Baz and other gardeners... educate me on sprinklers

[scottmandue]

I inherited an old house with an probably +30 year old sprinkler system.
So for the last +10 years it has been Scott Vs the sprinkler system
House has an old school square front yard (about 50x50) a small side yard and a small avocado tree/lawn between the front and back house. Front yard is two zones, side and back one zone each.
Being a tech replacing the programmable timer and valves was easy... but the sprinklers vex me. Over the years with many owners and gardeners and much breakage I have a mix of plastic/brass sprinklers from several different manufactures.

Question 1:
I would like to work my way through the sprinklers and convert them all to one, good, tough, reliable model.

But at home depot I am overwhelmed by choices.

Question 2: The front yard is a matrix of 4x4=16 spinklers would be possible to covert that to just 4 big azz sprinklers?

Thanks in advance!

[vash]

no..i made that exact mistake...every spot has to be covered by overlap.

every sprinkler company has a worksheet (online?) so you can pencil out your yard and sketch in the heads to make sure you have it all covered.

i would cut in a new system..pull out what old stuff i can, and abandon the rest in place.

DISCLAIMER!! i am the angel of death to plants. (well, the ones that i want to grow)

[craigster59]

I have had good luck with Toro's "funny pipe" setup. Easy to change things around, add different spray nozzles, etc. and you can add in to existing sprinkler pipe.
https://www.toro.com/en/homeowner/irrigation-sprinklers-funny-pipe

[stomachmonkey]

Agree with Cliff.

30 yr old system?

You'll be chasing issues for ever.

FWIW, covering more smaller areas generally results in more even watering than fewer large areas.

I've tried to DIY systems from scratch a couple of times myself and found there is not enough cost savings to justify the effort and ended up hiring someone.

[GH85Carrera]

The funny pipe make things much easier. The only problem with that stuff is gophers. From what I hear the gophers love it and chew it up like candy. If you have gophers, use another product.

I went with the Rainbird professional stuff when I put in my system 20 years ago. I am just now having to replace a few of the heads because they are getting stuck in the up position. My system had 99 spray heads originally. We keep adding in flower beds and heads get eliminated or moved and we are doing drip irrigation on the flower beds.

[Baz]

1. Without seeing what you have, it's impossible to correctly state you're better off starting over.

2. As you said, it could be a matter of just unifying all your heads in order to simplify maintenance.

3. If you would like better diagnostics/input - draw a simple sketch showing outline of property, outline of house, outline of hardscape (walks,drives,patios,etc), outline of plant beds, outline of grass areas (if any) and location of all existing heads. The sketch needs to be to scale. You could start with a copy of your property survey as a template and go from there.

4. Additional thoughts...the funny pipe system mentioned by Craigster is a good method for installing your heads so they can be adjusted in both depth and angle independent from the feed pipe. I do this on all my systems from the start. Actually makes installation easier. You don't necessarily have to backdate all your heads, unless your feed pipe is not deep enough or nipple/tee is angled wrong.

5. As far as manufacturers....I do not like the cheap "Orbit" that HD carries. It is a consumer grade product. Of course, I purchase all my stuff from my contractor supply house so it's usually Hunter, Rainbird, or K-Rain. That said, I recently bought a couple cases of a new gear drive by Toro because of a very good price point...and also thought they would work OK.

6. If you have turf, you need a pop-up. If you have a plant bed you can go with drip tubing, pop-ups, or a nozzle on top of a riser. I try to use drip tubing in my beds these days for better coverage and less water waste. This is the 1/2" size drip tubing made by Netafim or Rainbird. Hunter also makes it but I prefer Rainbird, myself. It has a hole every 12". Lay it in the beds after planting and before mulching. Then staple it down. Then mulch.

7. Turf pop-ups can be fixed pattern, gear drive (rotor), or stream rotors (which are pretty cool).

8. Gear drive rotors usually come in standard or mini. Standard has a 3/4" inlet and mini a 1/2" inlet. They make larger ones for athletic fields, etc. but that's not you.

9. For most gear drive rotor applications I figure a radius of 17'-28'. Minis I figure no more than 18'.

10. As Cliff mentioned...coverage needs to overlap - especially on gear drive rotors.

11. Your water volume and pressure is also important to know the best approach. Knowing how many gallons per minute your system delivers is very useful info.

I'll stop now but those are some quick thoughts off top of my head.

[Evans, Marv]

Listen to Cliff & Baz. One thing Baz brought up was about the gallon/min. on your supply side vs. on your usage side. The heads you buy should be rated at how many gallons/min. they dispense. It's easy to add those amounts up. You need enough feed pressure to make the heads water to their rated radius. If it exceeds your supply capacity, you need to divide the system up into zones. I had to divide mine into six zones, but my case is a lot more complex than yours. I learned not to depend on the "experts" at H.D., Lowes, etc. I have 1 1/2 in. supply lines and a 25 ft. difference in elevation, which affects pressure. When I first took my plan to an "expert", his response was "Whoa, that's way over my head."

[vash]

rent a black van, buy some burlap sack..and kidnap BAZ.

[scottmandue]

Hmmm, thanks for the input!
I would love to farm the job out but I'm a cheap old bastage (60). On the other hand we have black clay and trenching out the yard doesn't sound like fun either.

I might start with the front yard and change them out a row at a time with the Toro funny pipe and see how that goes.

[Icemaster]

www.sprinklerwarehouse.com

I put in a Hunter system 15 years ago, been upgrading and adjusting but overall wouldnt change a thing. I use the guys above for pretty much everything. There's another supplier I've used for drip supplies. You sure you need to do a rip/replace? You might be able to retrofit with some new end points and get your coverage.

Also, you should be able to retrofit to drip, i did that for an unused circuit and ran lines to all the window boxes and hanging baskets.

Baz - you are a giant amongst men. :-)

[scottmandue]

How about I turn a dozen Dachshunds loose in the yard and provide them with an unlimited supply of beer?

[Baz]

Scott....why don't you do a quick sketch and post it here along with a few photos. It would be fun to discuss in the community format....

Can you also tell me what the water source is...pump and well or city water?

If city water - is it on a separate meter just for irrigation?

Photos of your timer and valves would be helpful too...don't forget them.

And we haven't discussed rain sensors yet either...