Anyone built their own sprinkler system?

C

ChazUTX

250+ Posts
Just curious how it went? I'm thinking of doing mine once I move in to my new house, as my yard isn't too big and figured it would be a good project for me to do.
 
Yes, at my dads old house. But I had my irrigators license when I did it. I use to do that for a living during the summers, when I was in my early to mid 20s and in school.
 
I built ours and it almost killed me. At the end I was crawling around in the yard to get from place to place. I would never do it again. However, it all worked out and has worked very well for 12 years.

Texanne, that was funny.
 
63...

so it's worth the $1,200 or so to have a company do it??

I need to do this at my house too... Snoop, Chaz.. why don't you guys come over and help... then we'll roll over to Chaz's house and do his up....
 
I did myself and would never do it again. A good company can knock it out in a day or two. It took me most of the summer, after work and on the weekends. It was a big yard, but the problem is all the tweaking, cutting, leaks, pressure problems - most of it done on your hands and knees.

I would never do it again - and I enjoy the hell out of around the house work, including plumbing. But then, I have a friend who enjoyed putting his in - and it took him about the same amount of time. Different strokes, I guess.

Good luck.
 
I did mine, but I had a licensed irrigator design the system, and I installed it. My soil is high in sand content, so it was very easy to trench; if you have clay, you won't enjoy it at all. Renting a Ditch Witch would be well worth the money. I live on a cul-de-sac, and thus have a huge back yard (210 feet on the back property line). It took me about three weekends to complete the job using PVC - would have been a lot longer with metal pipes. Check your local zoning regs - for example, Arlington now requires freeze/rain detectors in the system. That would complicate the job a bit.
Good luck!
 
A whole summer? I've done about 10. It's no more complicated than lincoln logs are. There is a trencher that is much more like an edger that is a lot easier than a ditch witch. While that won't work in areas that freeze the ground, the actual sprinkler system could be done by a kindergartner if you don't go with an electric timer. The electric timer would require a 4th grader. It might take a junior high kid to plan the system.
 
Nick,

I am looking forward to 5th grade next year, so I was probably a little young.
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The work isn't that hard - it the combination of working below grade, working in a soil with roots and clay, and my compulsive nature to get everything "just right" that made this a bad project for me.

By all means, get a trencher and have someone else design it for you if you don't know what you are doing.

As for me - I would rather do an electrical, drywall or in house plumbing job any day over below grade dirt work.

I have to go now - my 3rd period teacher wants me off the computer so I can do my multiplication tables.
 
I did mine, but I still haven't hooked it up to teh main water pipe from the street. That seems like the hard part. I've got it rigged to the hose spigot, and it has worked great for 5 years.
 
Most cities will not allow you to hook up to the water supply unless you are licensed, I believe it's because of the backflow preventer.
So a lot of this stuff goes on under the table.
 
I have to agree with Nick. It is not a difficult process. The trenching is the only part that sucks and if you rent a trencher then it is a piece of cake. If you have ever wired speakers, the electric part is easy too. You can buy anti-siphon valves yourself and make a system just like the pros make. It really is not hard. If you think you can do it, I bet you will be fine...and save a lot of money. I did mine for under $500 with the timer. I pro would have cost well over twice that.9*
 
No - but I have replaced and fixed my sprinkler system so many times that i feel like a pro. I know I could do a better job than the jerkwads that put it in originally. Get this - right after we moved in, one of the zones quit watering. So, I figure I've got a valve that's out or maybe just a solenoid that needs replacing. I start looking all over the place for the damn valves. They're nowhere above ground. They're nowhere in a box. The sumbitches that installed it actually just put the valves all in the ground and covered them up with dirt. Grass had grown over it and the whole thing was invisible. Oh well - I digress. Hire someone competent to do it for you and watch while it's being done so you know exactly what you're going to have to dig up eventually.
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I keep thinking about it, it seems pretty simple, but I would want it done fast.

As much money as my buddy has spent trying to repair something he doesn't understand I figure doing it myself might save me thousands over time.
 
Idogg53,

I am old, fat and out of shape so that is why it almost killed me.

I have decided that I have worked hard all of my life so that I could afford to hire someone to do things for me. I doubt that I will ever need another sprinkler system but if I do I will hire it done. And yes, it would have been worth $1200 to get it done but I thought I would do it for the experience. Well, now that I have experience I now know it is not for me any more. It was just that once I started I was determined to finish it.

For you guys that are more handy than me or just want to try it, give it a go. I am just saying that I will never try that again.

But do hire a plumber to hook to the city water. If you do it wrong you can contaminate some of the public water supply.
 
I thought about doing this, but this thread has probably quashed any hopes of a diy project.

As I understand it, you are supposed to connect to the water supply before it reaches your house. What if most of your yard is on the other side of your driveway? How do you connect the water supply without tearing up some concrete? Can you go under the driveway somehow?
 
You make a tunnel under the driveway by using a piece of pvc. You can buy a "jet" for the end of your hose. It's a brass adjustable nozzle much like the pistol sprayer everyone has. It is a straight brass spraye that adjusts from a mist to a strong thin spray. You put a fitting on one end for the jet and a fitting on the other to attach your hose. You then fire it up and shove it under the driveway. It will carve a tunnel out and when the pvc gets all the way through, you cut off the fittings and Voila, you have pipe under the driveway.
 
I've repaired mine at times.

Such work as this will literally force you to your knees.

And some folks will not dig that, pardon the pun.

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We just moved into a new house and I'm doing mine with a friend. This is the second one I've done. It's not that hard. You have to get the ditch witch. If the lot is very big you want to get the tractor and not the walk behind. I had the walk behind the first time and I swear it felt like I was plowing with oxen!

Also, you may have to get a seperate meter that is dedicated to the sprinkler system. That's the new ordinance in where I live. That set me back a little over $700. Also, a licensed irrigator has to file for your permit. I paid one $50 to get it for me.
 
Thanks, Nick. I'll probably pass on that, but it is good to know how it is actually done. As much as a ***** it is to move around a hose, I will stick with that, for this house anyway.
 
I put my system in a few years ago. My wife and I did it in two weekends with a few days after work as well. The only hard part was digging the trenches. Even with a trencher, there is still a fair amount of digging involved. We live in Round Rock, and the mixture of clay / rock was absolutely brutal. I mean ABSOLUTELY brutal.

That said, there are a lot of reasons for doing it yourself. First, you can design the system any way you want. My system is awesome. When designing it, I added a lot of future zones. Just this weekend, I put a drip system on my deck that runs off the main line and it only took me 1 hour and cost about $30. We also put some electrical wire in the trenches so that we can install high voltage lighting at some point in the future without digging up the yard.

Also, you can be sure that you are installing the highest quality. We installed all of our lines a foot deep (minimum) and used high quality parts. The sprinklers are all 6" - which is great for the St. Augustine. A lot of my neighbors have like 2" sprinklers that work like crap once the grass is at the proper height.

Finally, you will save some serious jack. I imagine I saved around $800 - $1000 myself for a system that I love.

Some would probably rather hire a professional, but I guess I just like laying pipe. I would say I'm actually a pretty decent pipe layer. When laying pipe, it is nice to have some help. I can't imagine laying pipe without my wife. It was actually fun.
 
On the surface it's a pretty easy thing to do. However there are things that you need to make sure you do right at the beginning or it won't work right - mainly the hook up to you main water line and setting everything to your water pressure.

Tip: Get the plot of your house and yard. When you buy your home you will have several of these. Draw any plant beds that you will have in your yard and then take it to Home Depot and they will turn it in to their spinkler system brand people (Rainbird - I think). For free, they'll send you a complete computer plot of your yard with suggested sprinkler heads, zones, and everything. You will get a complete estimated parts list and then yu can estimate how much it will cost for you to do this yourself. Keep in mind the company that provides this is trying to sell you more sprinker heads, however the fact they figure out the best way to lay out your pipes, where your zones should be, and the direction of the water flow - this is a great guide to get you started.
 
I just added 4 zones onto my existing system. It was a lot of work, but you can save a lot of money doing it yourself. As mentioned before the trenching is the hardest part. That and all of the leaning down working in the trench while doing all of the PVC gluing. I'd recommend doing it yourself if you dont mind a lot of hard work.

Here is a good sources of how-to info:
irrigation tutorials

A place to buy supplies online and some good how-to info too:wholesale sprinklers
 
seriously Chaz and anyone else in Houston that might want to undertake this sort of thing..... if we work together we can all save ourselves a bunch of headaches and we might actually get decent results.... what I mean is if a couple of us help out at one house one weekend and then the other person's house the next..etc... I've got an account at a builder's supply company and can get the components for much cheaper than at Home Depot...
 
Thanks for all the opinions and great info.

Idogg, I will have to wait and see when I move into my new house in a couple months. But it is a good idea.
 
I find when laying pipe it is always more enjoyable to make your wife do all the work. They know how they want it done anyway and you can just enjoy watching her do the work. Positive reinforcement is important - I find that if I give a few: "Oh yeah, I love how you work the pipe" makes her work it faster.
 
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