DIY Irrigation Design

To get started, you’ll need the following;

• Pressure gauge
• String
• Pencil or pen
• 20 liter bucket
• Tape measure

What Is Your Water Pressure?

• Screw a pressure gauge onto an unregulated outside faucet.
• Make sure no water is running anywhere inside or outside your house.
• Turn on the faucet with the gauge attached. The gauge shows your water pressure bar. (Record your results)
• Open the tap fully, with the gate valve in the rig closed.

Note the pressure reading at no flow.

• Open the gate valve slowly and start measuring the water flow at the highest pressure available. e.g. Open valve slowly until the gauge reaches 4 bar.
• Direct the rig hose into a bucket and time how long it takes to fill 20 litres. Write this result down.
• Do the same for 3.5 bar, 3 bar and 2.5 bar

You’ll notice that the lower the pressure, the more the flow. Your flow and pressure readings should look similar to the figures below:

Pressure Reading at Gauge Time to fill 20 litre bucket Flow in litres per minute. (20l divided by seconds x 60 )

4 Bar
3.5 Bar
3 Bar
2.5 Bar

40 Seconds
35 Seconds
30 Seconds
25 Seconds

What is your meter size?

The meter size (¾” or 1″) is usually stamped on the outside of the meter. (Record the size)

Using a pump or borehole? check your pumps owners manual to determine it’s pressure and flow capacity. If you’re unsure, you can ask us to assist you.

What is the size of your service line?

• Find the line that runs from the water meter to your house
• Wrap a string around the pipe & mark it.
• Measure the how much string is wrapped around the the pipe
• Check the string length on the table below.

Determining the length of service line (1″=25mm)

Example: If your string measure 4″ (±100 mm), then you have a galvanized 1″ pipe.

What is your homes water flow?

• Get a measurable container, like a 5 litre bucket.
• Make sure no other water is being used inside and outside your house.
• Open the tap all the way open and time how long it takes to fill the bucket.

Determine your “Litres per minute” (LPM) flow rate.

Example: 5 litre bucket takes 15 seconds to fill
5 litres in 15 seconds = 5 / 15 x 60 = 20 litres per minute average flow rate

Sketch your yard

If you would like us to assist you with the design.

Tip: Use scratch paper first, then transfer your final drawing to graph paper. Use bold lines only, no shading.

• Divide your yard into sections, such as front lawn, side lawn, flower beds etc.
• Label all the areas you want watered.
• Also include the house, driveway and side walks, drawn to scale.
• Try and group similar plants together, such as shrubs, ground cover etc

Other items that need to be shown,

• The position of the tap where the test was done.
• The preferred position of the irrigation controller. (If automated)
• Any service lines running through the property, to prevent the irrigation contractor from damaging any existing pipes or cables.
• If there is any alternative water source such as a borehole, indicate this as well.

Remember that any incorrect or incomplete dimensions given to use, may affect the way the area is irrigated.

Once we have all the required information, we will be able to produce an irrigation drawing (Using Autocad).

We will also provide you with a Bill of quantities and a list of contractors in your area.

These projects usually take a few days to finalize, but our design team will let you know what time frame to expect.

Submitting you information

Email your information (Drawing & flow rates) to your closest design office below:

Controlled Irrigation offers this design service as a guideline. No guarantee of accuracy of design, system installation, or operation of system is implied.