Quote:
Originally Posted by postman56
Am much as I like watering, hauling hoses around a large yard can be a pain.
I'm thinking of a sprinkler system and was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for DIY?
The quotes I'm getting seem ridiculous from installers, with 3x the markup on supplies.
Just looking for general info on how to.
Is this a project that anyone could do?
Any web sites? books? suggestions? tips?
Cheers in advance
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I did my own. Over the course of several years I added various planters as well. Currently have 4 zones.
Planning is key. Rainbird and Orbit both have planning tools. Really think about what you want to water and when. The planters water twice a day, the lawn at whatever interval you want so they need to be on different lines. You have to be very conscious of the pressure of the lines and the number of sprinklers on each line.
You should plan your coverage carefully as well. I would have added more, smaller area heads for the lawn. Also, if you have a boulevard, on the other side of the sidewalk you really need to plan for that as brown grass there defeats the whole purpose.
You could have a company come to give you a quote to give you a place to start but that is possibly a Richard move to waste their time.
Definitely rent the hose puller from home depot when you are ready to go. We built our manifolds ourself but it added a bunch of time. I would highly recommend a pre-built unless you really like working with pipe. Also, there is at least a couple of suppliers in town you should check out when you are ready to build. I just did home depot but wish I had gone that way.
You also need to blow out the line in the fall but that was just an excuse to buy an air compressor. Be sure to add a blow out line to the manifold setup with a valve so it is an easy connection. I also added a valve/faucet on the inside as you need to empty the line in the house. I can hook a hose to it when I blow it out.
If I had to do it again I definitely would, for the planters alone, but it is not a small job. I really like having it.