Phew, yesterday as I was rolling the trash container back from the curb, I looked at the grass in the west part of the yard. It was looking very dry and crispy in some parts.
My wife had pros come plant three trees last spring, and all received three tie down posts to help keep them in place in the Oklahoma wind. We removed the posts this spring. We both noticed the hole from one of the posts just stayed open and we figured the dogs did that.
It was the sprinkler system. One of the posts was driven right into a connection.
It actually broke off the the orange elbow, and I thought this is gonna be easy. I got that elbow replaced, fired up the sprinkler, and it was a geyser. I cleaned off more of the fitting, and you can see the black crack, and the hole in the pipe. Crap.
I dug through my sprinkler parts, and found a saddle tap that would normally get drilled out to add an connection. I just used that as a patch. The for big crack, I dug around in the attic, and found the bell end of a 40 foot piece of 1 1/4 pipe, and cut off the bell end. Cut that in half, and it fits the outer dimension of the fitting real well. Lots of PVC primer, and lots of glue, and it is holding.
I would never try that if it was a pressure fitting or anything inside a house. Worst case, if it leaks a bit, is the tree it is next to gets some extra water. The sprinkler system for that section is back to functional, and now the grass will get watered.
This is the biggest issue I have had with the sprinkler system since I personally installed in 22 years ago. And it was all damage caused by a post driven into the ground with perfect aim at a hard to get to connection.