I noticed a few weeks ago that the ground around the irrigation valve was wet so I put a bucket under it to determine how badly it was leaking. Nothing annoys Mike more than wasting water or energy so this project shot to the top of the list once we determined that the leak was significant.
The long side of our house is most exposed to the elements so it didn't surprise me that this valve was the first to go. Here is what we started with:
Not knowing what we really needed, we headed down to the HD to figure it out and were pretty much amazed at the entire isle devoted to irrigation systems.
We weren't sure exactly what we needed so we picked up some spare parts and extra PVC since they were all pretty cheap. The most important thing is to know what size PVC your irrigation system uses since everything you buy will depend on that. The most common seems to be 1" or 3/4" and ours was the latter.
After we got everything home, Mike turned off the water, cut away the old system, and began to 'dry fit' the new one. It's important to figure out how everything fits together before applying the glue because once that's on, it's permanent.
1) Christy's Red Hot Blue Glue (no primer needed for this stuff)
2) Anti-Siphon Valve
3) Female Adapters (we had already connected them to the valve - don't forget the teflon tape!)
4) Extra 3/4" PVC
5) Slip Elbows
6) Couplers
7) Ratcheting PVC Cutters
After gluing it all together and turning the water back on, we are happy to announce that it is
Can you maybe paint it to be the same colour as the house? Or maybe build a little lattice work around it? Yay for fixing things!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we don't have any extra paint for the exterior of the house otherwise I think that would help it blend in. We are planning to do a lot of planting as soon as it warms up a little bit - maybe box hedges in this little space?
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