Mikel and Darynn returned to Emerald Hill to continue resurrecting the sprinkler system.
This 1 December episode focuses on bringing all of the front yard zones to life.
At the buried valve that he unburied, Mikel trenched for a new lateral line needed to supply a run of dripline at the curb in front of the house. He’s directing Darynn, who is outside the shot.
At the front walk, Mikel digs out a lateral line that was severed by the form used to construct the concrete pads.Working under one of the concrete walkway pads, Mikel cut the severed line cleanly to add a new elbow and flexible water line that he ran out to the sprinkler head that was cut off from water when the water line was severed.This is the main dig in the front yard where the plumbers originally severed the sprinkler lines when they trenched to install the new water supply line between the house and city water supply at the curb. Valve 1 is the valve that the plumbers buried under several inches of dirt — discovered by Mikel when he explored for leaks in episodes 1, 2 and 3. Valve 2 is a new valve that supplies water to the new drip zone along the curb. Inside housing 3 is a dripline pressure regulator.After about an hour of testing all possible wiring configurations, Darynn, who is studying to be an engineer, concluded that there is a cut in the wire that cannot be located — and the only way to electrically open and close valves is to install an Add-A-Wire device that enables the controller in the garage to “multiplex” different signals to different valves while using the same control wires. This little widget adds $200+ to the cost of the day’s gig. The alternative is several hours of manual trenching to run a new wire from the garage, to every valve, from the back of the house to the front.Darynn wires in the Add-A-Wire device.Mikel shifts a spray head from the curb at the street about eight feet back and into the lawn, where it can reach the grass, instead of spraying water into what will be a new planting bed that will be served by dripline.
