Step Three – Sprinkler Value Upgrade

Day 3 of my Southern California Japanese Garden Project was dedicated to upgrading the current Sprinkler Values.

I should point out that these days are generally separated by weekends and in some cases multiple weekends, they just reflect project days.

I have 3 sets of sprinkler values in my yard, each assigned to a separate yard section; one of the front yard, one for the back and one for the side yard where my Japanese Garden will be located.

While I had replaced the backyard values during my back yard pool project, my side and front yard values are still part of the original sprinkler system that is probably more than 20 years old. The values are old and leaky and the piping is lead which then attaches to PVC sprinkler piping once it’s underground. The values have been leaking for the past year and considering they are located right up against my house and foundation, it made sense to completely replace the value system and avoid having to back track to replacing these later in the project.

First, I dug up and removed the entire value system and cut the existing PVC pipes that led from the Values to the sprinkler systems. There were originally 4 values but two of them are no longer necessary as they sprinkler pipes were part of the back yard system and were capped off when we added on to the house.

For the two remaining necessary values, I purchased new PVC, two new values, and PVC glue from Home Depot to construct the new value system. I also changed out the old water facet and pipe fittings that attached the system to the water pipe that was coming out of the house. For this I simply removed the original fittings, replaced with new ones. If you look closely at the picture you can see that I used a t-fitting to allow water to flow to either the hose facet or through he value shut off towards the sprinkler system.

Once constructed, I let the newly cemented pipes sit for 24 hours and them pressured tested them by turning on each value.

Once the test proved the values and piping were leak free, I covered the piping with the dirt dug up to originally expose them.

Constructing a sprinkler system is actually much easier than you would think. An entire sprinkler system is managed through a value connected via a pipe to your existing water faucet/supply generally by an outdoor hose hookup. The valve acts as the on/off switch to open and close allowing water to flow from your faucet/supply through PVC pipe to a sprinkler located in your yard. The value can be manually control or you can run wiring from the value to the controller so that you can set the sprinklers run automatically at set times

For my project, the electrical wires were already run for the old system, so I simply needed to replace the value system and reattached the wires.

As you can see from the pictures, I left a section of additional PVC off to the right of the second value in case I want to add an additional value and sprinklers at a later date.