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Originally Posted by MAXUM
Doing a system yourself is not hard provided you can read some simple instructions and there are plenty of do it yourself guides out there. The two biggest things to understand is local laws regarding how to do the installation if it's tied into a public water supply and how to plan head locations and spacing so you get good head to head even coverage based on water pressure and feed line diameter. Some towns are very strict about anti siphoning setups and if you need to feed off a separate water meter usually you have to coordinate that with the city/town and probably pay a plumber to do that part of the installation. You may also need to have it inspected, I've done a couple where that was the case.
Putting one in is a piece of cake, I've installed several the largest being at my house which consists of 10 zones and 50 heads (3/4" line, 3/4" zone valves @ 75PSI on my well head spacing the heads at ~22 feet). Did it in a little over a day and cost me about $1500 bucks in parts and 100 bucks to rent a ditch digger for a day. Labor... free! Had I paid somebody to do that kind of system I have no idea what it would cost but I bet it would have been expensive based on what I've heard typical costs to be. Won't comment on brand names other than I've installed both Orbit and Hunter products and my experience with both is they are comparable. Like anything you can spend a lot of money on a name brand.
As a side note I highly suggest putting in an inline sediment filter if the system is drawing directly from a well or lake. If you pump sediment into a system it can be a total pain in the blank to clean out and can ruin the heads and zone valves. Always make sure to put in a blow out point ahead of the zone valves so all the water can be evacuated from the system in the fall. I piped in a simple spigot on the systems I've put in and put together a screw on nipple to fit my air compressor.
If you have any questions if considering a DIY PM me.
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Yup, you had a big money system to install. You did well doing it yourself but your correct about lots of rules concerning the piping, etc. I'm not sure in Mass a spigot is allowed. Seems I was told about certain rules concerning that. 1,600 didn't break me and I've enjoyed trouble-free operation, my (front) yard likes it too.
