Attack of the Irrigation System

So I thought I'd be a nice hubbie this morning and run out to get the paper for Sweetie. It was actually supposed to hit freezing last night, so I braced myself for the cold, dark dash to the curb.  I opened the door to realize it was raining, lovely. As I raced out from under the awning, in my flannel PJ pants, and ran down the bone-dry walkway, my sleep addled brain to turned me around to look for the single rain cloud parked over the front door. Instead, there was a geyser, spraying from the ground, raining ferociously on the roof.

It took a minute in the dark to find a irrigation line protruding from the ground with a nice little split in it. Craaaaaaaaaaap!  Happy New Year's, old bean. So much for a nice Daddy breakfast. I get to play in the mud at a balmy 36 degrees this morning.

"Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!"
                            -Phineas



See? I'm delighted!

I excavated the mess and found the line was basically scratched below the surface about 2" deep. There were two more holes in the same area, saturating the ground. All told, I pulled up about 15' of the tubing before I hit dry ground. I shut off the water flow at the irrigation timer. Dang it, I thought I heard it raining yesterday too. No wonder our water bill hadn't come down much after I fixed the valves. This rascal has probably been blasting away every morning while we are at work. I only noticed it due to the holiday. In the dark, I closed the wooden door covering our utility hookups and managed to snap the cover clean off the irrigation control box, ahhhhhhh,.... so 2013 is going to start like that, eh?

Yep. Deee-lighted!

I broke the news to Sweetie, got dressed and headed out; the sun was up. I hit the water on again at the controller. Yep, a busted 1/2 black line, just barely breaking the surface of our desert landscaped front yard. A gusher, but not black gold or Texas Tea here. Twenty minutes of this on a watering schedule is a bunch-o-water, down the tubes. There isn't even any plant life anywhere near it to benefit from the dousing. Probably just a nice clean spot on our roof.




Another little bonus I uncovered is a 1/2" PVC Electrical conduit. I have no idea where it's going, but it's not at 18" depth where it should be, more like 6". Nothing I can deal with today. I've never messed with this drip irrigation line before. It branches 1/8" runs out to little drip nozzles near the plants. I'll have to install two of these branches in the section I dug up. Off to Home Depot I go, 8:30 am on New Year's Day! Woooo Hoooo!

Sent a geek to do a man's job

At least Home Depot was open at 9:00; it was like a ghost town. Only obvious service technicians trolled the aisles, plumbers and electricians grabbing supplies for likely emergency calls. In my weather-beaten old Carhartt work jacket and my Sunstates Equipment rentals cap, I blended in nicely with the pro's. I gave one guy the classic manly nod and offered a, "How ya doin?" Yep, one of the pro's. At least I thought so, until I happened to glance down and notice I was still wearing my "Send in the Wookie" t-shirt I had slept in. Dork.

Exactly 1 bunch of stuff.

I was pleasantly surprised that compared to most DIY tasks I managed to grab a pretty big haul of material, including a ton of extra parts and pieces for future problems, for a pretty reasonable $29.54. Of course it's because it's mostly inexpensive plastic, but still it seems like even inexpensive plastic crap seems to quickly spike up to a hundred bucks or so every time I make a run for the store. I needed 15' of the tubing, I bought the smallest quantity available 50'. If I save it, I'll probably never need it. So, I'm saving it!

The tubing cut with a utility knife. The pressure couplings worked pretty good. Pressure held nicely. I used the little punch tool to poke a hole in the tubing, and stabbed the little 1/8" connectors in the side for the branch line. It's too easy. It took me longer to dig the hole and expose the line than it did for me to repair everything. With the water back on, everything held nicely, maybe a little sweat drop of leakage at the connections, but nothing serious.

I took a little time making sure there were no rocks against the tubing as I buried it a bit deeper than I found it. I filled in the trench, tamped it down a bit and took the rake to the area. DONE!!!

 

We were too hungry for a good old Daddy breakfast as planned, so I got cleaned up, loaded the family loaded into the truck and landed in line at IHOP by 10 am. Somehow, we squeaked in during a pause in the holiday rush. I was eating a meat-infused Colorado omelet, hash browns, and hot coffee before 10:45. This has got to be a record for a household emergency repair for me, especially one I started without any prior experience.

Happy New Year to all!