Back valves done

Our back valves for the irrigation system were almost as bad as our front ones. We had replaced those earlier and decided to tackle the back this weekend. To see why, check out the videos below. There were several problems:

1. The back irrigation system did not work with the timer in the garage so they had to be turned on manually.

 

2. When you did run the big sprinklers for the hill manually, it squirt water out (above) and filled the irrigation box pretty quickly. 

 

3. When you were done manually running the sprinklers and turned them off, they would back flow. That means when you close the valve that stops new water from going through the pipes out into sprinklers all the water that was in the pipes flows back to the valve. That means water pours out of them and into the same irrigation box that was already flooded (above).  

 

4. All that water is just when you run the two systems for the hill in the backyard. Then you run the sprinklers for the lawn (above) and it squirts again. 

All of that water fills the irrigation box, also called a christy box. The valves were actually  below patio level and the box is supposed to keep back the dirt that surrounds it. That works if the box is intact. Ours was wood and decomposing so when the box filled with water it also filled with dirt. After a week or so of manually watering the backyard we essentially buried the valves. The dirt level in the box rose at least 4 inches. 

The repair process started with digging. The whole area was filled with those lovely white rocks that will some day be leaving my backyard. We had to move all of those and the old wood box. That meant rusty nails sticking out of decomposing pieces of wood we were trying to pull apart with our bare hands (we lost the hammer somewhere). We found some interesting things while digging. There were abandoned pieces of PVC pipe that were filled with dirt that might have been from an old set-up that they just cut off and left there or they were at one time meant as supports for what was left. Either way, not normal. We also found random bits of glass, wood, nails, and electrical tape which meant there were wires. 

We did find two large clusters of wires that were not the low voltage usually used in irrigation. So there was the big question, "Are they live? Where do they go?" We found the same cluster coming out of the wall on the side of the house so we were able to establish that they weren't live but we have no idea what the once were from. 

It took a lot of digging and ended up being a big mess. The hole we were digging was 3 feet by 3 feet and we estimated the final depth to be about 3 feet as well. Most of that was hand troweled. We usually hand troweled around the valves and pipes and then tried to get it into the section that was clear, about 12" wide, to shovel out. The annoying part about the hand troweling was that it was not only slow but we were digging below where we were sitting. Sometimes it was just easier to lay on our stomachs and do it.

We had to dig a lot of dirt out and pretty quick we hit mud. Make that Bollinger Clay that never dries out. We were double fisting trowels; one to dig and the other to scrape the first clean of mud so you can dig again. The mud would stick to the trowel so badly that we couldn't dig again and actually move any dirt other wise. Don't let the pictures fool you, I was in there digging, too.

The whole process was a lot like excavating a dig site. We kept finding surprises, like the bundle of wires. We would find pipe and think it was part of the system, only to find it was only a few inches long and abandoned. We eventually did find the pipes that go under the lawn to the rest of the system but they were strangely set up. All of the pipes were laying on top of each other and fit awkwardly around each other. There was also a mix of 1"and 3/4" pipe was well as PVC and brass fittings. Again, we have no idea why. Which is always a great place to be in with your irrigation, "I have no idea why its like that." That means, it all comes out. 

A few hacksaw strokes later and the whole tangled, rusty mess was out of that hole. That left a few pipes going different ways than we wanted still in the hole. And the hole was filled with water again from the water that been in the pipes until we cut them apart. We ended up bailing the water out with one of the baby's sand bucket into a bigger bucket so that Mike could dump it somewhere else.

Of course taking it all apart took the time we had for Saturday. We attacked the rest of it today. Which meant multiple trips to Home Depot and OSH. When we went to Home Depot I asked someone where the christy boxes were. At first the two workers just stared at me so I thought maybe they were out of their aisle of expertise and didn't know what it was. Nope, they were just shocked that I knew what it was. This is the second time that an employee has actually done a double take when I've asked for something. I'm used to hardware store workers being surprised with my questions ("I need a sheet of pure aluminum and 10 feet of tubing that will fit marbles") because I teach Physics. But it is still a little strange when they do a double take and have a "Whaaaattt???" look on their face right out of a cartoon.

Looking at the mess we made, we knew we had a lot to do today. Mike spent a lot of time cutting and placing, gluing, etc. Eventually it all fit together nicely and we were able to test it manually, without a flood. Once we established that it worked we shoveled all the dirt back in. That meant hand picking all the junk out of it, removing the rocks and rescuing baby lizards. This time around we also had help.

The first day the baby had been at my parents, today she was with us. She was entertained for a long while with her new play house, but then she decided we looked like we were having too much fun. Its kind of hard to fill a huge hole when you've got a toddler around. When the rake wasn't fun enough she went after daddy's tools, including wire cutters, a hoe, PVC pliers, etc. Our neighbors must think we don't let her play with anything because I swear all we say is, "Katherine, that's a No No!" The rocks and dirt pile looked fun to climb on which also make it hard to fill.

Eventually though, we got it filled and its all done.  Of course, its still not wired to the irrigation timing system but that's a project for another day.