Pipe/system repair

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nhyrum
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Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » May 8th, 2018, 8:15 pm

Hello,

Due to my own fault, I forgot to have my irrigation system blown out last winter. We were gone a lot of the early winter/spring, and reseeded the front, so I wanted to keep water on it as long as possible. Ended up not getting it blown out. I've got a total of 5 zones, about 20 heads, with about 4 being straight pop ups, one, maybe two of which are plugged (a small l, 5x5 patch had like 3 pop ups and a rotating rain bird maxi-paw, in the shade and was simply getting too much water) the rest are rain bird maxi paw impact rotors.

The low down-
Zone 1-has water, not enough to lift the 4 impact heads more than about 1/4 inch. I can't see any source of broken pipes. No standing water, other than the pools created by the heads, nothing.
Zone 2-has enough pressure to lift the 4 impacts and pop up, enough to work the head, but not enough to rotate.
Zone 3-works great
Zone 4 and 5,dead. I found a stretch of about 4 feet while zone 4 was on that had about 3 very small pinholes on the soil, almost like a clam hole, not much water at all, and one larger pool. This stretch is right by the valves, so I'm thinking about replacing the stretch from the valve to a fence, probably a total of 10 feet. The valves are on the north side of the house, so I'm not surprised this is where the breaks were.

Is irrigation pvc repair/glue the same as regular pvc? The purple stuff then the glue? Anything I should be aware of that may complicate things?

After I fix what I can find, hopefully that helps me find other breaks in those two zones.

The first two zones(the front yard) , I can't find any leaks. Is there a way I can plug the heads so the pipes bear the pressure to hopefully make breaks more obvious? If not, I think I'm looking at pretty much gutting and getting a new system installed, because it looks like its gonna be a lot off pinholes. What should I anticipate the cost of replacement being?

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turf_toes
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by turf_toes » May 8th, 2018, 10:06 pm

You don’t need to cap the heads.

Run the first zone for an hour or two (the water running through the system will help find the leak). Toward the end of that time, walk the area the zone covers.

You’ll find the (approximate) location of the leak (the turf will basically be floating atop a bubble of water). You’ll feel it when you walk on it (if you don’t see it first).

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » May 8th, 2018, 11:19 pm

I've ran the zones like normal for a few weeks now. Each zone for 5 minutes. I can't find anything other than the one leak I've already found.

I'll try running the zone longer. But zone 2 I don't think is a very big leak because it has enough pressure to pop the heads up all the way and run the rotor a little

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andy10917
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by andy10917 » May 9th, 2018, 12:17 am

Like TT said - run them for an hour straight at least, not 5 minutes. You have to overwhelm the soil's ability to drain the leaking water.

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » May 9th, 2018, 12:42 am

I'll give it a go.

Are repairs to the pipe the same as other pvc? It seems to be 1" to 1 1/4 thin wall pvc. I just hope I don't have to do a thousand splices


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turf_toes
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by turf_toes » May 9th, 2018, 7:28 am

Depends on your system. Most systems use poly pipe for zone runs, not pvc.

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » May 9th, 2018, 12:53 pm

I know the pipe to the heads themselves are black, 1/2 inch ish flex hose. But the stuff from the valve to wherever it spiders out is large, white, thin wall pipe, pvc I'm assuming.

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turf_toes
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by turf_toes » May 9th, 2018, 3:34 pm

I’d suggest finding the leak, then figuring out the pipe used.

Whatever pipe used, it’s pretty simple. At least no more difficult than fixing any other poly or pvc. Only difference is it’s buried in your yard

In any case, based on what you’ve written, the leak is in the pipe downstream from the first and second valve..

Otherwise, you’d see the problem with all your zones.

So you’ll find the leak in the polypipe.

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » May 9th, 2018, 5:07 pm

I already found a break in the large pipe for zone 4,isuspect 5 is close to the break in 4 as they're side by side. This break is in the large main pipe for the zone, about 3 feet from the valves.

The leak in 1 and 2 very well could be in the smaller lines. I've got a roll of that stuff. Heck, all the zones could have breaks in the smaller lines :banghead: Lesson learned

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » May 9th, 2018, 7:04 pm

quick update. Found the break in zone 1. It was under some volcanic rock gravel that has shrubs in it. It was rather big. Zone 5 had 10 small leaks(that I found) in the line that runs to I believe the first head in that zone. I haven't dug to the line just removing sod so I know where they are. I think I'm just going to replace that whole leg. Find where it ties in to and dig it all up.

Zone 2 is going to be difficult. It's gotta be just one small pin hole, maybe two, as theres enough pressure to pop up the heads and run the impact hand/hammer thing, but still not enough pressure to rotate any. I'm thinking I'll put weights over the heads so they're not spraying me and making it difficult to see where the soil is getting wet

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » June 5th, 2018, 8:44 pm

Alright, so I got this thing 99 percent fixed. Zone one was a break where they expanded the 1" pvc to fit around the other pipe. Zone 2 I believe to be an issue with the heads themselves. They seem to have plenty of pressure, Just stick a little, so a few(2/4)don't rotate.
Zone 3 is fine.
About every foot of zones 4 and 5 were broken. Zone 4 started right after exciting the control box(where all the valves sit) , and ran till about 3 feet short of the first head. Zone 5 started about 15 feet from the control box,and ran till it hit the first head, which had a T With the leg of the t being 3/4 instead of one inch. That pipe(the 3/4) was fine for the first few feet at least.

I purchased 120 feet of pipe. I have about 35 left.

Here is all the pipe I pulled up. Boy was this a lesson... I learned, one, how to PROPERLY bleed the system, which I didn't do last winter, and two, whatever the cost, DON'T FORGET TO WINTERIZE!


Image

On a side note. What's the best way to get the grass/sod to grow back together? I've been packing the gaps with dirt and soaking the area to try to help soften the dirt, it's pretty packed. Any ideas?

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andy10917
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by andy10917 » June 6th, 2018, 12:17 am

On a side note. What's the best way to get the grass/sod to grow back together?
See that place there for "Grass Type" where you said "I don't know"? Well, it's come home to roost - we can't offer guidance because some grasses spread laterally well, and others no so much. It's sort of like asking how to grow a 100 lb pet without identifying whether the pet is a mouse or a large dog. Sorry.

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » June 6th, 2018, 12:30 am

andy10917 wrote:
June 6th, 2018, 12:17 am
On a side note. What's the best way to get the grass/sod to grow back together?
See that place there for "Grass Type" where you said "I don't know"? Well, it's come home to roost - we can't offer guidance because some grasses spread laterally well, and others no so much. It's sort of like asking how to grow a 100 lb pet without identifying whether the pet is a mouse or a large dog. Sorry.
I apologize. It's mostly tttf with kbg overseed.

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andy10917
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by andy10917 » June 6th, 2018, 12:42 am

TTTF is actually a bunch-grass, and doesn't spread laterally well. The KBG may if it successfully is holding its own with the TTTF. Now is a terrible time to seed, and unless you want to say "any success is better than none", you're looking at mid-August before the seeding window opens again.

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » June 6th, 2018, 1:09 am

Thank you.

I think I'll put up the shovel and spreader and go back to lurking. Seems every time I try to do something I end up screwing it up

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GeorgiaDad
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by GeorgiaDad » July 13th, 2018, 8:40 am

nhyrum wrote:
June 6th, 2018, 1:09 am
Thank you.

I think I'll put up the shovel and spreader and go back to lurking. Seems every time I try to do something I end up screwing it up
No, you're learning. The worst thing is to get frustrated and give up. We've all made mistakes. You just learn from them.

nhyrum
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Re: Pipe/system repair

Post by nhyrum » August 14th, 2018, 11:29 am

So another little update. While the system was broken, I installed a few whole house water filters. I have a drinking water reverse osmosis filter, and I was getting half the life out of my filters. I wasn't really thinking and installed them right as the main comes in the house, filtering the irrigation water too, somewhat of a waste, but also dropping water pressure. I also suspect that the system freeze damaged some heads in the front. I'm contemplating replacing them with gear drive rotors. One of the zones has two maxi paws right under our bedroom window, so we either have to get woken up by them at about 7am or irrigate at inopportune times. The gear drives would be much quieter, and be able to operate on less pressure I assume? These rain birds have really been a lot of headache, even when the system was "working"

I'm thinking about getting hunter pgp ultras or rain bird 32sa. I know they're totally different heads, most of what I get will have to be purchased online as the maxi paws pretty much dominate the market here and are almost exclusive

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