# Irrigation Design



## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

Hey all,

Planning an irrigation system.

56 psi coming into the house, 3/4" copper service line. I dont have it tee'd to outside yet so I am unsure of flow rate but I expect to be north of 10gpm. I get 5gpm through a 1/2" pex line run to a hose bib.

Let me know what you would change. I could split the big front zone into 2 if I had too.

If its too hard to see, I can change the coloring.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

The flower bed in the front could be a problem. You could end up watering the bed too much and getting the soil too wet.

The back by the deck is hard to see which head is in which zone in the middle. I think I see no head to head coverage in that zone.


----------



## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

g-man said:


> The flower bed in the front could be a problem. You could end up watering the bed too much and getting the soil too wet.
> 
> The back by the deck is hard to see which head is in which zone in the middle. I think I see no head to head coverage in that zone.


i didnt think about overwatering the bed, i may have to adjust then.

the head on the corner of the stairs by the deck will have 2 heads side by side, one in each zone. I could shift the top middle green head over a foot or two to get closer to the top left head of that zone.


----------



## jht3 (Jul 27, 2018)

You could also do drip in the flower beds, on their own zone, on a pressure reducer.


----------



## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

g-man said:


> The flower bed in the front could be a problem. You could end up watering the bed too much and getting the soil too wet.
> 
> The back by the deck is hard to see which head is in which zone in the middle. I think I see no head to head coverage in that zone.


Just thinking, I have a nanking cherry tree growing in the middle of that flower bed, could that suck enough water up to not worry about overwatering the flower bed? That bed seems to dry out fast because it's above ground.


----------



## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

The bottom half of zone 2 below the deck and next to the house (the large part of it) looks like it does not have enough coverage. Several areas look like they only have two, or even just one head covering them. The rest of the zone is 3-4 heads covering everything. You can tell there is a difference in overlap since the total flow for the green zone is higher than the orange zone, even though the orange zone is larger.

I agree with g-man, the blue flower bed zone has a lot more overlap in the top of the zone than in the bottom. That will mean overwatering the top to get enough on the bottom. It is less critical in gardens to have completely even coverage, but that might be too much variation depending on what you plant, shade, natural rain frequency, etc. I have wildly different irrigation rates in some of my garden zones, but the garden zones don't really run more than a couple times a month so it doesn't really matter.

You don't need 2 heads at the stairs right next to each other in different zones both watering 90 degrees. Just use one head going 180 in just one zone.


----------



## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

Updated the design, I dont think ill be able to work around that front flower bed without doing another zone, and I think it will drain fairly well since it dries out so fast currently when I water it almost every second day. Gravity sure helps.

In the front yard I added 4 more MP1000's at 180* to help keep the watering more even.

In the back yard I changed 2 of the heads by the stairs to MP2000's to throw further, head to head.

For the big area below the patio, i changed the one on the corner of the patio from 90* to 270* and then added 3 more MP1000's at 180*

I was using the wrong flow rates, pretty much every head is running the minimum, Ill get some 30psi regulated bodies for them. There was a couple heads that need the 40psi bodies.

Let me know what you guys think.


----------



## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Looks better. Might be a lot of water in the middle of the back below the patio, but no irrigation system is perfect. You have to decide what compromises are acceptable.


----------



## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

bernstem said:


> Looks better. Might be a lot of water in the middle of the back below the patio, but no irrigation system is perfect. You have to decide what compromises are acceptable.


the house does slope in the back on all 3 sides, but the slope is minimal, maybe 6 inches lower around the fence line than the area around the house.

Ive also considered changing the front flower bed to lawn. that could be an option too


----------



## DiabeticKripple (Apr 14, 2019)

do you guys think if i bought the sprinkler bodies and rotators, a contractor would install them according to my plan?

I'm unsure of the whole putting everything together and wiring it, and i would rather just pay to have someone do it right the first time.


----------

