Remove Irrigation system - Are there wires?

4 years ago

I have been converting the backyard into a garden. No lawn. The irrigation system the house came with is pretty much under an extra foot or so down under all the compost and mulch I brought in.

Today, as I was digging out a bed, I cracked one of the pipes. It doesn't seem to leak beyond the initial contents of the pipe. I am guessing water supply to it is off until you turn on the system at the box in the garage.

Question is, can I just trench out all the PVC myself? Are there wires down in the earth? Are they hot? What makes the heads go up and down, is it just the water pressure?

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Comments (5)

krnuttle
4 years ago
I think there is another question you should be asking, and that is will you ever need to irrigate you garden?

If the answer is yes, and it probably is in most parts, you could add riser so that you could either use it as a spraying system or add a value so you would have water to various parts of the garden.

As for wires, the only wires in the system should go to the control box which should be near the source of the water.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years ago
Since pop-up irrigation is a great way to water a lawn but a very poor way to irrigate any planting beds or vegetable gardens, I see no reason not to remove any PVC piping you encounter. Unless you want to go to the trouble to covert to a low emission or drip system. But irrigation of those types of plantings can also be addressed by soaker hoses or by hand watering.

And yes, no live electrical wiring to be encountered except at the controller. There is this thing you should know about water and electricity......... 😖
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Sigrid
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Ther are a ton of videos on YouTube about sprinkler systems. Find and watch. You'll certainly find ones about installing a system like yours . You can convert your system to drip. xing a hole in pvc pipe is easy. I've done it and I'm about the least handy person around.

My system has a controller box in the detached garage and a bunch of valves (with electrical wires) on the other side of the house, under the porch -- quite a distance away.
mojavemaria
4 years ago
We've pulled up a lot of old pvc piping and replaced with drip tubing - you will not be electrocuted! As was said above the wires should only be from your control box to your valves and you can use the same valves and control box with drip as you do with sprinklers so long as they are in good shape. If they are old they are not expensive and it might be best to start fresh.

We have all our landscaping on drip including a vegetable garden on drip tape and it works really well.
kudzu9
4 years ago
There are wires in your yard that go from the controller box to each valve in the yard... but these are all low voltage wires, so no danger of you getting hurt even if they were live. And, anyway ,they get no voltage if the controller is set to off.