HELP - Gold hidden in walls of house, job is tomorrow

[have2fish]

Hi all,

I have been lurking for a while now and am soaking up all your great insight and knowledge!

I was just approached by a friend to find some gold hidden in a house, by the owner who has passed on. The owner had hinted over the years at having hidden gold in the walls.

I have a BH SharpShooter 2 and a Garrett pin pointer, and have an ok grasp of using the detector, and a great grasp of finding hair pins, staples and nails in the local parks and beaches.

Anyone have any tips on where to look, we have a short window to search as the home is being sold, and we will only have a few hours tomorrow. They are having another friend heat the house and use a heat sensor to try to peer behind the walls too...

Many thanks in advance!!!

Marco

PS. I did negotiate payment of a gold coin if we find a bunch (10+) this is a friend of mine and an adventure for me. What would you have negotiated for payment for searching?

 

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[bigfoot1]

I would say leave the detector in the car....the pin pointer however is of use.It wont take long to figure out where the studs are(I would get a stud finder at hardware store)Then I would use the pro pointer to search the areas between the studs.Things to consider...horizontal framing members...usually to mount toilet roll hangers,towel hangers and the like.
Remove the bathroom medicine cabinet and look behind.
Go under stairs if possible,often a space there.
Check areas above cabinets,also heating ducts if present
if there is an ash trap for fireplace.....look

finally,and most important.....check all paint type cans...open every darn one...very common stash spot.

bottom line...nobody tells the truth...break out the detector and particularly check areas visible from kitchen window...especially in garden and along fenceline

good luck
cheers

 

[MUD(S.W.A.T)]

You need a machine that will discriminate the iron nails in the wall and hit high on the gold. Like an AT-Pro or any machine that has a good Iron disk. I've studied this and you need a machine that can tell you if its an iron nail or not. Otherwise you should be able to find the gold no problem. If its there...

Keep @ it and HH !!

 

[watercolor]

All above ideas are good.
Look for free-standing pipes in the basement or outside close to the house that may seem to have no practical purpose . . . perfect for stacking coins.
One of my teachers in highschool (1960's) found a cache of $20 gold pieces in a pipe in the kitchen of an old cabin. . . and that was when gold was $35 an ounce LOL.

Good Luck!

 

[Tom_in_CA]

I would go with a Compass 77b. They nulled on nails, and wasn't that sensitive or deep. But it did JUST FINE of soda-can sized objects I think more caches were found with the 1960s/early '70's BFO's and early TR's, than with all the new machines combined. Today's ultra sensitive detectors, with their whiz-bang discriminators, are actually detrimental to the objective of cache-hunting, when you think of it. While the yester-year machine struggled to get a coin over 4", and had no disc, yet .... worked JUST FINE for getting signals on bigger items (while missing pesking individual coins, wires, nails, etc...).

Another option that sort of mimicks the same thing, is a 2-box machine. It won't find anything smaller than an index card or apricot sized item (or soda can sized item, depending on how hot you want to run it). So it would see right through all the individual nails, wires, etc... in the walls.

HOWEVER, there's still the wiring boxes of electrical outlets. And there's still the possibility of larger type of "flashing" construction material. That would set a 2-box off. But that would depend on the age of the house, as to whether corner-molds type flashing was used. Anyone know when those type metal braces started to be used for 2 x 4 corners and such , on house-constructions ?

have2fish: I put the feelers out for someone down your way for if anyone had a 2-box to borrow or rent out. So far, no one seems to have one handy, on that CA specific forum I floated that on

 

[releventchair]

Check for false electrical outlets,a non contact current detector can help there. Base boards with light skin oil stain especially in a bedroom or attic. or wear on a short piece.Boards or material in better condition than their neighbors from being covered with an object. "Repair" places or short materials where a long piece would have worked. If you are patient maybe compare external home dimensions to inside walls measurements in case of a false wall shorting a measurement by a foot to several feet after allowing homes standard wall thickness... Ditto in rooms. Same if a chimney present. Under bottom steps,thresholds and on tops of doors for recessed or hole bored areas. Door knob damage hole in a wall could be a drop site.

 

[Frankn]

OK here goes. You can search all the walls in a house in a day easily. I use my Vibratector which has a 6" detecting range. You can use your detector, if you lower the sensitive! Now learn the pattern of the walls. That is the nails will be fairly evenly spaced. Electrical is in long runs. If you pick up a signal that is larger than a single nail and is not a long continues run, it is suspect! Hidden coins will have an access such as floor plank, window or door trim, or baseboard. This access point will usually be easily removed. Don't forget the attic flooring or dirt floor in cellar. The fireplace and it's trim are good places to look, but remember that there are metal dampers and controls in a fireplace. Steps are a favorite hiding place. I once found a riser that snapped off to reveal a nice hiding place. Hollow banisters on the step railing is a good place to check. Now check the ceiling lights, especially the top trim plate. Check behind the cover plates on wall switches and resepticals. Check the window trim. Note: the old windows with rope on the sides had cast iron window weights on each side. Check the closets for hidden areas in the side panels and floor. That should get you started. Frank...-

 

[have2fish]

Thank you everyone, about to go on site. I will do a full report for you guys, and thanks Tom for trying to dig up a 2-box for me. Super excited, this is going to be fun!

 

[MT_Joe]

Looking forward to the results!

 

[empty_pockets]

You will look like this if gold fever takes over .......................

 

[have2fish]

Oh, i have the fever!
SIDE STORY : I am 2 hours from gold bearing dirt, so I go up to some claims once a month and bring back dirt that I have concentrated to process. A few months ago, after a few weeks of being super busy, and not being able to process any of my cons, my GF came into the bathroom and started laughing hard... that is when I looked down, and realized that I was panning some cons while showering...

UPDATE: I was able to search the house, and found a couple of interesting hits, but we did not drill any holes, kind of a weird vibe with multiple family members with different intentions/expectations. I am hoping to go back and be able to spend more time on site instead of being rushed and having multiple people rushing around with different contractor tools, etc...

One guy had a thermal gun that could read the temp difference between materials, able to "see" through walls and see pipes, studs, etc...

I will report more if/when I am able to return...

A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who gave input! I did do a pretty good search in the attic, the house was on a slab, no wooden floors, had been reroofed, and upgraded. It is possible that one of the roofers or workmen got to it without anyone knowing... I hope to get back there next week...

Marco

 

[jimb]

Look for a slit in the wall behind a picture where they dropped coins in like a bank between the studs. Check for a loose floor board or molding trim.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Marco, I sent you an email this morning.