How to Install In-ground Lawn Sprinklers

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Tired of dragging those heavy garden hoses around? Thinking of getting a permanent sprinkler system for your yard? We get into the flow of underground irrigation systems with landscape specialist Paul Griffith.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

Lawn specialist
Plans

Step1

Design the system, purchase the materials and install from scratch your own system if you feel up to devoting a great deal of time and effort to understanding all the finer details of planning a problem-free and totally adaquate system. If not, there are other easier more practical optional available, like the following.

Step2

Choose a good landscape or lawn specialist to design your system.

Step3

Make sure that either you or your designer test for and take into account the available water pressure in your area.

Step4

Avoud future problems by planning your system to function at 5 to 10 percent less than the exsisting optimum pressure to allow for population growth and expanded water usage in the area.

Step5

Think about a booster pump for the system if you are in area where low or fluxuating water pressure is already a problem.

Step6

Install the actual "system" yourself using one of the "pre-packaged" plans that landscape designers will frequently work with you on. These can vary from a plan on paper and a materials list to having them plan, set up the lawn out on your lawn, have materials delivered and have the trenching done. Then you lay out the pipe place the sprinklers and make all the final connections.

Step7

Pick the level of of work you want to do according to the cost you can afford and your skill level.

Step8

Think of putting the system together as a kind of giant puzzle. Follow the instructions carefully and not too much can go wrong if you have a good plan.

Tips & Warnings

Pick a good lawn or landscape specialist by using your local Better Business Bureau, chamber of commerce or customer references.
Avoid any system that uses a "manifold" system; that is a system that has no main lines running to the individual zoned areas. These are hard to add on to and often don't make best use of exsisting water pressure.