| So have you finally have given up on hand watering | | | | Then we need to cut one of the sprays in half and |
| and want a in-ground system? Designing a sprinkler | | | | another in quarters for smaller areas. Since our |
| system may be easier than you think. | | | | Rotors allow adjustable spray angles we can keep |
| In this short tutorial you will learn how to create a | | | | certain areas dry by simply spraying outward. |
| simple garden plan and then estimate how much | | | | Tracing your spray patterns |
| conduit and sprinkler heads you will need for your | | | | Start with areas like the edge of house, patios or |
| project. | | | | edge of street and use the half circles. With the |
| Plotting your garden area | | | | spray templates simply trace around them using a |
| First, find a some graph paper. If you don't have any | | | | pencil. |
| you can Google "printable graph paper" and prnt the | | | | Each spray pattern should overlap at least 30% to |
| example images. Depending on the size of your yard, | | | | ensure no areas in your lawn or garden will become |
| establish the scale by referring to each square as 2 | | | | dry. Once all half circles are drawn, fill in middle areas |
| or more feet. | | | | with full sprays and quarter spays where needed. |
| Next, you will want to measure and draw your house | | | | Defining your watering zones |
| and patio areas. Be sure to include side walks and | | | | Lastly, we need to draw in the conduit and create |
| other obstructions like trees and garden borders as | | | | watering zones. Starting at your spigot, draw a |
| well. | | | | gradual curve from one head to the next, making |
| Locating your water source | | | | sure your conduit never overlaps. Be sure to avoid |
| Once you have define these areas and your garden | | | | tight turns in your design. |
| boundary you will need to locate your water source. | | | | For this tutorial we will use 3 heads for each zone. By |
| For this DIY project we will be using your outside | | | | connecting a series of 3 heads together you are |
| spigot as the water source. Locate these on your | | | | establishing one watering zone. Repeat this process |
| plan with an "X". | | | | to the remaining heads on your plan. |
| Choosing a sprinkler head | | | | Checking your Psi and Gpm |
| Now we will need to decide on what kind of sprinkler | | | | You will also want to check your Psi and GPM levels. |
| head to use. In this tutorial we have selected Rotors | | | | A call to your water company will give you a good |
| for our project. These are a rotating gear driven | | | | idea of how good your water coverage will be. |
| heads and are a great choice for large lawn areas. | | | | Other methods include using a pressure guage (it |
| Rotor heads silently spray a water stream out to an | | | | easily attaches to your faucet) and a gallon bucket |
| average distance of 20 feet. They will minimize the | | | | (For example if it takes 7 seconds to fill a gallon |
| amount of conduit required for you project. | | | | bucket then divided 60 by 7 .. or 8.6 GPM) |
| Creating spray templates | | | | In Conclusion |
| Next, we will create a spray template. On a separate | | | | We hope this tutorial has given you a better |
| peice of graph paper draw 4 circles with a diameter | | | | understanding about DIY Sprinkler Irrigation Design |
| (width of the circle) measuring 40 feet. Then cut | | | | and Planning. You may have discivered that planning |
| each circle out with a pair of scissors. (note: see our | | | | for a sprinkler system is much easier than you had |
| predrawn sprinkler templates to skip this step) | | | | originally thought. |