sprinkler system

[dpg]

Originally Posted by fatlazyless

For someone who is handy, lawn irrigation can be a do-it-yourself project. Lowe's-Gilford sells everything you need to get it done. Deciding to spend five thousand dollars for a contractor installation or only five hundred to eight hundred dollars for a very similar do-it-yourself installation is pretty much what it is all about.

http://www.lowes.com/cd_Install+an+U...tem_920603261_

Obviously the size of the yard depends on the cost but five thousand dollars would (should) be a HUGE system. I have one in Mass in the front and side of the house. All Hunter heads/equipment, 2 zones app 11-12 heads in total. Control box in the garage, electrician wiring the system and the sprinkler guy installing it...Everything $1,600. I'm not very handy but still wouldn't attempt one myself. Some things just aren't worth the potential savings. My neighbor bought his own compressor to save the 75.00 winterizing at the end of the season. Last fall he did something wrong and his system went frozen...925.00 to fix this spring (and that was his best quote.) Lets do the math 925.00 divided by 75.00??? Yeah that was a bargain.

[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.

[dpg]

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.

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.

[MAXUM]

Originally Posted by dpg

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.

I can only imagine what that mine would have cost to have installed but no doubt it would have been more than than this cowboy would put out that's for sure. Plus it's not hard to do, just labor intensive. Use good stuff and it'll operate trouble free, mine has been in now for 7 years and it's been great. I don't miss the days of hauling hoses and spike heads all over the place!

Never done one in MA, but a couple NH towns were a little touchy on how they wanted things done where I was tapping into the public water supply. Of course if you're using a public water supply calculating the head per zone and coverage is easier since you don't have the varying pressure of a well head. The big deal is putting the irrigation system on a meter so they can charge appropriately for water because in both cases the sewer bill was calculated based on water consumption, with the irrigation system the water is never put into the sewer so that's why it's done separate. Never had anyone say anything about a spigot installed in the system, but again you have to know what the local laws are to know what you can or cannot do. Either way some sort of access point needs to be installed to blow the system out properly in the fall.

One thing to think about if you do it yourself or not... if using a well make sure you have the recovery rate to run a system and NOT run your well dry. Not all wells can handle a massive draw down of water especially in the middle of the summer when it can be dry for extended periods of time. Find this out ahead of time before calling in a contractor, as it could save you a whole lot of time and money!