pasadena_commut
Well-Known Member
Our main water line was replaced a few months back and that cut the pipe leading to the sprinkler manifold in the front yard. A picture of that manifold taken from the side is in this old post:
https://www.plumbingforums.com/threads/leaking-irrigation-valve.12706/post-96402
The sprinkler bodies are 6" (plus or minus a fraction of an inch) apart (center to center). The input side is old galvanized and that has to go. Probably replace all of the valves with Superior 800 - did that in one place in the backyard and it works well with this old Champion body. The front yard is in direct sun half the day and one of the plastic valves has already failed spectacularly - luckily we were home to turn off the resulting under-eave geyser. Nothing wrong with the outlet side so I don't see any reason to replace that. There is an unused, and currently capped, 1" ball valve available on the new line which faces towards these valves and is parallel to the house front wall. Unfortunately thanks to SoCal Gas "helpfully" moving the gas meter from the curb to "the side of the house", which was actually the center of the front of the house, there is now a big standard gas meter partially in the way. The gas company ran those pipes up and over the water pipes. Sounds ugly, is ugly. There are also two big bushes between the ball valve and the sprinkler valves. So a pipe of some sort needs to be routed to the wall, under the gas piping, along the wall to the vicinity of the meters and then into a new manifold.
For the manifold itself I was going to use schedule 40 PVC, primer, and glue, with unions below the part that screws into the inlet side of the valve body. (There is already a union at the outlet side of each valve body.) Or is there a better/newer plumbing system for this? Whatever is used, the biggest factor is that it won't blow out, since it would be full power right off the main line and could dig a big hole right next to (and maybe under) the foundation and front walk pretty quickly.
The other big question is what sort of pipe to use from the valve to the new manifold. The gardeners are none too careful with their string trimmers and hedge clippers, so the pipe needs to be able to shrug off a hit if it is above ground. Going underground would eliminated that risk (except from the ball valve to the dirt) but would mean digging out those two big bushes. I'll do that if I have to. It won't be fun since the roots are certainly wrapped around the old galvanized pipe. I'm not familiar with the plumbing standards for how close an irrigation pipe like this can be to the house, or how deep it must be. On some neighbor's houses I see this sort of pipe running along the surface of the front wall, a few inches to a foot off the ground. No idea if this is code compliant. All the prior irrigation PVC work I have done is on pipe which is only charged when the sprinklers are going and breaks have not been a big problem. Here the pipe will be pressurized all the time so a break could be catastrophic.
Thanks for any suggestions, links, and so forth.
https://www.plumbingforums.com/threads/leaking-irrigation-valve.12706/post-96402
The sprinkler bodies are 6" (plus or minus a fraction of an inch) apart (center to center). The input side is old galvanized and that has to go. Probably replace all of the valves with Superior 800 - did that in one place in the backyard and it works well with this old Champion body. The front yard is in direct sun half the day and one of the plastic valves has already failed spectacularly - luckily we were home to turn off the resulting under-eave geyser. Nothing wrong with the outlet side so I don't see any reason to replace that. There is an unused, and currently capped, 1" ball valve available on the new line which faces towards these valves and is parallel to the house front wall. Unfortunately thanks to SoCal Gas "helpfully" moving the gas meter from the curb to "the side of the house", which was actually the center of the front of the house, there is now a big standard gas meter partially in the way. The gas company ran those pipes up and over the water pipes. Sounds ugly, is ugly. There are also two big bushes between the ball valve and the sprinkler valves. So a pipe of some sort needs to be routed to the wall, under the gas piping, along the wall to the vicinity of the meters and then into a new manifold.
For the manifold itself I was going to use schedule 40 PVC, primer, and glue, with unions below the part that screws into the inlet side of the valve body. (There is already a union at the outlet side of each valve body.) Or is there a better/newer plumbing system for this? Whatever is used, the biggest factor is that it won't blow out, since it would be full power right off the main line and could dig a big hole right next to (and maybe under) the foundation and front walk pretty quickly.
The other big question is what sort of pipe to use from the valve to the new manifold. The gardeners are none too careful with their string trimmers and hedge clippers, so the pipe needs to be able to shrug off a hit if it is above ground. Going underground would eliminated that risk (except from the ball valve to the dirt) but would mean digging out those two big bushes. I'll do that if I have to. It won't be fun since the roots are certainly wrapped around the old galvanized pipe. I'm not familiar with the plumbing standards for how close an irrigation pipe like this can be to the house, or how deep it must be. On some neighbor's houses I see this sort of pipe running along the surface of the front wall, a few inches to a foot off the ground. No idea if this is code compliant. All the prior irrigation PVC work I have done is on pipe which is only charged when the sprinklers are going and breaks have not been a big problem. Here the pipe will be pressurized all the time so a break could be catastrophic.
Thanks for any suggestions, links, and so forth.
