# Sidewalk strip layout



## Movingshrub

Is there a better way to do this?

This area is being renovated so now is the time.

It's 98'x3'. There is a light pole on the far left that keeps me from getting any closer with a sprinkler head.

There is mailbox pole on the other end that will be replaced so it can shift left or right if needed. Lastly, I am two sprinkler heads short from the design; one should be at the driveway edge and the other should be at the light pole. Due to the wiring for the mailbox lamp, I opted to hold off on routing pipe through that area until I expected to replace be mailbox, so, I anticipate putting at least one more sprayer, approximately a foot away from the drive way, which won't provide perfect coverage but will hopefully reduce the chance of damage.

All of the sprinklers are rainbird 1804-SAM-PRS pop-ups and each one has a 15CST nozzle.


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## Ecks from Tex

What if you put in a subsurface irrigation system just for that strip?


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## Movingshrub

Ecks from Tex said:


> What if you put in a subsurface irrigation system just for that strip?


Does subsurface provide water directly to the roots?

I plan to sprig so I don't know if it would keep the grass wet during establishment, or if it would work during overseeding.


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## Ecks from Tex

Movingshrub said:


> Ecks from Tex said:
> 
> 
> 
> What if you put in a subsurface irrigation system just for that strip?
> 
> 
> 
> Does subsurface provide water directly to the roots?
> 
> I plan to sprig so I don't know if it would keep the grass wet during establishment, or if it would work during overseeding.
Click to expand...

Yep it's root watering. It would thrive there with established grass but I honestly don't know about seeds. I think you're right it would be a problem. You'd have to hand water but once established you'd be set.


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## Ecks from Tex

Movingshrub said:


> Ecks from Tex said:
> 
> 
> 
> What if you put in a subsurface irrigation system just for that strip?
> 
> 
> 
> Does subsurface provide water directly to the roots?
> 
> I plan to sprig so I don't know if it would keep the grass wet during establishment, or if it would work during overseeding.
Click to expand...

Also, for some reason, I'm pretty sure I've seen a thread in here recently where it was discussed that similar head placement to yours was not right. I've always thought it wa supposed to be at the edge of the block


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## Movingshrub

Yeah someone posted this layout. I am trying to discern what that lay out gets me versus my existing style of layout. The goal is head to head coverage, right? So long as I accomplish that, I wouldn't think center versus edge layout would matter. I may diagram it out to see the difference.


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## Ecks from Tex

Movingshrub said:


> Yeah someone posted this layout. I am trying to discern what that lay out gets me versus my existing style of layout. The goal is head to head coverage, right? So long as I accomplish that, I wouldn't think center versus edge layout would matter. I may diagram it out to see the difference.


I believe what this gets you is no overspray onto the street and of course head to head coverage


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## Movingshrub

If it's 4' x 15' spray heads, with three feet area of grass, pretty sure I am going to end up with overspray since I don't think those are adjustable.


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## Flynt2799

So when my house was built the builder put in the irrigation. I always wondered what was done with the hell strip and sadly found out when I attempted to aerate. I have drip line run right underneath the turf. I have to say that I don't mind it because I'm not spraying the sidewalk or street, but I do find myself hand watering once or twice after throwing down fertilizer.


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## Movingshrub

I put in the irrigation last year using the design provided by rainbird. It worked for what I was doing, but the priority last year was the sprigging project in the back yard. This time, I need the sprinkler irrigation to be on point. I can add/move additional heads if needed, but want to understand the benefit if I am going to do so.

I used 1.25" SCH 40 PVC for the entire system, with the exception of the flex pipe at each riser.


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## FuzzeWuzze

Its my experience that the strip nozzles suck, but thats just me.

I have a lot of 6 foot wide strip(probably 150' total across 3 sections) and the nozzles seem to spray 90% of their water out the side so that they can reach the full 30 feet and barely any forward. Plus they spray tons of water on my sidewalk, if i turn it one way to stay off the sidewalk the other side is on the sidewalk.

The layout someone offered you is the "standard" way of doing it i'd think, you have proper head to head coverage along both sides of the turf, while their images for sprinkler coverage for a strip nozzle head may show perfect rectangle shapes that are 4x30 feet long that's not reality usually.
Its how my house was laid out(from previous owners).

I dont see a problem with your current layout though,

Personally i'm looking to move to Hunter MPR strip sprays in hopes that im not dumping gallon after gallon of water down the curb into the drain. I cant stand the misting of the sprays.


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## Movingshrub

I think I'm going to cover my sidewalk with rain gauges and see if I actually have a problem; No need to go looking for a solution for a non-existent problem. I may have gotten ahead of myself by asking for input before doing the watering audit.


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## Movingshrub

I did an audit on the far left hand-side of the previously uploaded photo. I ran the system for ten minutes.

I was surprised how much water I got to sides of the sprinkler. This does not seem like a good even application.

A 0.2"
B 0.2"
C 0.1"
D 0.15"
E 1.3"
F 1.3"
G 0.2"
H 0.2"
I 0.25"
J0.25"


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## Movingshrub

So I started changing the sprinkler layout. Due to all the rain, this wasn't the most fun task, however, this afternoon was the only time in the foreseeable future where rain wasn't expected all day. 


I had time to relocate three heads. I'll work on moving and locating the other five, after doing an audit of the repositioned pop up spray nozzles. I am trying to discern whether I'll need 6" pop ups on the low curb edge to get an even application.


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## Movingshrub

I did an audit of the new section, where only the new heads are throwing water into this area, to compare. However, some of the gauges shifted due to the new location of the sprinklers so it's not an exactly apples to apples comparison. The goal in my mind is even coverage, in dependent of where the gauge is located.



A 0.2"
B 0.1"
C 0.15"
D 0.6"
E 0.2"
F 0.4"
G 0.1"
H 0.9"
I 0.3"
J 0.1"

I used the Rainbird 15EST on the end and 15SST through the middle, which throws a rectangle type pattern with the nozzle being the long side of the rectangle, versus the 15CST where the nozzle throws a rectangle, with the nozzle being the exact middle of the length and width.

The nozzle directly in front of the 15SST nozzle received the most water. These have adjustment screws on them. I'm going to try to audit again using the adjustment to reduce the amount of water being thrown onto the street and sidewalk. I'm curious to see what the relationship is between reduction in forward throw relative to the reduction in sideway throw of the water. When I sprigged, I was running the irrigation for 2-3 minutes at a time using rotors. For the sidewalk, using spray nozzles, the GPM is higher per sqft, so I am trying to get the most even coverage so I run the system for 1 minute at a time, rather than 2-3 minutes leading to a soggy area in one spot and dry in the other.


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## roundrockag

Flynt2799 said:


> So when my house was built the builder put in the irrigation. I always wondered what was done with the hell strip and sadly found out when I attempted to aerate. I have drip line run right underneath the turf. I have to say that I don't mind it because I'm not spraying the sidewalk or street, but I do find myself hand watering once or twice after throwing down fertilizer.


Flynt,

I live in Round Rock. The irrigation system was put in either by the builder or the original owner of the house (built in 2012). There is sidewalk drop irrigation. The funny thing is I had the lawn aerated a few years ago, and apparently it punctured the line in a few places (probably 5 at least). I live on a corner lot for a cul-de-sac, so I have a crap-ton of sidewalk for my property. It's also good that I have a McClane Edger. I noticed this year that the drip irrigation by the sidewalk is not doing well, I went and checked and see several spot where there was obviously a puncture and water is bubbling to the surface when that zone is running. I'm wondering if digging up the troubled spots to repair it is the right way to go, or just replace with spray heads. I know that I won't do core aeration by the sidewalks again!

Chris


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## Flynt2799

@roundrockag so I opted to just dig the entire drip line up and replace it with new drip line. Trying to patch each hole turned into a nightmare because as soon as I thought I had them all patched, three more would show there face.

I also opted to stick with the drip line vs replacing with spray heads due to water management. Everyone that has spray heads on the strip seems to have the same issue which is water placement. The drip line does a great job of soaking the soil with no runoff. The only downside of the drip line is when I need to water in a fertilizer or something. Just means I get to go old school and hand water.

Hope this helps, gig em!


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## roundrockag

Yes, I will probably go that route as well. Might be worth renting a sod cutter to cut the area out, move it over, dig up the old line, replace the line, and then replace the sod. I don't mind doing the hand watering thing when necessary, I just don't want to do it all the time. With my first home, purchased in 1998, I did not have an irrigation system, so I used sprinklers to move around the lawn. That hell strip I used soaker hose to water.


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## Flynt2799

roundrockag said:


> Yes, I will probably go that route as well. Might be worth renting a sod cutter to cut the area out, move it over, dig up the old line, replace the line, and then replace the sod. I don't mind doing the hand watering thing when necessary, I just don't want to do it all the time. With my first home, purchased in 1998, I did not have an irrigation system, so I used sprinklers to move around the lawn. That hell strip I used soaker hose to water.


If you are able to find the line you can follow it with a shovel and just flip up that section of grass. Pull the old line out and pop the new one in and just flip the grass back over it. That worked well for me. Only time I hand water the strip is right after putting down granular, drip line keeps it in great shape after that.


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## tlfal

When i did my reno back in 2016 I went subsurface drip all over. I have about 850 sqaure feet of grass, shrubs and garden. It works great but there are negatives.
Seeding, watering stuff in is a pain in the ***. I found out the hard way when new sod was installed and i had to manually water it while it was establishing. Because I was lazy some of it died . But I have similar strip (15' x 3') with subsurface drip and when its on its great. No overspray, no watering concrete and I can run it anytime of the day without worrying about wind, sun and other obstacles.


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## roundrockag

So I measured it out today. I have three sections - a small one on one side of the driveway, a medium size one on the other side of the driveway to the corner, and a long one on the side of the house. We live on a corner lot. That also seems to invite the dog walkers to have their K-9 drop a deuce in the yard and then not have the courtesy to take it with them. :evil: I'm tempted to put up a camera and then expose them on Neighbor Nextdoor, but I digress.

So after measuring, I'll need about 375 feet (or four 100 feet sections) to pull this off, along with some barbs. I'll probably order it online from sprinkler warehouse unless there is a good local place to obtain it at as good of a price.


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## Flynt2799

roundrockag said:


> So I measured it out today. I have three sections - a small one on one side of the driveway, a medium size one on the other side of the driveway to the corner, and a long one on the side of the house. We live on a corner lot. That also seems to invite the dog walkers to have their K-9 drop a deuce in the yard and then not have the courtesy to take it with them. :evil: I'm tempted to put up a camera and then expose them on Neighbor Nextdoor, but I digress.
> 
> So after measuring, I'll need about 375 feet (or four 100 feet sections) to pull this off, along with some barbs. I'll probably order it online from sprinkler warehouse unless there is a good local place to obtain it at as good of a price.


You should go check out Ewing landscape and irrigation, they have one in north Austin and in Georgetown. They should have everything you would need.


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## Movingshrub

Has anyone used the Rainbird R-VAN-SST nozzles? I was curious how that compared to the Rainbird 15CST nozzle. Both are side-strip nozzles.



Rain Bird Corp said:


> Movingshrub said:
> 
> 
> 
> How does that work with the 15CST and 15EST nozzles?
> 
> 
> 
> Not very well. Getting nozzles to spray that shape with high uniformity in mass production quantities at reasonable expense is near impossible. Consider sub-surface in narrow strips if you must have the highest uniformity. For most, the CST & EST nozzles are good enough.
Click to expand...

Is there any application situation that calls for the R-VAN-SST over the 15CST nozzles?

The R-VAn's seem to have lower GPM, which could be useful to avoid run off. Otherwise, why pick one over the other?


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## Rain Bird Corp

Movingshrub said:


> The R-VAn's seem to have lower GPM, which could be useful to avoid run off. Otherwise, why pick one over the other?


Lower precipitation rate (PR) nozzles can reduce runoff, but there are trade-offs (as with everything). Total run time is longer which means you may have issues:
1. Getting the irrigation done in the allowable watering window 
2. Having to irrigate when conditions are less desirable due to the longer total operation time: windier, warmer, lower humidity. (These conditions may impact wind drift and evaporation losses and could promote conditions more ideal for pests and diseases.)
3. Spraying water the same distance with less flow (GPM of the nozzle) means that the water droplets may be smaller. If so, this means that they weigh less and are blown around more easily in the wind. They have more surface area compared to the total volume of water in the droplet which means that evaporation losses are higher (think mist).

Multi-stream, multi-trajectory nozzles (MSMT) (R-VAN, Hunter's MP Rotator) overcome this to some degree by concentrating this lower flow into streams of water instead of a fan-type spray. But it is not yet well known or studied how much more water is lost due to wind drift and evaporation in these nozzles. The few practical application (real world) studies of which I am aware show either no savings or insignificant savings when MSMT nozzles were substituted for fan spray nozzles. However, many are using these nozzles successfully and are very pleased with the results.

If you are concerned about runoff and still want to use fan spray nozzles, run your system and notice how long it runs before runoff begins. Make that your maximum cycle time. Repeat cycles until the irrigation requirement is met. Allow enough time between cycles for the water to soak in before starting the next cycle. Rain Bird calls this feature Cycle+Soak(TM) in our controller products. This programming strategy allows you to eliminate higher PR as a cause of runoff and works with any sprinkler. (Yes, there is a University study that shows that result.)


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## Rule11

https://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/Hunter-Sprinkler-Rotator-Nozzle-p/mpss530.htm
These are the Nozzles i use and absolutely love them.


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## Movingshrub

I've been using the 15SSTs, in a offsetting layout, for the strip aspect. I was using the 15CST but didn't feel like I was getting good coverage. So I moved the popups and changed to the other nozzles.

However, I came across the rainbird equivalent of what you posted @Rule11 and was just curious why a consumer might pick the 15SST vs the stream style pop-up equivalent.


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## Rule11

Well the biggest reason is GPM rates are far less. So with that there are water conservation pros. Less runoff with the MP Rotator style. They also preform better in the wind. But for me it's the more consistent GPM rates from nozzle to nozzle. Easy to design, less zones, less overall material ect.


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