A project that I assumed would take the better part of 6 hours turned into a 2 day marathon. I had a Sago Palm in the flower bed in front of the house. The snow storm we had last year damaged it severely, so I dug it out. The wife wanted a tiered flower bed in that spot, so I put one in. The only issue is that I do not water flowers, and I know she will not either. So I decided to add a zone to the sprinkler system.
I started by digging a trench from the flower bed to the backyard near the main manifold for the sprinkler system. and installing a drip irrigation manifold in the new zone.
Saturday I dug the old box for the front and back yard zones out, and exposed the manifold. I located the main line, cut it, and put a T-Fitting in for the new zone.
Then I had to get power to the new valve... this is where I ran into issues. I will spare all the details, but will just state, that because of my oversight 5 years ago, one of the wires that was unused in the sprinkler wire harness had an open, the very wire that I needed for the new zone was dead, Dead, DEAD....which meant I had to replace the entire wire - all 150" of it... I had to trench under the sidewalk to get the new wire to the garage. Do'h!
After I got the power sorted out, I put a new box around zones 1 and 2. Then gave the new zone, Zone 4 it's own single box.
Cleaned up, and made it inside right before the rain started.
Yesterday as I was racing the sun my wife asked why didn't I just pay someone to do it. My response was something about gratification from doing it myself.
I do know this. If I ever want to add another zone that involves running new wires, I will pay someone.
[
I started by digging a trench from the flower bed to the backyard near the main manifold for the sprinkler system. and installing a drip irrigation manifold in the new zone.
Saturday I dug the old box for the front and back yard zones out, and exposed the manifold. I located the main line, cut it, and put a T-Fitting in for the new zone.
Then I had to get power to the new valve... this is where I ran into issues. I will spare all the details, but will just state, that because of my oversight 5 years ago, one of the wires that was unused in the sprinkler wire harness had an open, the very wire that I needed for the new zone was dead, Dead, DEAD....which meant I had to replace the entire wire - all 150" of it... I had to trench under the sidewalk to get the new wire to the garage. Do'h!
After I got the power sorted out, I put a new box around zones 1 and 2. Then gave the new zone, Zone 4 it's own single box.
Cleaned up, and made it inside right before the rain started.
Yesterday as I was racing the sun my wife asked why didn't I just pay someone to do it. My response was something about gratification from doing it myself.
I do know this. If I ever want to add another zone that involves running new wires, I will pay someone.
[
