How To Repair Pvc Sprinkler Pipe

Bert spent 25 years working equally a home-improvement and residential construction contractor in central Florida.

Just as there is with many problems in life, there is more than one manner to ready a broken sprinkler pipe. The appropriate method depends on the damaged department's location. For instance, a clean pause before the valve usually requires a hard pipe repair, while easier repair methods work fine when the damaged area occurs after the valve.

This guide will break down 5 different methods to repair a buried sprinkler pipe.

Geysers often erupt when a sprinkler pipe breaks before the zone valve. — Geysers often erupt when a sprinkler pipage breaks earlier the zone valve.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/scotnelson/

Locate and Expose the Damaged Pipe

Finding the leak is sometimes the most difficult office of this project. Patently some leaks are easier to find than others, such as a geyser that rips through the soil. In less obvious cases, a homeowner may but notice a pressure loss at the end of a zone. In this situation, plough on the leaking zone. Stand dorsum and compare the spray elevation of each sprinkler head. If you see a loss in water pressure between 2 sprinkler heads, suspect a leak betwixt these two heads. Go to the suspected area and await for overly saturated soil.

Remove the soil covering the cleaved sprinkler pipe with a shovel. When the tool's blade touches something difficult, stop digging with the shovel and expose well-nigh a two-foot-long department of the pipe with either your manus or small trowel. Clear a four- to six-inch deep trench under the sprinkler line. This gives the h2o inside the pipe a identify to drain.

Place the pipe size before shopping for repair fittings. The person at the hardware store does non know what size pipe you lot accept. Manufacturers print the pipe size on the side of the pipe. Unfortunately this is often hard to read when on older buried piping. If this is the case, wrap a piece of string around the pipe and make a marker where the end meets. Go the hardware store and utilise the string to identify the pipe size. If y'all experience the need to take chances on piping size, choose 3/four inch.

Saddle Repair Kit

Irrigation repair technicians apply a saddle repair kit to fix a croaky department of direct pipe, such equally when someone punctures a sprinkler pipe with a shovel. The pieces in these kits hug piping, not fittings; leaking fittings require a hard pipe repair. Some kits use a PVC saddle and cement, while others employ a safe gasket and metal clamps.

PVC Saddle way

Wipe the damaged area with a rag to remove mud and dry it. If water continues to seep from the suspension, turn off the water source and remove the closest sprinkler head. This releases the water pressure from the pipe.
Pigment the pipe with a PVC cleaner or primer. Using a PVC cleaner or primer helps ensure the repair kit bonds permanently onto the pipage.
Apply a liberal amount of cement to both the piping and the repair kit.
Position the kit's pieces over the damaged surface area and snap them together. Let the cement dry, using the time recommended by kit manufacturer as a guide, earlier leak testing.

Clamp Mode

Make clean the surface of the damaged pipage with a rag. Remove all clay and debris.
Slip the clench over the damaged area of the pipe. Position the clamp's condom gasket over the damaged area.
Assemble the clamp. Tighten the clamp's bolts with the right sized wrench. Plow on the water source to check for leaks.

Scroll to Continue

Flexible Coupling

Many homeowners love the copse in their yard. Unfortunately, every bit the roots abound, they push button up on whatsoever irrigation pipes running above them. Somewhen the tension causes the pipe to crack and leak. The root's upwardly force creates uneven pipes that sit down at odd angles to each other, making a hard piping repair difficult. To make matters worse, removing the offending root tin damage or kill the tree. A flexible coupling solves this issue without cutting the roots.

Lay the flexible coupling on the damaged piping and eye information technology over the split up in the pipe. Use the coupling to determine where to cut the pipage and mark the pipe with a pencil at the appropriate spots.
Cut piping on the pencil marks with PVC cutters. Remove any burrs with a pocketknife.
Let the water bleed from the pipage. Dry and clean both ends of pipe with a rag.
Use a liberal corporeality of wet-or-dry PVC cement to the both ends of the flexible coupling and the sprinkler pipe. Quickly motility to the next step.
Sideslip both ends of the coupling over their respective pipe ends. Twist the coupling back and forth about one/4 to 1/two plough. Let the cement dry, using the manufacturer'due south instructions as a guide, then leak test the repair.

Some technicians use a PVC compression fitting as a no-cement repair fitting.

Compression Coupling

Irrigation repair technicians looking for a no-glue fitting frequently choose to use a PVC compression coupling, sometimes called a dresser coupling. A PVC compression fitting uses safe gaskets as a mechanical sealant. When the technician tightens the fitting's nuts those nuts force the rubber rings into the void betwixt the pipe's outer surface and the plumbing equipment. If the fitting leaks, the technician simply tightens the nut some other half turn. Unfortunately, a PVC dresser fitting should not be used on a constant pressure pipe, such as the pipe feeding the valve. In that case, pick a different repair method.

Remove about ii inches of pipe. This cut does not need to be exact, just close.
Slide both dresser nuts over their corresponding ends of the pipe.
Piece of work both safe bushings onto their corresponding pipage ends. Push one rubber bushing most five inches abroad from the cutting stop of the pipe. Position the 2d prophylactic bushing about one inch from the end of its pipe.
Slip ane end of the dresser coupling over the pipe with the bushing placed five inches from the cease. Continue to adjust the fitting until the free stop clears the remaining pipe.
Position the stop of the pinch fitting against the safety bushing that sits one inch away from the pipe. This should center the coupling over the two-inch gap.
Slide the distant bushing toward the coupling until it touches the fitting. Both rubber bushings should now touch the fitting. Tighten both nuts with a wrench.
Turn the h2o force per unit area on and leak test. If the fitting leaks, place one wrench on the coupling and a second on the leaking nut. Hold the coupling still and turn the nut approximately i half plough. Repeat every bit necessary.

An expandable coupling works well in tight spaces.

Expanding Coupling

An expanding coupling, sometimes called a scope coupling, works well when replacing a leaking fitting located in a tight space, such equally inside a valve box. The stationary end of this fitting attaches directly to a section of pipe and the fitting'southward movable shaft slides into another piping plumbing equipment. Occasionally a repair technician completes a hard-pipe repair with an expandable coupling; however, this situation rarely happens due to the fitting's high cost.

Fully expand the coupling and measure its length. Subtract two inches from the measurement and transfer the calculation to the leaking sprinkler pipe.
Cut the sprinkler line at the appropriate spot with PVC cutters. Let the h2o draining from the pipe absorb into the footing before continuing.
Wipe the PVC pipe in the repair area with a dry rag. Removing all the dirt and debris from the pipe helps ensure a leak-gratis connection.
Adhere a PVC plumbing fixtures to the end of the pipe that accepts the expanding coupling's shaft. The type of plumbing equipment depends on the repair. If the shaft connects to a threaded valve port, glaze a male plumbing fixtures's threads with thread record earlier installing it on the valve. If the shaft slides into a coupling or other fitting, use PVC cement to both the pipe and fitting. Install the fitting on the pipe, using a twisting motility.
Fully compress the expanding coupling.
Apply cement to both the PVC pipe and the expandable plumbing equipment's coupling finish.
Mount the expanding coupling onto the pipe, using a twisting motion. The twisting motion blends the cement.
Comprehend the shaft's mating end and its fitting with PVC cement. Rapidly slide the shaft into the plumbing equipment. Rotate the shaft back and forth slightly. Follow the cement manufacturer's recommended curing time earlier leak testing.

Difficult Pipage Bridge

Occasionally information technology makes sense to build a difficult pipe bridge using PVC piping and fittings, such as when a sprinkler line passes over multiple growing tree roots or when the leak is located in an area too modest for other methods. The verbal blazon and amount of fittings needed depends on the state of affairs, however, most pipe bridges use iv 90-caste fittings and a department of pipe.

Dig a ditch beyond the unabridged repair expanse. This exposes all obstacles.
Cut the pipe on both ends of the repair with PVC cutters. Let the water bleed from the pipe and soak into the soil. Dry and clean the pipe ends with a dry out rag.
Adhere a xc-caste fitting to ane buried sprinkler pipage with PVC cement. Turn the fitting until its open up port faces up. Echo this on the other buried pipage. Both ninety-degree fittings must face the same direction.
Cut two risers from a length of PVC pipe. The length of the risers depends on the corporeality of height needed to clear the obstruction. It sometimes helps to lay a scrap piece of pipe on the obstacle in the trench and measure the distance from the bottom of the scrap to the top of the buried piping. Try to keep the risers equally small as possible. Cement a 90-degree fitting onto each riser.
Measure the length of the removed section of pipe. Transfer this measurement to a new piece of pipage and cut at the appropriate spot.
Adhere one of the 90-degree fitting on one riser to the new pipage with PVC cement. Cement the 90-degree fitting on the remaining riser to the piping's other terminate. Twist the 90-caste fitting until the 2nd riser'south position matches the first.
Use a liberal amount of PVC cement to both of the 90-degree fittings connected to the buried sprinkler pipe. Position the bridge in the trench and sideslip a riser into each buried fitting. Press the risers into their corresponding fittings. Let the cement cure completely before leak testing.

This article is authentic and true to the all-time of the writer's knowledge. Content is for informational or amusement purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional person advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.