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Questions about adding drip to existing rain bird system

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jayhat

New Member

Posts: 2

1

Monday, April 9th 2012, 6:52pm

Questions about adding drip to existing rain bird system

Ok so this is a new house that was built about 7-8 months ago. There are a few things I wish I would have done in hindsight, but you know what they say about that. I am currently wanting to do some planting (easy to care for shrubs) around the house this spring and summer. The lawn already has an underground sprinkler system, but I want to run a line for some drip/soakers/small heads for shrubs and plants .



The main area I want to plant is up front, which unfortunately the farthest point from the sprinkler control/valves in the ground. From the box all the way around to the farthest front area, it’s about 200 feet. At some point I would like to add drip/soakers to each of the bed areas (left side,back, right side, and front).


My questions:

1) I think this is a no but can I split or “T off” existing sprinkler heads with smaller drip or shrub type sprinklers (if there is such thing)? I can’t take any of the existing ones out because I need them for the lawn. I think this would be a no because the watering times would be different, but it would be the easiest/best option.


2) Will 1 line ran around the house (thinking ½ probably) be enough for all 4 areas? Should I run 2? Any easier way that anyone can think of to get to the front of the house, aside from going ALL the way around? The driveway kind of killed it.


(couple more below - specific to the system I have)




This is the control until I have:

ESP Modular Indoor/Outdoor Timer -- http://store.rainbird.com/product/detail/F38000-M.aspx

It currently only has 1 module in it (3 free) but the 4 zones currently installed are taking up all the available spots in that module. I think I would need one of these; http://store.rainbird.com/product/detail/F38200.aspx- Is that correct?



The box in the ground outside of the garage has:

4 of these - http://store.rainbird.com/product/detail/A50806.aspx. It would seem that there is one valve per station. I would assume that I would need one more of these to run the water line to the front of the house, right?




This is the rough layout of the
house/yard:

Red lines = curbing
Dark red = rock/bed
Green = grass
Black box = sprinkler control and valve
box
Gray = concrete (driveway/patio)
Yellow = house/garage


This post has been edited 2 times, last edit by "jayhat" (Apr 9th 2012, 7:55pm)

Central Irrigation

Supreme Member

Posts: 364

Location: Central Minnesota

2

Monday, April 9th 2012, 7:30pm

1: You can run drip off of an existing zone line. But, like you stated, you will lose any control over how you water the plants. Planting beds should be on their own zone. However, I've run drip lines off of lawn zones many times due to cost concerns. Some water is better than none.
2: If you were to run a 1" line from the valve to each of the planting areas and branch off with the drip you be just fine.
You would only need to go around the patio with the 1"
I would tap off the lawn zones and run micro drip emitters for the plants. They use minute amts. of water and you would probably not even see a difference in zone performance. If it were my system, it'd be on a seperate valve.

jayhat

New Member

Posts: 2

3

Monday, April 9th 2012, 8:02pm

Thanks for your response. Sorry for the formatting too, not sure what happened when I pasted that in. Cleaned it up a little.

I am thinking that I may just do that for now (t off existing heads in the needed areas). Any advice on what particular heads I would use if I did "T off" the sprinklers that were there? I went and looked at lowes today and was a little overwhelmed. Looked like there were some stake ones that misted and some that dripped? Any certain one better than the other if I do go the "cheap" route (T off)?

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