sprinkler system question
 

The courtyard at my girlfriends town home needs some love so we decided to rip all of the dead bushes out and replace the grass. The grass died(st. Augustine, probably disease. )

But she has a sprinkler system built in and this was hidden by the bushes

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y74...4/931cb6c1.jpg

I'm thinking about shutting of the water supply to the house and cutting that tall set of supply pipes and putting them underground in an access box and cut those drains for the AC or what ever they are a bit closer to the ground and put an elbow on them or possibly underground and put them in a box as well. The two pipes for the sprinkler system is fed by I believe a 1 or 1.5" line.

I'm also going to go and replace the bush sprinklers with pop up units. I have 1 or 2 bush sprinklers that can be eliminated from the system.

ideas?

Does she own this courtyard?

I should have mentioned, yes she is the home owner.

The device at the top of the tall pipes is a vacuum breaker. It's purpose is to keep your drinking water from getting contaminated with soil bacteria and pesticides. It has to be set at least one foot higher than the highest sprinkler head orifice in order to work. If you set it lower than that, it will back flush sprinkler water into your fresh water supply. So, unless you want amoebic dysentary or a good case of typhus, you should either leave it alone or replace it with a "double check valve", which does the same thing but can be placed in a meter box underground. They cost about 80$ at Home Depot. Just follow the piping into the ground, dig a hole big enough for a large square meter box, and install the double check in line. For that size area, you need a 3/4" double check.

The other device on the slighty lower above ground pipe with the wires is a sprinkler remote control valve, why some idiot put it on a riser is beyond me, just drop it in the ground and put a round valve box over it.

good to know. I would like to at least cut the thing down so I could hide it with a fiberglass rock or at least an above ground access box since she plans on getting a dog. It would suck for the dog to decide to chew on it or break it somehow.

I found the sprinkler remove control valve, the hard way. I pulled a shrub out and I yanked on it since it was stuck and it broke the solenoid off. Thankfully only the solenoid broke off and I need to make sure the female end isn't damaged so I can just get a replacement solenoid. $11 locally for a new solenoid.

those two white pipes are what exactly?

First, check your local code. Anti-siphon valves (what JR called a vacuum breaker) may be *required* to be installed a certain level above-grade, particularly if you're in certain designated zones. Your local home center should know those rules, it can't hurt to ask, and it's much easier than trying to navigate the local ordinances online.

Once you find out what you can do legally, then you can build a plan of action.

As to those other two white pipes, it's possible they were part of a system that was abandoned. (It's hard to tell from the pic, but they look unconnected on top.) Maybe that's where the AS valve was at one point and a rare cold snap froze and broke one of them and it was cut out and moved.

You're not in a hard-freeze area, so the pipes shouldn't be very deep. I'd get out the shovel and investigate some. ;)

I looked at the picture a little closer and what I thought was a remote control valve is actually a hose bib in the wall that looked like it was on top of the lower pipe. My mistake. Are they just open ended pipes? If so, they are usually used to make a collar around a manual valve on the main water supply that is down below ground level, there is a tool you slide down the pipe that fits into the flow control handle, you slide it down and then use the tool to turn the water supply on and off. It might be one for the house and another for the sprinklers. Just carefully dig them up to follow them down to the shut off valves, being very careful you don't hit a plastic pipe under pressure, which makes a hell of a mess if you bust it with your shovel.

You can see where someone raised the vacum breaker - see the white pipe with the coupling? They had to raise it because they put a taller sprinkler head in - the one in the back corner it looks like to me, so it had to be raised to maintain the required 12" above the tallest head. If you want to make it less obtrusive, you can replace the sprinkler riser-pipe heads with in the ground pop up heads, and then cut the vacuum breaker down correspondingly.

In most places, you can get a pretty heavy fine if your water company discovers a vacuum breaker that is not properly installed, it is actually illegal most places to have one lower than 12" from the top of the highest head because of the danger of contaminating the city's water supply. Many jurisdictions require it be done by a licensed plumber or licensed irrigator. But as long as it is properly done, you usually will not be called out on doing the work without a permit, but if you screw it up they usually throw all those charges at you later. The guys who read the meters are trained to check for it. In Texas, it's a $1,000 fine.

Great. I was planning on swapping out the tall riser pipes with in ground pop outs. I'll check and see what is in or under ground with those white pipe. Then when I stop by the irrigation supply house tomorrow I'll see if they can help me with what to do with that vacuum breaker.


Highly doubt any other system was installed prior to the current system since it is a fairly new town home. I believe its 5-6 years old. It was one of the models for the sub division.

Just screw in the popups, leaving the nozzles off. Then cut off the water supply, and cut the vacuum breaker off, remove the unwanted height, making sure it's 12" higher than the fully popped height of the highest head, and glue it back on with a couple of slip couplins. Wait a few hours for the glue to set up, then turn on the sprinklers and let the line flush, then put the nozzles on, you can do it all in a afternoon. Plant a bush in front of the breaker or buy a lawn jockey.

Sounds good. I will need to pick up a bunch of stuff to do this job. Once I get the rest of the dead bushes out I can do the sprinkler stuff. It looks to be only one valve in the system(it's a courtyard, so why go overboard?). I am guessing the sprinkler system is all in series with the farthest ends being only an elbow pointing up instead of a T.

Is it on an automatic timer?

If you're digging it up for new landscaping, you may just want to start from scratch. The tall heads in the corners look like shrub misters. If that's what was supposed to be watering the grass, they probably didn't help it much.

If the valve has a busted solenoid, it might be worth replacing. The diaphragms wear out over time due to abrasion of water and then they either don't open or close right, then it's digging it up and repairing - the diaphragms aren't all interchangeable, so you have to ID the brand, get the part.... If there were roots wrapped around it, then it probably wasn't in a box anyway.

Are you re-doing grass, or grass + shrubs? I'd figure the landscaping first, then put the sprinklers in to fit that.

Where are the wires and the control box? I think they're 24 v AC circuits, not a typical DC converter wall wart. Just an FYI if you're troubleshooting with a meter and wonder why there's no DC. Not that I've ever done that...

yes, system is in the garage.



well it was in a box but someone never put the lid back and some roots got in. Not many but a big one was. The system works just fine. I am just going to retrofit some pop up sprinkers to cover the area. We're just putting grass down and under the big tree we will plant jasmine. It's a 24 volt system. It's an irritrol valve and the local john deere irrigation supply house or what ever they are carries irritrol. It's $10 for a new solenoid and I think $20 for the whole thing. The wires that powered the old unit were not properly joined to the old solenoid. It was a complete hack job, nothing new with housing here in FL.

Posting a gee-whiz link just because: The Spudgun Technology Center - Your Source for Spudgun Parts, information, and more!

Yes, it's from a potato-gun site. But it shows the location of the calibrated leak in the valve and how it works. Dirt in there will prevent the valve from opening, if the diaphragm wears it'll stop it since the pressure on the top will be too great. Controlled leaks and venting, not unlike an M-B tranny. That's why you need to keep your system clean and flush it after install.

I had to dig up my system last year to replace the valves since the diaphragm eroded and the manufacturer was bought out. No replacements to be had local and shipping added up to the cost of new valve.

Don't plant Jasmine or any other invasive species. Visit your local botanical garden and look for ideas that you like, ask for advice. They might have a plant sale too.