How to build a lawn sprinkler system

[Panakk]

I'm looking to build my own sprinkler system, i have over 6000 sq ft to water and i rather have a sprinkler system for a good lawn. Any tips?

 

[JeffCos]

Hire a company to do it. It's not worth all the time you'll have to spend digging trenches and running all the line, especially with 6000sq ft. But if you're really stubborn and have to do it yourself 1. You're a fool and 2. Here's the do-it-yourself guide

 

[squirrel dog]

Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

 

[Queasy]

Either the Lowes or Home Depot websites have guides on this as well. I remember seeing it at one of them...can't remember which.

 

[Gravity]

Rainbird has a plan where you map out your yard and send it to them and then they design it for you.

 

[spacejamz]

Hire a company to do it. It's not worth all the time you'll have to spend digging trenches and running all the line, especially with 6000sq ft.

Very good advice here....

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that. I work on a golf course and two of the guys I used to work with had a business installing systems. I helped them out a few times.

1. Get someone else to do it. It's hard work.
2. The laying of the pipe/setting up of the heads is actually pretty easy.
3. You'll need your hookup to the water main inspected most likely. This is where a pro really helps out.

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that.

True, but it's better to be safe than sorrow. We sue people for quite some money when our cables get cut.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that.

True, but it's better to be safe than sorrow. We sue people for quite some money when our cables get cut.

:roll:

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that.

True, but it's better to be safe than sorrow. We sue people for quite some money when our cables get cut.

:roll:

Go cut an AT&T cable and see how many blocked calls you'll be paying for. Just call first.

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that.

True, but it's better to be safe than sorrow. We sue people for quite some money when our cables get cut.

:roll:

Go cut an AT&T cable and see how many blocked calls you'll be paying for. Just call first.

AT&T does not run a cable 1 foot underneath the lawn in my front yard. I've installed more than a few of these systems. Yes you call, but that's when you're looking for the water main. The rest of it is all on your property.

 

[Savij]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that. I work on a golf course and two of the guys I used to work with had a business installing systems. I helped them out a few times.

1. Get someone else to do it. It's hard work.
2. The laying of the pipe/setting up of the heads is actually pretty easy.
3. You'll need your hookup to the water main inspected most likely. This is where a pro really helps out.

Depends where you live. Contact your local people to make sure or it can be quite a pain.

You can do it yourself and get a better (better fit for how you use/lay out your lawn and garden) or you can call a company. It's all a time/money/quality tradeoff. Explore both routes and talk to your neighbors to see what they say about local installers.

Spend a ton of time planing and laying out. If it freezes where you live, you might want to install a drainage valve somewhere for winter time. Rent a ditch digger one weekend when everything is ready and have at it.

Other work will take 80% of the time 10% time for WTF moments and 10% for renting/digging.

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that.

True, but it's better to be safe than sorrow. We sue people for quite some money when our cables get cut.

:roll:

Go cut an AT&T cable and see how many blocked calls you'll be paying for. Just call first.

AT&T does not run a cable 1 foot underneath the lawn in my front yard. I've installed more than a few of these systems. Yes you call, but that's when you're looking for the water main. The rest of it is all on your property.

You're not calling just to have them locate a water main, they'll also send the ticket out to all utilities, once the ticket is recieved at the utility they decide if they are involved or not. Most property owners know if they have right of way on their property, but that doesn't stop incidents from happening. We had a farmer burying a dead cow on his property, just so happened he picked the wrong spot. I'm not sure how much that was settled for. Had he called and AT&T missed located, it wouldn't be his fault.

 

[Afrotech]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that. I work on a golf course and two of the guys I used to work with had a business installing systems. I helped them out a few times.

1. Get someone else to do it. It's hard work.
2. The laying of the pipe/setting up of the heads is actually pretty easy.
3. You'll need your hookup to the water main inspected most likely. This is where a pro really helps out.

I worked for a sprinkler system company for 3 years.... and we hit probably 3 gas lines a year, and 2 or 3 phone/cable lines a week.

I would suggest you hire a company to do it for you.... or if you must:

Rent a sneaker to pull pipe -> not a trencher.... trenchers suck!

And I hope you know a little about plumbing.

And above all else... go with Rainbird! We installed new systems and serviced old ones.... and toro had a lot of problems (unless toro's market share in the sprinkler business is 80%)

 

[artikk]

Originally posted by: JeffCos
Hire a company to do it. It's not worth all the time you'll have to spend digging trenches and running all the line, especially with 6000sq ft. But if you're really stubborn and have to do it yourself 1. You're a fool and 2. Here's the do-it-yourself guide

good post :thumbsup:

 

[MikeMike]

silverpig, your kidding yourself.

CAtv cables near the house are less than 2 ft in the ground.

ive cut mine like 4 times while edging our flowerbeds.

and yea rainbird is supposedly the best.

but i dont have much input.

MIKE

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
silverpig, your kidding yourself.

CAtv cables near the house are less than 2 ft in the ground.

ive cut mine like 4 times while edging our flowerbeds.

and yea rainbird is supposedly the best.

but i dont have much input.

MIKE

Then whoever installed yours didn't do a good job. I've dug up many yards and have never hit anything. We got to the water main and it was at least 6 feet down. Gas and electrical were 2 and 4 feet below that usually. Maybe this is just where I am, but that's the norm around here. Furthermore, all of those lines are required to have warning tape a foot above the lines.

Also: We always used toro. Toro for home systems, toro for the big systems on the golf courses... Actually the last guy went with rainbird on a few newly renovated holes and that system, while better than the ancient toro system, isn't as good as the new toro system we just installed at the course I work at now.

 

[tm37]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: nourdmrolNMT1
silverpig, your kidding yourself.

CAtv cables near the house are less than 2 ft in the ground.

ive cut mine like 4 times while edging our flowerbeds.

and yea rainbird is supposedly the best.

but i dont have much input.

MIKE

Then whoever installed yours didn't do a good job. I've dug up many yards and have never hit anything. We got to the water main and it was at least 6 feet down. Gas and electrical were 2 and 4 feet below that usually. Maybe this is just where I am, but that's the norm around here. Furthermore, all of those lines are required to have warning tape a foot above the lines.

Also: We always used toro. Toro for home systems, toro for the big systems on the golf courses... Actually the last guy went with rainbird on a few newly renovated holes and that system, while better than the ancient toro system, isn't as good as the new toro system we just installed at the course I work at now.

In california the stuff can be VERY close to to the surface as the ground FREEZING is not a big issue however in most colder weather areas it is typical to see the stuff 1 ft deep.

I know that my phone line is only about 6 inches down and If I cut it I get to pay to get it fixed.

Depending on how bad of a cut I do it could be running a new line.

The marking SHOULD BE FREE so just call and they will come out and Do it.

 

[StageLeft]

I looked into it, and it's a huge pain in the ass. I'd recommend not bothering.

 

[StageLeft]

BTW, I started hacking into my cable line last year, while doing a bit of gardening. It was 2-3 inches below surface, tops.

 

[spacejamz]

Then whoever installed yours didn't do a good job. I've dug up many yards and have never hit anything.

that line won't hold up if you hit something though...it is YOUR responsibility to have everything identified before you start digging...(I am sure someone will let me know if this is not a true statement)...

 

[Antisocial Virge]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: squirrel dog
Call your One Call center before you dig . Or you may cut your phone/catv/sewer/water/gas services.

Sprinkler systems for the home only go down maybe 1-2 feet. All that stuff is waaayyy below that. I work on a golf course and two of the guys I used to work with had a business installing systems. I helped them out a few times.

1. Get someone else to do it. It's hard work.
2. The laying of the pipe/setting up of the heads is actually pretty easy.
3. You'll need your hookup to the water main inspected most likely. This is where a pro really helps out.

I used to be a locator. Phone and CATV are now usually just laid under the sod. Less than 2 inches sometimes. I have even seen main line CATV under 6 inches. You have to remember people landscape and such and these lines can sometimes be very shallow.


EDIT: It usually goes 2ft for phone and cable and 3 to 4ft for electrical and and gas. I had seen lots of damages. A locator can usually get an estimate of the depth of the lines but he can't tell you if he knows. Opens him up for trouble if you go by his depth readings and hit something.

 

[drnickriviera]

It's not that bad. I have around 20,000 sq ft in my sprinkler system and did it by myself. I sent the plan into rainbird, but redisigned a bunch of the zones as they wasted a lot of pipe. I have a total of 12 zones with around 48-50 heads.

Considering you should get around 30' diameter on a head with 50% overlap, if my math is right that should be 350 sqft per head. 6000sqft, 17 heads. probably around 20-25 due to quarter and semi circles. That's not that bad.

I'm not sure if they have the same heads, but I originally bought my heads from home depot. Bought more from a landscape/nursery store. the ones from the landscaping company had what they called a rain curtain nozzle. The arc and spray of the rain curtain nozzles were much better than the ones from Depot

 

[Panakk]

Originally posted by: drnickriviera
It's not that bad. I have around 20,000 sq ft in my sprinkler system and did it by myself. I sent the plan into rainbird, but redisigned a bunch of the zones as they wasted a lot of pipe. I have a total of 12 zones with around 48-50 heads.

Considering you should get around 30' diameter on a head with 50% overlap, if my math is right that should be 350 sqft per head. 6000sqft, 17 heads. probably around 20-25 due to quarter and semi circles. That's not that bad.

I'm not sure if they have the same heads, but I originally bought my heads from home depot. Bought more from a landscape/nursery store. the ones from the landscaping company had what they called a rain curtain nozzle. The arc and spray of the rain curtain nozzles were much better than the ones from Depot

what did it cost you to do your 20k sq ft?

 

[DeMeo]

In some states the law requires you to call to have the utilities marked.
Like someon else has already stated, better safe than sorry anyway.