As part of your yard's landscaping, you need to have a good source of regular irrigation to keep your lawn healthy and alive. And to make your sprinkler system one of the most efficient, you need to follow the right rules and professional tips to install and manage it properly. Here are some helpful recommendations for you to implement and use when you are planning for and installing your new lawn sprinkler system.

Plan Out Your System Well

One of the first steps you take when you are planning to install a new sprinkler system is to map out your yard on some graph paper and plan out exactly where each line and each sprinkler head will be positioned. Because you want to spend your effort digging trenches and installing the lines exactly where they need to be for a well-working system, sketching it on paper is a great way to do so.

Make sure you have exact measurements of your yard's size and shape, converting it onto graph paper so you can see the entire yard from a position above the yard. This way you can plan out each sprinkler's spray pattern and radius to cover all your lawn. And it is important that you don't just plan the sprinkler's spray area to touch one another, you want each spray radius to overlap one another, otherwise, you will end up with dead spots. 

The reason you should overlap each spray pattern is that when you run your sprinklers under realistic conditions, there may be a breeze or the water pressure may not be at full capacity because a neighbor is running their sprinklers at the same time. These factors can cause your sprinklers to not spray at their full intended range at all times, thereby thwarting your plan for each sprinkler's spray to reach all through your yard. 

Dig the Trenches Appropriately

After you have made out plans for where each of your sprinkler heads will be installed and where each zone line will extend, you can begin digging the trenches for your lines. If you already have a lawn and want to preserve it, cut out the lawn in chunks and place them aside in the shade. When you trench out the soil, place it onto a tarp so you can easily replace it back into the trench when you are finished. This will also help prevent the lawn from getting covered and killed from the pile of excavated soil.

Be sure you dig the trenches deep enough to accommodate the sprinkler pipes. Sprinkler lines need to be buried eight to twelve inches in depth to keep them safe from freezing temperatures in late spring and early fall and to keep the lines safe from damage from above the soil. Plan to dig the trenches slightly deeper than the line depth so you have room to work and install and connect the lines.

For more information, reach out to a company like Guerrero Landscape.