SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

Remember to take lots of photos.

Believe me, Boots, when I say that I condone and respect professional best practices. I use them every day in my own line of work.

However, consider where these best practices come from. They evolve, pretty much by consensus, from professionals doing the work every day and finding what works best for them. Since the pros make their living at it, their criteria for succcess includes time and cost efficiency right near the top. They develop practices that yield safe, reliable, and effective systems that are easy to service. But the practices also have to optimize time and cost requirements.

An amateur or DIYer doing his own install and his own service has a different persperctive and different drivers. He also wants a safe, reliable and effective system, but time and cost pressures may not be at the top of the list. If he sees ways to make the system work better for him, why begrudge that, even if it bends some professional practices?

I have almost 80 electrical circuits in my house, with a LOT of home runs and half-filled conduits to the breaker panels. It meets or exceeds code, and I'd put the workmanship up against a professional job any time, but I know there are professional electricians who would roll their eyes. For me though, my frequent changes and adds are a breeze, so should I care?

When an amateur wants to deviate from accepted standard practices, because they think they can do better, they are, in essense, insulting the entire trade that established the standard practices. So consider all the barbs as just what was being asked for. Standard practices, when correctly followed, emphasize long system life and ease of maintenance. This is only logical, because qualified service personnel are in short supply, and the better the initial installations are, the more systems can be cared for.

The best advice comes to those who actually take the time to register on the site and provide their location, since techniques and code requirements vary from place to place.

Boots--

Your picture of a poorly executed idea reflects on the workmanship, not necessarily the idea.

Having said that, I think I see a germ of reason among your insults. It's true that a service peraon would need access to the house to work on the system. I didn't really consider this since I do virtually all work myself, and I almost always have access to the house. The inconvenience to some future owner doesn't concern me much, but now I'm thinking forward to my dotage when I can't or don't want to do that kind of work any more.

This is a valid consideration, though it really just puts the sprinkler system in the same category as most of the rest of the plumbing in the house.

Thank you. Got anything else besides the "not how a pro would do it" stuff?

Hey Wetboots, Nice Photo photo worth a million words.



Don't They need an RPZ or RP in that application?



Todd

How about you spend a few decades servicing lawn sprinkler systems? Then come back and tell the world how things should be done. Why are you afraid to man up and deal with a lawn sprinkler system that is installed to the professional standards of long system life and long-term ease of servicing? Long-term means after you are dead and gone, and the house is in the possession of someone who does not appreciate having to stay home all day waiting for a repaiman who will have to waste time and homeowner money tramping up and down basement stairs to deal with problems that could be solved more quickly and conveniently from outside.

Maybe you want to install the valves in the master bedroom, so you can just roll out of bed and have at them whenever you wish?

How about you lecture the trade on how they should change their standard installation practices? Tell us what those voices in your head are instructing you to do, and why the whole world should follow your shining example.

I tried my best, Boots, to get you to be specific about exactly why this approach is a bad idea. I really wanted to know. Instead of offering any concrete reasoning, you repeatedly fell back to just saying it's not professional standard practice. Obviously I knew that in the first place, hence my question.

Also, the unprovoked personal attacks are the mark of someone who maybe doesn't know as much as he implies he does.

Is there anyone else out there who could weigh in on the original question?

Quoted from "ed_h"

Boots--

I'm still not getting concrete reasons why you think it is a bad idea other than it's not the way a pro would do it. Pros have economic and time pressures to consider. Those things are less important to me.

I believe that the approach I described would give longer valve life, and the system would be easier to drain, purge, and generally maintain. And I certainly would include backflow prevention.

So what specifically, aside from standard parctice or professional convention issues, are the gotchas in this approach? I wouldn't pursue this with you if I didn't think you knew what you were talking about.

How about we just call you Special Ed? You're too special to follow established practices that emphasize long system life and ease of servicing. The voices in your head have a better plan.

It is far easier to believe that you are a visiting professional, playing a troll on an internet forum, than an amateur with an honest question.

Remember to take lots of photos.

Boots--

I'm still not getting concrete reasons why you think it is a bad idea other than it's not the way a pro would do it. Pros have economic and time pressures to consider. Those things are less important to me.

I believe that the approach I described would give longer valve life, and the system would be easier to drain, purge, and generally maintain. And I certainly would include backflow prevention.

So what specifically, aside from standard parctice or professional convention issues, are the gotchas in this approach? I wouldn't pursue this with you if I didn't think you knew what you were talking about.

Quoted from "eh_h"

Boots--

I appreciate the input. Your objections to the idea seem to center around two areas: consequenses of leaks if there were no floor drain, and that it's not the way it's done.

I mentioned that I have a floor drain, and, while I generally respect standard practices, surely there are situations where deviations from them make good sense.

I was looking for some concrete reasons why this approach is a bad idea in my situation.

If your situation is to need to feel "special" by doing "special" things, then go nuts. Take lots of photos and post them. Then all the pros can check it out and have a good laugh. You haven't mentioned what backflow prevention you would be using. Maybe you will also be "special" and leave that out of the system.

If you are looking for someone to enable you in your quest for stupidity, I can't help you. You make absolutely no case for not following standard practices, and if you spend the next year trying, you still won't make a case. Every year we encounter idiotically installed amateur systems that cost over a thousand dollars to make right.