Just thought I'd ask . I'm having one put in next week weather permitting. Anything I should know?

 

yeap. a 100' water hose and a srinkler. just joking. but yes. i have a treatment system septic tank with a 200 gallon holding tank in ground. and when i want to water my yard, i just turn on the pump to my holding tank, and it waters my yard. i don't have to use or run up my water bill. is this what your getting?

 

My step dad had several. The one behind the house had an 8" cat head with a 400HP CAT diesel on it. I don't remember how many gallons an hour of diesel it burned but it wasn't as bad as I expected. He had another one that fed into a 10 acre lake that had another CAT diesel on it. We ran 318 Dodge gas engines off of the lake to the irrigation systems. We put enough gas in the tanks to run it however long we needed it to run and then it just ran out of gas. We pushed water about half a mile with the gas engines and about 2 miles with the diesels. I really don't remember the gallonage of water anymore but it was a lot. That lake was also home of some of the best frog legs in Texas. I know, I ate a lot of them. My brother and I could get as many as 60 pair a night from that lake. Good place for noisy skinny steak too.

 

My Wife won't let me talk about that.

 

I'm talking about lawn sprinklers . guys lol

 

We irrigate our 100 acres of Alfalfa with ditches fed by a 18 cu ft/sec stream which flows through our property.

 

Yeah a few things:
In your area, whoever controls the water may at a fee install a second meter just for your sprinkler system, that way you can track the usage costs, the water may be cheaper too since some places charge for sewage by every gallon of water you buy???? (mine did,a double wammie!). My last place was 1/2 acre and had about half a dozen zones, each with about 4-6 heads, try to get LARGE main pipes, 3/4-1.0" or bigger, the bigger the mains, the better pressure you will have. Last, always preplan for future expansion even if you think it will be a while before you add on, lets say your doing the front yard now, get him to run main pipes to the back and just cap them off, that way later YOU can add on if you so choose, I did and it was way easier since the mains were already there.
Enjoy, nothing like in ground irrigation for a great looking lawn!

BTW back in 04 our system install was $3500 FWIW.

Here is a pic of me having a fun old time with a ditch witch, you can see where I already cut to add on our back yard sprinkler lines, oh the joys of home ownership, but then again I did sell that house and make a nice $120k profit (pre market crash of course)

 

great info . I did have a second meter put in . The water dept sent out a memo stating that everyone had till the end of feb. to take advantage of the 200 dollar fee. After that it would be 1,000 . So I went on and had it installed . So like you said , I would have had to pay for double . Because of the sewer . Usually here, Whatever the water bill is the sewer is the same . With this 2nd meter all I pay is what I use . No min. bill The guys installing it is going to tie it into my exterior faucets as well . Then I can was the car and trucks with that meter as well .

 

I have put a few in myself.....Here are a few words of advice


1-Pull the right permits for the job (alot of contractors around here dont even bother with them unless they get caught.)

2-Make sure ALL utility's are marked

3-Make sure they test your GPM from a tap. I have seen it more then a few times where the contractor has said " O, we just did one down the street and there's was bla bla, then when they go to run it for the first time and the heads barely come up because they have way to many on a zone. Did I mention it is a real PITA to fix something like that?


4-I myself pull 1" poly and nothing smaller, If who ever you are having do it wants to use 1/2" on anything find someone else, they are being a cheap ***.


5-Have them use black poly and pull the pipe with a pipe puller, a lot less tearing up the yard vs a trencher and using PVC. A pipe puller only leaves a small slit in the yard.

6-Hunter or Rain Bird parts only, If they are using some other cheap crap from Home Depot, again find someone else to do it. I myself prefer Hunter parts. I like the SRC or Pro C controllers. I-20 and PGP for rotors. Hunter SRV 1" for valves. And the Wilkins 720A for the vacuum breaker(back flow).


7-If any are running along a street or driveway make sure they use funny pipe to connect them or otherwise you will be breaking risers left and right.


Well, that's all I can think of for now.

Hope that helps ya

BTW, the average price around here is about $500.00-$600.00 per zone.

 

Mine encircles the house which is on almost an acre, with 11 zones. Had it put in about 12 years ago. Been very good, all I have had to do is replace several sprinkler heads.

 

Thanks guys . More great info . I do know that he said , It would be a rain bird controller . One of their new models . And for the back flow it would be all copper .As for the price it seems to be in the ballpark . This guy owns his own company and has work on Extreme Home Makeover. Where he installed the sprinkler system .