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

Hi Gang,

First time posting here, but I feel as if I know a lot of you already as I have just spent the last 3 or so hours scouring the forums and posts looking for an answer to my problem. I apologize ahead of time for the lengthy post that follows...

I live in far North Texas and this past winter we had one week of really intense freezing cold that ended up busting my PVB. I had the sprinkler system turned off at the time, but I had not winterized it since it's extremely rare that we get weather that cold here, so I learned lesson #1...ALWAYS winterize the sprinkler system. Lesson #2: physically check things out after a deep freeze, because had I done that, I would not have arrived home from work one afternoon to hear the sound of what seemed like Niagra Falls in my backyard!

When the weather started warming up a bit, I ordered a new valve, from SW of course, took the guts out of it and placed it in the old valve body. I turned the water back on, fired up the system, and checked sprinkler head operation. No apparent problems and no leaking around the PVB. I then had it inspected and all seemed right with the world.

About a month ago my wife mentioned that our sprinkler system water bill showed some usage, even though we hadn't been running the system. When I checked it out, sure enough, there was a swampy section in my yard, so I figured that I had a busted pipe left over from the freeze. I finally got around to checking it out today and it appears that the leak is centered around a control valve (Weathermatic #N-100SF-H), but it's really difficult to tell where it's coming from. So I came here.

From my foray into the forums, I have come to the conclusion that my best and first course of action (after cleaning out the guts of the old), is to order another valve (exact copy), and replace the guts of the old with the guts of the new. I choose this course of action because I would like to avoid, at almost any cost, digging up my yard. I have an aversion to hard labor in my waning years (I'm 53), and it doesn't help that temps are close to 100 and humidy levels are through the roof!

However, if dig I must, then the best way to go about it is to remove the round box the valve is contained in, dig a hole big enough to work in, cut the PVC as close to the valve as possible, remove said valve, attach new valve to upstream side of PVC, then extend the downside to the valve using some type of coupler.

So...my question to you all is...Is this a logical course of action or am I missing a step or 5?

I thank you in advance for any thoughts, ideas, criticisms, be they good or bad . The object of my game is K.I.S.S., a concept some people have a hard time grasping.