Planning Lawn and Garden Irrigation System

We're building a house and I'd like to install a lawn and garden irrigation system. I've looked at some basic Youtube tutorials for laying 19mm poly pipe in trenches and attaching pop up sprinklers - it seems simple enough but some questions…

  1. Should I get an outdoor power point installed where the tap is to add a controller? And should I have two taps installed at this point - one for the irrigation system and another for a manual hose?
  2. Should the pipe be laid under paths and driveways before they are installed?

Any advice appreciated.

Comments

  • We’ve recently had irrigation installed at our newish house. Our installer would have been much happier if pipes had been placed under driveway first. Though I’m not sure what happens if you get a hole in the pipe under there.

    He diverted off the main where water enters the property and there’s a valve to turn off irrigation separately. Something about stopping backflow too.

    The solenoid boxes and controller were placed where I had an outdoor power point.

    I have wondered a few times if I should’ve just bought a few fancy sprinklers and timers and saved a few grand. I suppose this is set and forget though.

    1. Irrigation controllers can be indoors or outdoors.
      If indoors they can go in your garage and it's an easy enough task for your electrician to run cables in the roof space to your solenoids.

    You can tap irrigation into mains plumbing

    1. Pipe underneath pathways and driveways will be easier if you are doing the job, but if you get a landscaper in, it's not a big job to do it after. It would save you a bit on labour costs
  • Don’t forget to work out how you are going to use it when there are water restrictions.

    Water tank? Grey water?

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