Starting up sprinkler repair

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LawnMasters

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I have decided to provide my customers with sprinkler repair, and the main equipment that I have heard that i need is a locator. What do you all suggest for one? I will be looking for valves, burried wire, and other sprinkler parts that have been burried or covered over with grass.

Thanks
 

Alectrician

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LawnMasters said:
I have decided to provide my customers with sprinkler repair, and the main equipment that I have heard that i need is a locator. What do you all suggest for one? I will be looking for valves, burried wire, and other sprinkler parts that have been burried or covered over with grass.

Thanks

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Verdeboy

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If you are starting a sprinkler repair service, you'll need a truckload of PVC pipes of various sizes, coils of poly tubing of various sizes, several brands of sprinkler heads, a wide assortment of fittings for each size pipe, a variety of clamps, specialty tools--several sizes of channel locks, pvc cutters, poly cutters, nipple extractors, assorted electrician's tools, a "real" valve locator-- shovels, a large compressor for winterizing the system, and hopefully some idea of what you are doing.
 

ToolsRMe

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LawnMasters said:
I have decided to provide my customers with sprinkler repair, and the main equipment that I have heard that i need is a locator. What do you all suggest for one? I will be looking for valves, burried wire, and other sprinkler parts that have been burried or covered over with grass.

Thanks

In the last two months I have learned a lot about irrigation.

Irrigation is more complicated than household plumbing. I'd say it is at least five times more complicated. That is, I could teach my daughter the rudiments of household plumbing in four hours. It would take me twenty hours to get her to the same level of "inexpertise" with respect to irrigation.

- - -

To the list that others have provided, I add ...

a substantial compressor so that you can blow out the lines.

Thousands of dollars of equipment and training to test backflow preventers.

A smoke machine so you can locate leaks the way that the sewer guys locate leaks (not sure of this).

A knowledge of plumbing and pressure reducers.

- - -

With the exception of the (difficult!) knowledge about how to do drains in a house, everything that I learned about household plumbing is/can be used in irrigation systems. Then you learn about irrigation systems.

Good luck.
 

LawnMasters

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Thanks for the replies. I have been told that it is going to take quite a bit of materials up front to do the jobs. Just wasnt sure what i needed, thanks again for the supplies. I took a 40 hour state course and in a few weeks about to take the state test. In class i quickly realized that repair work didnt just mean replaces heads and fixing broken pvc pipes :)
 

Alectrician

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Irrigation is more complicated than household plumbing

Heh heh........good one. When I was 19 I learned enough about irrigation to install and service in about 6 months. It is certainly on the lower end of the trades. That's why the landscapers do it now and that is why I switched to electrical.

If irrigation was more complicated than residential plumbing why do plumbers typically earn motre than irrigation guys?

Not trying to insult you but you are off base here. Residential plumbing requires more knowledge and skills.
 

hj

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irrigation

Servicing irrigation systems is an endless job. I will do it when the landscapers cannot solve the problem, but otherwise I am too expensive.
 

Mr_Pike

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I would recommend a locator called a Cable Hound for tracing wires. You can get a stand alone valve locator called a chatterbox. It will vibrate the solenoids in buried valves for locating them by sound.

Go to a local supply house, and talk to them about what stuff you need to get started. With a shovel and about 200 bucks in parts, you can handle most things that come along. You don't need a truck full of inventory when the supply house is close by.
 
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