just a bit of background - My property was originally part of my neighbors property up until 2006. Then it was partitioned up and this section (which was the backyard for my neighbors original plot) ended up as a new plot that was developed by new builders. Could this be part of an old sprinkler system? (supposedly there used to be one that ran all the way through our yard)


I'd really appreciate any guidance and help. I don't want to do anything stupid, but I'd like to figure out what this is because I can't really install the pool because of this.

 

[zea3]

If the neighbor is still around I would show them the picture and ask if they know what this is. I don't think it is a gas line. They usually don't bury those in concrete.

 

[pabeader]

From what I remember, it looks just like the well head on an old irrigation system. Like they pounded in a sand point to use to water the lawn or whatever else needed water. I spent a weekend with my dad, pounding a sand point down 50+ feet to get water at some undeveloped land we owned. (I just realized that was 35 mumble mumble years ago!)

 

[orion2001]

From what I remember, it looks just like the well head on an old irrigation system. Like they pounded in a sand point to use to water the lawn or whatever else needed water. I spent a weekend with my dad, pounding a sand point down 50+ feet to get water at some undeveloped land we owned. (I just realized that was 35 mumble mumble years ago!)

Thanks so much guys! We're first time home owners and I grew up in another country, so I know nothing about any of this stuff. I just know that you can be an idiot and kill yourself by digging into gas lines, so I try to not do that .

As an update, I was able to pry out the stones in the mouth of the plastic piece - It appears to be a hollow tube that I think may lead to the hose below. I tried spraying out the dirt but it looks like it is really jammed up with dirt. Here is an updated picture:

http://i.imgur.com/A8SGTOb.jpg

At this point, I think it seems pretty safe to say that can't possibly be a gas line, so that is a big relief as it means we can get rid of that thing and then fill it in with dirt! Both the wife and I are in foul moods as we were looking forward to having a hard day of work being rewarded with a nice flat piece of land just waiting for us to setup the pool tomorrow. Instead we had to tarp up a half job and we have thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow

Hopefully this will all be worth it. On the upside - The supposedly level section was over 3" graded when we checked more carefully today, so I'm glad we didn't setup the pool and just hope for the best.

PS - TF-100 kit was ordered a couple of days back and should be here on Tue/Wed.