Measure the water pressure at an outside faucet along with a water pressure gauge, then time how long that it takes to fill a five-gal. bucket to work out flow. 

Create a scale drawing of your property, together with plantings plus alternative features. Send the drawing together with the results of Step 1 to your irrigation company. It will create a system plan acceptable for your climate and wants, and can provide you with the elements plus tools necessary to install it. Some companies provide this service for free; others charge a modest fee. Run your pipe according to the plan. You don’t need to dig a trench–you are able to use a motorized pipe puller to pull polyethylene pipe thru the ground with minimal disturbance. During this case, wrap the low-voltage zone valve management cable around the pipe and pull it at the same time. 

If you dig a trench, either together with a trench digger or manually, make it eight to 10 inches deep, Dig the most important runs, then the branch lines. Connect your pipe to the household water source by running a copper pipe to the outside of the house at ground level. Install a ball valve plus a backflow preventer between the source and the outlet to confirm that no polluted water can get back into the source from your lawn or plantings; this also allows you to shut off the supply to irrigation system while not shutting off the water to the house. Put a screw fitting on the surface end of the copper pipe and begin your plastic pipe run there. If your system has multiple zones, assemble the valves plus then connect them to the pipes below ground level. Wire the valves according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Place a valve box over the zone valves and fill round it with soil. The box cover must be level or simply below the surface. Find out more about sprinkler systems here.

Attach the polyethylene pipe using barb fittings, securing the pipe with stainless-steel crimp rings. Put in brass drain valves if you will need to drain the system at the low points of the pipes. Dig holes of sufficient size to fit sprinkler heads and to create connections from the pipe. If you are irrigating different types of vegetation, your provider can probably have provided more than just 1 kind of head. Attach sprinkler heads using a ninety-degree ell fitting, or if you would like drainage, a drainage ell. Hook up the ell to the sprinkler head following the irrigation company’s directions. Backfill round the heads, tamping the soil as you go. Use a mallet to make sure it’s firm. Hook up the cable for the zone valves to the control box, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

 

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