Spent $300 on a ground penetrating radar rental for my backyard dig

I've been poking around my property in Ohio trying to find old foundation lines from a house that was here in the 1800s. Rented a GPR unit for a weekend and man, it was a total waste of money for me. The thing kept giving mixed signals and I ended up digging three holes where it said 'anomaly' but found nothing but rocks. Has anyone else had bad luck with those cheaper rental units or did I just get a dud?

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felixw992mo ago

My buddy tried one of those rental units last summer for a similar project and had the exact same problem. He spent the whole weekend chasing ghosts in the ground, digging up old drainage pipes and tree roots. The thing about those cheaper GPR units is they don't handle wet clay soil well, and Ohio's got that heavy clay in a lot of places. Maybe the unit just wasn't calibrated right for the depth you were looking at, but in my experience you really gotta take the readings with a whole shaker of salt. Your mileage may vary of course, but I'd suggest trying a different approach like looking up old aerial photos or checking with the county for property records.

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leo2382mo ago

Oh man, renting was a bust for me too. Ended up just digging test pits with a shovel.

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