Installing A Lawn Sprinkler System Requires Serious Planning

Lawn sprinkler systems are great labor savers for Minneapolis home owners once they are installed, but the actual installation involves more labor than the average person realizes, and a lot of planning.

There are guides available at your local home improvement stores to help design an adequate system. But, if you have more than a simple rectangular yard with a few shrubs, they may not help you develop a system that provides the proper coverage to all areas. To design a good Minneapolis lawn sprinkler system, you'll need to consider the different watering requirements of various plants and shrubs.

After you determine the static and flowing water pressures and the available flow rate, you’ll decide on whether spray-type or rotary-type sprinkler heads are best. Either may be used in some applications, but only one or the other will do the job in a different situation. Rotary heads can reach farther, but require a higher water pressure; spray heads don’t reach as far, but can work with lower pressures.

When you’ve determined the number, type and placement of sprinkler heads for proper coverage, you can divide your system into zones, each zone being sized to not exceed the available water flow. You will need to calculate the pipe sizes needed to allow for the pressure drop through each section of your lawn sprinkler system.

The sales clerk at your home improvement store may be able to help you with some of these calculations, but since you are making an investment that should serve you for many years to come, you might be better off seeking the advice of a qualified sprinkler system installer.

Once you have your system, you will find that it will free up much of your time, while it helps maintain a beautiful lawn and garden. For more information on this subject, you can read the article, “What You Should Know Before Installing ALawn Sprinkler System.”