The Basics of Irrigation
LET’S ASSUME THAT YOUR COMPANY gets a contract with a homeowner whose property encompasses the size of two football fields, and, in addition to regular lawn maintenance, that homeowner wants you to install an irrigation system. You and your employees are all very happy—after all, this is a big job.
But here’s the problem: You’ve never installed an irrigation system before. All of those valves, sprinklers and wires—it’s enough to make your head explode. You don’t want to walk away from the job, so you do the next best thing and hire a subcontractor to come and do it for you.
Although many contractors are quite reliable, it turns out that the sub you hired has a serious issue with punctuality. His crew doesn’t show up when it’s supposed to, and your new client is left tapping his foot impatiently waiting for the work to get done. Half the day rolls by, and your sub still hasn’t appeared. You try to explain the situation to this new client and reschedule the installation, but he doesn’t want to hear it. The contract is cancelled and you’re left counting the dollars you lost while you wasted all that time.
Irrigation Piping Materials:Past & Present
The conclusion of World War II marked the introduction of new technologies to private industry that were developed for the war effort. One that would certainly revolutionize the residential/commercial marker of the irrigation industry was thermoplastic pipe.
Born in the 1940s, plastic irrigation pipe really hit stride in the `60s, replacing galvanized steel, copper water tube, asbestos-cement and cast-iron pipe, all used in early residential/commercial irrigation systems. Because of its excellent corrosive resistance, light weight, high strength-to-weight ratio, durability and resiliency, more than 100,000 miles of PVC pipe is installed each year in North America.
Although some of these early materials are not as mainstream in today’s residential/commercial irrigation market, contractors are periodically confronted with their presence on an older site. It is helpful to understand the properties and performance of each.