New well, 10gpm enough?

[laen64]

I hear you J.J What would you suggestions be for a lawn system for 100' X 280' 4 zone with high pressure heads. 4bdroom 3 ba home with normal use. Tell me what you would do if you will?

thanks

 

[J_J]

I hear you J.J What would you suggestions be for a lawn system for 100' X 280' 4 zone with high pressure heads. 4bdroom 3 ba home with normal use. Tell me what you would do if you will?

thanks

Some people think that a sprinkler is so easy. These are just some of the things you have to know. Permits, dose your area require permits, and do they require a license sprinkler man.

Do you have well or city water? If city, you need backflow preventer.

First you have to have a good pump system. Will it be a dedicated pump, used for the sprinkler system, or used by all? If you already have it , start from there . Do you have 30 to 40 psi. How many GPM. Do you have a small tank that will let the pump come on and stay on for the duration of the sprinkler cycle. If not, some timers can supply to the 24 v relay which activate the pump at the start of the sprinkler cycle. Do you want a mechanical or digital timer. What brand of valves and spray heads so you prefer? Who is going to be doing all the work. Do you have a trencher, or will you rent one.

You first have to lay out the property, and add the house, garage, shrubbery, which zones need spray heads, spacing of the rotors for the larger area. Whether 4 zones will do this has to be determined. It really doesn't matter how many zones, you have to have enough water GPM and pressure for good delivery. If most of your shrubbery is combined, then one zone may cover all that. On the large areas, determine what spray heads you will be using. Most all have different nozzles for different requirements. Figure the area to cover. Some rotors will spray 45 ft with the right pressure, and the orifice on the spray head will determined volume in GPM. The sprinkler coverage should overlap, so as to not have gaps.

If you have never done this kind of work before, it will be a learning experience. Obtain a copy of your survey, make several copies. Easy way is to get one of the Rainbird layout booklets and plot your lot and house, and shrubbery. Tell them your GPM and pressure. Send it to them and they will put it on their computers and develop a sprinkler plan for you, with materials and locations, etc. Of course they would like for you to purchase Rainbird products. I use whatever, because none of them are bulletproof.

If you are going to draw this yourself, then you have to educate yourself on the types of stationary spray heads, rotating heads, valves, timers, etc.

I am assuming that most people know how to work with PVC pipe and fittings. Purple.cleaner. blue glue.fast setting. Teflon around screw fittings. How to wire up the valves, etc. Where to put the timer.

All this can be done by one person, but is easier if you had help.

If you had all this done, the cost would be around $1500, to $2200.

I used to do a lot of this before my feet starting , and now, they hurt 24/7. Woe is me.

I have more threnchers now than I did when working. I am thinking of selling some of them but you gotta live close. Shipping, you know.

 

[laen64]

J.J There is NONE like you. I appreciate you and all the folks that assist us all.

God Bless you.

 

[RobertN]

I hear you J.J What would you suggestions be for a lawn system for 100' X 280' 4 zone with high pressure heads. 4bdroom 3 ba home with normal use. Tell me what you would do if you will?

thanks

First thing is to find out what flow and pressure you really have. The idea behind this is to find out AFTER you have depleted your pressure tank. The pressure tank will give you good pressure and flow for a few minutes. Then as it empties, you will be getting the actual pressure and flow that the well produces.

This is important, because the flow will determine how many sprinklers you can put on one zone. The pressure will also dictate the type of head to use. If you flow 10gpm, but at only 25psi, then you are almost stuck with spray head, and a lot of them. If you flow 5gpm at 40psi, then you can run rotors, but only a couple at a time.

Finding this out on a well is the biggest factor in how you will design your system.

Once you figure this out, then you can choose sprinkler heads, pipe size, figure pressure loss for length etc.

Here is a link to great site for figuring out your flow and pressure for a well.

Irrigation tutorials; sprinkler & drip systems, design, install and repair.

On a municipal water system, all of this is much simpler. But on a well, you have to get this basic point right, or else your system will not work very well. It is not hard to do, but you have to get this right before you design

 

[RobertN]

Some people think that a sprinkler is so easy. These are just some of the things you have to know.

Really good advice.

A couple other notes.

- I have found not many people do know about PVC pipe, sizing it, and friction loss. It's a mess to fix once it is in the ground, if it is wrong. It is easy to do though.
-Precipitation rates, make sure your sprinklers match on each circuit, so they put out consistent amounts of water. Else, you'll have wet and dry spots both...
-head to head coverage. You need to have head to head coverage. If not, you will have inconsistent water patterns, and dry/wet spots.
-know your control. Different programs may be used for different zones. Lawn may need to run 4 days a week, but shrubs only once or twice a week. Modern controllers can give you lots of watering options.
-It is better to have too many, than too few zones
-Even drip can have more than one station; ie one for trees once a week, one for flowers every day, on for shrubs twice a week.

It is not really hard to design an irrigation system. There are just a lot of details that you need to review and be aware of.

I would highly recommend getting the Rainbird and Hunter catalogs from an irrigation supply house. Locally, we have John Deere Landscape Supply. Those catalogs are full of good info.

I would also highly recommend getting supplies from a good irrigation supply house(such as John Deer or similar). The stuff from the box stores just is not the same as pro grade supplies. in 4 years of installing and maintaining, I never had to replace pro grade stuff, but frequently had to replace box store grade stuff.

The other option is to hire a landscape designer to map the yard and develop an irrigation plan. My wife does this Elegant Harvest Landscape Design I also did this before I returned to electronics.

 

[turbo36]

The is my method to determine maximum flow and pressure.

1. Open as many facets needed to make the pump not recover to the high pressure cut out (for example if the high pressure cut out is at 50 PSI try to get the pressure to stall at 40-45 PSI)
2. Go to every running faucet with a 5 gallon pail and time how long it takes to fill the bucket - convert this to GPM, add up all the values and presto that is the total GPM the pump can produce without cycling.
This method will allow maximum pressure to get the farthest throw from the sprinkler heads. If you run the pressure too low you have to add more zones to get the same coverage. Also, this will allow you to draw more water for a short period (flush the toilet) without too much pressure drop.

 

[laen64]

Robert you have the wife are not close enough to my LA to do this for me and even help with the decision of proper well and pump system selection.

Your information will be used extensively by me and many more I'm sure.

Thanks

 

[RobertN]

Robert not close enough to my LA to do this for me
Your information will be used extensively by me and many more I'm sure.

Thanks

I know we are far away. But, I am sure there are folks that do similar work in your area.

All the stuff posted above can sound scary, but it's certainly doable to design your own system. Just a lot of details there that are often overlooked or ignored.

I think the worst part of the whole deal, is the back breaking ditch digging

 

[J_J]

laen64,

Do you perhaps live in the country, and own a tractor?

 

[The Dougster]

Please forgive me.. I've been in the groundwater bidness so long I just assume everyone has the equipment to measure water levels... Explain to the water well contractor your plans and he can size the pump/pressure tank to accommodate you... If your State has an agency that monitors groundwater conditions, you might give them a call. Be certain you can give excellent directions so they can find your property on a map. I suspect you'll be surprised at the information they can provide. In Texas, the Tx Water Development Board would be the agency to contact. For many, many years, they have monitored water levels and water quality and with a little information should be able to give you a good estimate of depth you'll have to drill and quality of water you're likely to encounter.... I suspect most State 's have similiar agencies.