Orange pipe close to soil surface in garden

Lone_Northern_Lass

I was doing gardening at my partner's house today.  House built 11 years ago on a site which was before that a commercial garage.  When my partner bought the house, the back garden was comprised of patio, badly-laid astroturf and a tarmacked area in front of a garage.  I've taken up the astroturf and started digging over the ground to try to break it up a bit and make it possible for some plants to grow in the area.  Today I was digging over the area and unwittingly pierced a hole in a pipe with my garden fork.  Photos below.  Fortunately, nothing dangerous seems to be escaping the pipe and we haven't lost any of our utilty supplies.  Pipe was max 20 - 30cm down from the surface, approx 7cm diametre, coming out roughly at right-angles to the house.  Unfortunately, the hole in the pipe is not big enough to really see into.  There seemed to be *some* water in the pipe, but flushing loos, running nearest tap inside the house and pouring a bucket of water down nearest drainhole did not result in any obvious spurting of water out of the hole or any obvious increase in amount of water in the pipe.  I had wondered if the pipe was just to drain away rainwater collected in the guttering and coming down the nearest drainpipe but, as I say, pouring water down that drainhole didn't provide any evidence to support that theory.  Based on a couple of factors, my partner thinks the pipe I've hit is protection around electricity cables which I haven't actually hit / damaged.  HIs reasons for this are (1) the info online about colour-coding of underground pipes and orange being for electricity and (2) the pipe seems to go under the patio towards a point on the exterior wall of the house where electricity cables come out of the house (visible on the 2nd photo, along the wall from the drainpipe), the garage across the garden has an electricity supply, and my partner thinks the pipe I've hit may be protecting the electricity cables running from the house to the garage.  Do you agree?

Thanks in advance for any help or advice on this

   

theoretica

Your partner is right that looks like ducting - protection- not a tube directly carrying anything like water.  Orange seems to be streetlights or data.

grumbler

Yes, looks like a conduit/ducting for the cable, but AFAIK it has to be black/red for electricity.

Orange is apparently for street lighting and traffic signals. Do you have any in your garden? (joking).

twopenny

There is a black cable directly opposite from under the paver then tacked to the wall.

What is that?

Money_Grabber13579

Are you sure it’s not just a drainage pipe for the garden? We have a corrugated pipe that looks just like that in our garden (albeit, it is yellow) and it is for drainage. Does the pipe have tiny holes in it along it’s length (apart from where the fork pierced it)?

Alanp

The black pipe looks like armoured cable , as the house is fairly new,could it just be a bit of discarded pipe thrown into the garden before it was landscaped.?it’s surprising just what junk you can find from when it was built.

southcoastrgi

Do you have power to a garage/shed, you have that armoured cable that orange pipe is just conduit