Skip to main content
Clear icon
64º

Brown spots? Dead zones? Add a sprinkler quick and cheap!

Step-by-step repair

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – A Seminole County homeowner said her HOA was sick of the brown spot on her lawn and asked us for help.

We discovered there was no sprinkler in the spot, so we added one! And we used a game-changingly-simple pipe adapter. No glue and no mess!

We purchased:

PVC-lock slide-on irrigation pipe tee 1/2″

Sprinkler head sprayer

Flexible sprinkler connector hose (male to male)

We brought with us:

PVC pipe cutters

Shovel

Step 1

Find your irrigation pipe. Generally the underground pipes run in a straight line from sprinkler to sprinkler. But BE CAREFUL when you dig down!! There’s all kinds of important stuff underground like electrical wires and internet and phone and cable, not to mention your irrigation pipe you’re trying to find! If you don’t know what’s underground and want someone to come out and mark it for you, dial 811. It’s a free service in Florida. A specialist will use detection equipment to find what’s underground and spray paint on your lawn it to mark it.

Step 2

Make sure you found your irrigation pipe. Generally irrigation plumbing is 1/2″ diameter or 3/4″. If you find a 1″ line, chances are good you’ve found your main water line. Don’t mess with it! Once you’re sure it’s irrigation, decide where you want to place your new sprinkler head and then cut the pipe in the that spot. We used a PVC pipe cutter (Go SLOW! Especially if the pipe is old! You don’t want to crack it) but you can also use a hack saw.

Step 3

Clean off the end of the PVC pipe where you cut it. Make sure the cut is straight and there are no burrs or pieces or shards.

Step 4

Slide on the PVC-lock tee over both ends of the cut pipe. This thing is genius! There are teeth inside the PVC-lock fitting that grab the pipe and hold it in place. And there are rubber gaskets inside that create a watertight seal. Once you hear the click as you push on the fitting, it is locked in place.

Step 5

Screw the flexible hose connector in the open end of the tee. Place the hose where you’d like to put your new sprinkler head.

Step 6

Screw the new sprinkler head onto the hose connecter and place the sprinkler exactly where you want it go. We used a 1′ long connector hose and a 360-degree sprinkler head. You could use a longer connector hose if you want to place the sprinkler further away from the pipe. And you could use any type of sprinkler head (90 degree, 180 degree, 270 degree) depending on how much water coverage you need. Put the dirt back in place.

You just got results at home!

If you have a project you’d like Erik to tackle, send us an email at GettingResultsAtHome@wkmg.com and next week Erik might just show up at your door!


About the Author
Erik von Ancken headshot

Erik von Ancken anchors and reports for News 6 and is a two-time Emmy award-winning journalist in the prestigious and coveted "On-Camera Talent" categories for both anchoring and reporting.

Loading...

Recommended Videos