DIY Instructions - How to install sprinklers

All you need to know about installing a pop-up sprinkler system yourself.

The best way you can get your head around how to install pop up sprinklers for your lawn is to watch the following video. 
 

Installing sprinklers for your lawn

The following instructions will make more sense if you watch the video first.
 

Step 1 - Design your system

Use our DIY irrigation planner tool to draw up and design your watering system, or have it designed by us.
 

Step 2 - Digging the trenches

Dig trenches around your proposed lawn area so that you can lay poly pipe from your water source/tap to connect each sprinkler. This will typically be a trench around the outside of the lawn. Once you have had your irrigation system designed, or know where the sprinklers are going to be positioned, you should have a fairly good idea of where the trenches will be. The trenches will need to be at least 150mm deep, depending on which type of sprinkler you use.
 

Step 3 - Position the sprinklers​

You’ll notice on your plan that each sprinkler location has been marked. They’ll all be a certain distance apart so go around and place each sprinkler in its correct location. Use a measuring tape as it's important to get this accurate.
 

Step 4 - Install the mainline(s)

Roll out poly pipe in the trenches you have dug. For most domestic lawns, this is a 19mm size. Start at your tap or water source, then work around to the end of each line. Be careful not to get dirt inside the poly pipe - it's a good idea to tape up the ends until you're ready to connect the sprinklers.
 

Step 5 - Connect the sprinklers

The way to connect a sprinkler to the main line is to use a threaded poly fitting. They have a barb to connect the pipe and a thread to connect the sprinkler. Mark on the pipe where you want the sprinkler to connect and then cut the pipe, slide on the fitting, put a couple of ratchet clamps on to stop it popping off, then screw on the sprinkler.

The sprinkler should sit at the same height as your edge, so pack some soil under it and around it to hold it in just the right position, as close as possible to the edge. You don't need any thread seal tape to seal these fittings and because it's a tapered thread - hand tight is good enough.
 

Step 6 - Adjust and tune the sprinklers

Once you’re happy with the position of the sprinklers, you’ll need to fine-tune them to make sure they are spraying in the right direction. This also helps reduce any overspray into areas where you don't want water. 

It's a good idea to turn the system on at this point to test for leaks and to make sure each sprinkler is spraying properly before you fill the trenches in. It's also good practice to remove the sprinkler nozzle from the last sprinkler on each line so that when you turn the system on for the first time, any dirt that has made its way into the lines is able to be flushed out.