# The Walri's 2020 Irrigation/Lawn Journal



## The Walri (Nov 27, 2018)

We bought our home 7 years ago and it had a few years old irrigation system that the previous owners didn't winterize when we bought the home and it burst the fitting below the PVB backflow preventer over the winter. I wasn't really into lawncare at the time and we were growing into the home (and mortgage) at the time so I didnt bother fixing it because of the price of the part and didn't see myself using much after seeing the previous water usage at the property on our first water bill. Fast forward 7 years later and I've gotten more into (too into it if you ask my wife!)lawn care and want to get it going.

Here's what I know this far:
1) I currently have a 10 zone system (7 lawn, 3 gardens/beds) with a Rainbird EPM-2 controller.
2) I don't know the layout of the zones but have an idea where most of the heads are in the back yard, not so much in the front.

Here's my game plan:
1)buy/install new PVB (ordered)
2) Replace broken main irrigation line from the PVB to control box
3) replace the one garden bed sprinkler head I know I demolished when I got a little wide with the lawn tractor
4) turn on and see if ANYTHING works and check for leaks
5) start troubleshooting/replacing heads and valves as needed.
6) Remove furthest head on each zone (if I can identify) and flush lines for any debris (if needed)

I'm hoping to get it up and running in time for fall when I plan to do an overseed. Let me know if I'm missing anything obvious or should consider a different approach! thanks in advance for the advice and looking forward to learning some things along the way.


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## The Walri (Nov 27, 2018)

Got in a mid-week mow tonight. Lawns looking good considering we're on day 5 of mid- to high- 90's without much rain except for some t-storms yesterday.


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## The Walri (Nov 27, 2018)

Took a look to see what nozzles my rainbird 1800 sprays had and all are standard Van type sprays of various radii. A few have the colored plastic broken off -i'm guessing they'll need replaced? or will they still run? I'm debating about just replacing nozzles with what was installed originally (Van) or upgrading to HE Van or R Van's to cut down on water usage. Price difference isn't huge so what do you guys think - upgrade (minimally) to HE Van's or is there any advantage to going with R Van's? Or stick with the system as designed and see how it functions then optimize for efficiency once it's up and running?


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## Di3soft (Jun 13, 2020)

I ordered some rvans yesterday, just for the reason of consistent amount of water across all nozzles. got the 45psi bodies to hold the pressure


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