Lawn Sprinkler Tips

When planning to have an automatic irrigation system installed in your property you have the choice to go with a professionally installed system or a do-it-yourself (DIY) installation. I sometimes get questions as to what is the difference between the two and there really is no straight answer for this due to the several varying factors that come into play.

In theory a professionally installed lawn/landscape sprinkler system should be superior to a DIY system, but this is not always the case. For example, what if you hire a company that is supposed to be professional, but their designer and installers do crappy work? A poorly designed irrigation system installed by “professionals” will never produce the same end results that a properly designed irrigation system installed by a do-it-yourselfer will.

Now I will say that in most cases a good, reputable irrigation company will design and build a very good system that is normally better than a non-professional or do-it-yourself system. You can achieve similar results of a professionally installed irrigation system, but it really all depends on how much knowledge you have and how good of a work-ethic you maintain.

With the right knowledge and proper instructions you can design and build a very good sprinkler system for your landscape that you can be proud of. It may take you a little longer to complete the project than a professional irrigation company, but as long as you aren’t on a strict deadline the time it takes shouldn’t matter that much.

The main advantage to installing your own system vs hiring a professional is the cost or savings that you will gain. A professional company has many overhead expenses that it must cover to stay in business. Expenses such as licenses, permits, liability insurance, workers compensation, advertising, phone bills, payroll taxes, other taxes, and more make the price of your irrigation system higher than just the cost of materials and labor.

As an irrigation contractor and small business owner myself I know first hand how much money it costs to maintain a business. Of course you do not have all of these expenses to cover when doing your own irrigation system, so you can normally save thousands of dollars (depending on the size of the yard and system).

If you do not have the knowledge of sprinkler design, but want to install your own automatic sprinkler / irrigation system, you must first take the time to educate yourself about this subject. There is a lot of free information available online that can get you familiar with lawn/landscape sprinkler design and installation. While free information is great, sometimes it can leave you with many questions. You may also suffer from information overload and have to deal with a bunch of unnecessary data that is not relevant to your particular situation.

With this in mind, I created an ebook complete with a step-by-step action plan and checklists to help you plan, design, and build your own automatic lawn sprinkler system. My ebook and installation method is perfect for all residential landscapes and suitable for some small commercial sized systems. I do not give it away for free, but the money you will save by completing this project yourself is worth a hundred times more than the little bit of cash you will spend on the ebook.

So if you are the do it yourself type and are planning to get a sprinkler system for your home, you should greatly benefit from the information inside my ebook. Another option that may be available to you is a design or site-plan service. For example, if you live in my service area, you could call me to design and flag out your sprinkler system for a fee as opposed to hiring my company to do the complete install. I charge $300 – $500 for this service compared to an average price of $3,000 to $5,000 to actually build and install the system.

Whatever your choice may be, I wish you luck and feel free to email with any questions that you may have pertaining to automatic lawn & landscape irrigation systems. Good luck!

Scott
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com

If you continue to see water draining or dribbling out of the sprinkler heads after the zone has shut down it usually means one of a couple things. It is either just low-head drainage, which is just the water left in the lateral line draining out to the lowest sprinkler heads after the valve has shut down, or you have a valve that is not shutting down completely.

If it is low-head drainage the water should stop after 2 – 10 minutes, depending on several factors such as the grade or slope of the landscape and how large the zone is. Low head drainage can be solved by installing sprinkler heads with built-in check valves that will stop the drainage of water after the valve has shut down. You could also install a check valve at a higher elevation point on the lateral line for that particular zone.

However, low head drainage is actually necessary for indexing valve systems, but not needed for electric valve systems. The reason why it is needed for indexing valve systems is that the index valve must have the pressure of water relieved to be able to switch to the next zone. I’m not saying that 100% of the water needs to be drained out, especially on a flat yard, but on a sloped yard some of the water does need to drain. An electric valve system does not need to have the water drained out of the lines, the electric valves will start and stop the flow water and the timer will tell it to open or shut.

Rain Bird makes sprinkler heads with built-in check valves called S.A.M. heads which stand for “Seal-a-matic”. The heads will pop up with the flow, pressure, and force of an active zone, but will stop the slow drainage of water when the zone shuts down.

If your property is fairly level and/or the water continues to leak out for more than 10 minutes, then you may have a valve that is stuck open or not shutting down all the way. This is more noticeable on pressurized systems such as those systems using city water or those built with a pressure tank. To solve this problem you must locate the bad valve and replace the diaphragm or the whole valve. If you have the same brand and model you can get away with just removing & replacing the “guts” from the valve. If you don’t have the same valve, you will have to dig a pit and cut the PVC to replace the entire valve.

Scott
http://www.autolawnsprinklers.com