Lawn Irrigation Questions.

[samclem]

He asked me if I had one of the tools to operate the shutoff and I said nope. He went on to say that he gives one ($12 at your favorite big box home improvement store) to all of his friends as a housewarming present. He tells them to hang it on their garage wall in a convenient place and shows them how to use it. Said that many friends have thanked him later.

That's a good point. Also, the valve is easy to turn off using a pair of ChannelLocks, and that way you get to stick your arm down inside the box and get acquainted with the local wildlife.
More importantly, I think every adult in the house and kids old enough to be at home alone should know how to shut off the water, the gas, and the electricity. It could save thousands of dollars in repair bills and a lot of trouble. When that pipe bursts inside the wall, it's no time to realize you don't know where the main shutoff is located.

Water: If you've got city water, the shutoff valve is usually outside by the curb in a box where you water meter is. As manual meter readers go the way of the dinosaur, these boxes tend to get overgrown by plantings or buried--it's worth the trouble to keep yours accessible.
If you have a well, there'll be a shutoff valve somewhere on the main line. If you can't find it, shut off power to the pump and you'll just have to wait until the water in the pressure tank drains out.

Electricity: Usually a big breaker at the top (or bottom) of the circuit breaker panel. Sometimes there's another big breaker outside the house underneath the electric meter.

Natural Gas: Usually at the gas meter.

For water or gas: Grab the small flat valve handle with pliers or a wrench and twist it 90 degrees (whichever way it will go) until it "crosses" the pipe. It should be off then.

 

[My Dream]

I found a sample RainBird Irrigation design and all I can say is......WOOO!

I don't know how to post a pdf file but maybe someone can post one of the design layouts.

http://www.rainbird.com/documents/diy/SampleDesignPlan.pdf

 

[kyounge1956]

one other long-buried memory...if pipes from your sprinkler system will run under a driveway or other paved area, it may be worthwhile to put the pipe in a sleeve of slightly larger piping. That way, if the pipe ever needs to be replaced, you won't have to break through the driveway to do it.

 

[My Dream]

Thats an excellent suggestion, thanks.

By the way, I wish I could purchase the key type tool that shuts off the main water valve that supplies water from the city to the meter, but it's burried about 5' down and I can't find out what the key type fitting looks like. Here in Canada only the city is allowed to turn it on and off so no stores sell it publicly, although I'm sure it's sold to contractors. I'm sure I could make one if I knew what the tip looked like.

 

[ronocnikral]

one other long-buried memory...if pipes from your sprinkler system will run under a driveway or other paved area, it may be worthwhile to put the pipe in a sleeve of slightly larger piping. That way, if the pipe ever needs to be replaced, you won't have to break through the driveway to do it.

laying 4" conduit under all drive ways should be written into the IRC. I went approx 20' with 1-1/4" black steel pipe, a garden hose and a sledge hammer. Took me a good part of the day and left me wanting to get a hold of the schmuck that built my house and skimped out on the $20 for conduit.

 

[My Dream]

ronocnikral;

Are you saying you installed a 20' long by 1 1/4" black pipe under a driveway using only a garden hose and sledge hammer and it took maybe 6 hours to do this. Please give me an idea how it's done, In my case,I'm wondering how to would get from one side of the side walk to the other and that's only 5', mind you it's in two areas, but still.........do tell.

Pipe and sledge hammer I can use my imagination to figure that out, but the garden hose, are you using water pressure to clean out the soil inside the pipe? I would image you would have to dig a trench just over 20' long beside the driveway so that that pipe runs straight underneath the driveway?

 

[ronocnikral]

ronocnikral;

Are you saying you installed a 20' long by 1 1/4" black pipe under a driveway using only a garden hose and sledge hammer and it took maybe 6 hours to do this. Please give me an idea how it's done, In my case,I'm wondering how to would get from one side of the side walk to the other and that's only 5', mind you it's in two areas, but still.........do tell.

Pipe and sledge hammer I can use my imagination to figure that out, but the garden hose, are you using water pressure to clean out the soil inside the pipe? I would image you would have to dig a trench just over 20' long beside the driveway so that that pipe runs straight underneath the driveway?

Greetings from phnom penh. Need trench in length of longest section of pipe (+ a couple of feet) orthoganal to sidewalk, reducing bushings for the business send of the pipe ( increase velocity exitingthe pipe), tee for sledge hammer end- one in direction of pipe gets nippleand blankingcap, other gets fitting for garden hose. Turn on water hammer end. If it gets tough, let water do its job for 30 secs or so. I have very rocky soil, mixed with tough silty soil. Can do sidewalk in 30 mins. For sidewalk, once thru, i remove fittings from all ends,remove black pipe and then put in pvc ( cap end and then cut off once thru) may want to let it dry out a bit. Be careful not to get debris in black pipe, can plug end and you get no jet impact force.

Can answer more when i get home. Same method drake used on first us oil well!

 

[My Dream]

Sorry but I'm having a hard time following your post, either you've had too much to drink........or maybe I have.

I'll wait till you get home, maybe it will make more sense to me.

Thanks


EDIT:

I'll assume this is how you did it, but to go 20'......wooow.

 

[kumquat]

Looks like the method we used to sink a sand point well at my uncle's lake cabin. We had to go down about 30 feet in sand. Started with 10 feet of ABS 3" pipe. Dug and 'screwed' it into the ground as far as possible (no more than 2 feet). Ran a garden hose down to the bottom and turned it on. Water pressure made a hole at the bottom so we could push the pipe down, also brought the sand to the top of the pipe and out onto the ground. When the first 10 feet were down, cement on another 10 and repeat.

Seems similar, only he went hozontal rather than vertical. Should work well if not too many big rocks.

 

[ronocnikral]

yes, similar. where the hose connects on the back end, I installed a tee. perpendicular to the length of the pipe, the hose connects. On the back end of the tee, a blanking cap which allows you to use a sledge hammer AND have the water pressure working for you. I did 1-1/4" pipe and had no problems. When you finish, for sidewalks, I slide the PVC or funny pipe in the 1-1/4" steel pipe, remove all fittings and then pull out the black pipe (helps if you have someone hold the other end of the PVC). . For under the driveway, I just left the steel pipe and fed 3/4" funny pipe with 12/2 LV landscaping wire taped to it.

Sorry if I was incoherent earlier. I wasn't drunk, but rather on a tablet...

 

[kyounge1956]

another long-dormant memory rising from the inky depths of my subconscious....MyDream mentioned in the original post that the design manual is about 100 pages long. I used to have a sprinkler design manual, and it was probably about the same length. I don't remember now whether it was Rainbird's or some other manufacturer, but as I recall much of the book was precipitation & evapotranspiration data for numerous locations around the country, I assume so you could figure out how much irrigation was likely to be needed. I'm not sure this would be relevant on a home system, but on a big one like a park or golf course, in a dry location, you might have to tweak things so that each zone gets watered frequently enough for good growth.

Also, a word of reassurance--you needn't understand physics to design irrigation systems. Don't ask me how I know!