Lawn irrigation system

[Lars (midessa)]

Trying to revitalize a long dormant(30+years) lawn sprinkler system.

Any ‘tricks of the trade’ to help locate buried sprinkler heads/junction boxes?

System was installed using grey plastic water pipe.

I can’t see any evidence of the system ever having an electronic control box, nor can I locate the main water supply from under the house(house is pier & beam) going out to the lawn.

Were the early generation of systems controlled manually? Can’t locate(yet) the junction box(s) out in the lawn. Thanks in advance.

[hardtail]

Mine was a dozen beer 🍻 

[Lazy WP]

Most likely manually controlled. If you are good at witching you might be able to find something. 

[VacDaddyt]

Water source has to come from somewhere. that would be my starting point.

[Ihfan4life]

8 minutes ago, VacDaddyt said:

Water source has to come from somewhere. that would be my starting point.

This ^^^

Is it plumbed directly from the well? Or, if you can find a sprinkler head can you back feed it with water or air to locate the supply point?

[Lars (midessa)]

10 minutes ago, Ihfan4life said:

This ^^^

Is it plumbed directly from the well? Or, if you can find a sprinkler head can you back feed it with water or air to locate the supply point?

City water. I have ‘back fed’ 1 zone with water, located 2 other heads on that zone. Evidently the zones must be shut off at the buried junction(s). Still can’t locate the main supply.

I’m not ruling out an unknown ‘water well’ on this property, but that would require a power source(if still hooked up).

[edwardporter1]

Try dowsing the lines. Bent coat hanger will work right angle bend hold one in each hand . They will move when you get on top of the line. No magic to do it.  Metal or plastic lines  doesn't matter how deep

[td9inidaho]

My thinking is there has to be a control box somewhere, or they had a line attached to an outside frost free supply from the house. Depends on how big the system is, how many sprinklers, it could be operated off one faucet. Or, a possible extra well, or controller they activated by flipping a dedicated breaker. Anything extra in the breaker box?  I put my system in 30 years ago, has multiple stages to it, 2 control boxes, one controller inside. Metal detector should if nothing else, find buried elect wires, and the valves in a possibly buried box.  Most cities will require anti reverse valves installed.  Good luck , can't wait to hear how this turns out 

Mark

[Lars (midessa)]

There must be a piping junction box somewhere. No evidence of the system having electronic valves. I’m thinking manual valves somewhere. Did notice a 1 1/4 water line laying on the ground under the house that appears to go under the foundation wall to the outside, but haven’t moved any soil yet on the out side of the fountain. Can’t see the other end of that pipe on the far side of the crawl space(gonna have to hire a skinny kid to crawl under my house). Opened the city water box, only 1” supply from meter to fountain wall, then up over foundation wall(outside the house)then into house utility room. It’s possible that 1” line from meter may T  with that 1 1/4 line underground just before entering the house. 

[Lars (midessa)]

The building permits for the original portion of the house is early 1920’s, so who knows what’s all been done here.

[Lars (midessa)]

Got back to this project on Friday, located a another zone, at far corner of property. This zone was hacked up when city ran new sewer, and water lines from street to the house, 15+ years ago. 7 patches(so far), uncovered 2 ‘Aqua-Dial’ sprinkler heads, appears to be all brass, fixed style. 
Internet didn’t find much on this style sprinkler head, as for age, definitely out of stock(lol).

[searcyfarms]

3 minutes ago, Lars (midessa) said:

Got back to this project on Friday, located a another zone, at far corner of property. This zone was hacked up when city ran new sewer, and water lines from street to the house, 15+ years ago. 7 patches(so far), uncovered 2 ‘Aqua-Dial’ sprinkler heads, appears to be all brass, fixed style. 
Internet didn’t find much on this style sprinkler head, as for age, definitely out of stock(lol).

how about injecting air? less messy when it leaks and you can hear the hissing from up thru the ground if its not too bad of a leak, we have used that to see where things go or find leaks/blocks/terminations/valve etc....

[Lars (midessa)]

I have kinda tried that, but I don’t have a locking air chuck(well I do but can’t find the damn thing). Also for my situation, the air compressor noise drowns out the hissing noise, and our ground here, if dry is rock hard lol.

[td9inidaho]

I find it odd someone would tee in a 1 1/4 line into a 1 inch line, wouldn't that drop the pressure?  Not sure what your beginning pressure is. Also, if you have access to the broken lines, perhaps run , somehow hook a hose up to one, see where it goes, pops sprinklers, and see the line of sprinklers, or "wet" spots from more leaks, just trying to help. 

Mark 

[Lars (midessa)]

1 minute ago, td9inidaho said:

I find it odd someone would tee in a 1 1/4 line into a 1 inch line, wouldn't that drop the pressure?  Not sure what your beginning pressure is. Also, if you have access to the broken lines, perhaps run , somehow hook a hose up to one, see where it goes, pops sprinklers, and see the line of sprinklers, or "wet" spots from more leaks, just trying to help. 

Mark 

My thought process also, I have tapped into one of the broken lines, and have been pressuring the system ‘backwards’ in a way. Still have not located any junction boxes, or the source for the system. I will have to check on the ‘city side’ of the water meter box what size pipe comes in from the street, its possible the piping was downsized from the meter to the house.