How to Dig a Sprinkler System

Manual Trenching

• 1

  Call you utility company and have them mark the utility lines in your yard before trenching. Examine your yard to confirm that you won’t dig into any of the lines during installation.

• 2

  Screw the water hose onto the home faucet and turn on the water. Water the lawn in the places where you plan to trench. This loosens up the soil, making it easier for you to dig.

• 3

  Cut string pieces the same length as your irrigation pipe lines and lay them out along the lawn where you intend to trench. Insert irrigation flags into the ground where the sprinklers will go. Lay out tarps on both sides of the string to aid in cleanliness during trenching.

• 4

  Insert a hand shovel into the ground beneath the grass and pick up sheets of sod near the area closest the irrigation start-up valves. Set the sod pieces to the side on one of the tarps.

• 5

  Insert the shovel into the ground and push it in with your foot. Pull up heaps of soil and pile it onto the tarp opposite the sod tarp. Dig trenches approximately 18 inches deep for areas with harsh winters where the ground experiences deep freezes, or dig the ground approximately 8 to 12 inches for areas with mild winters with occasional freezes.

• 6

  Dig up the sod and soil for the entire irrigation system.

Machine Trenching

• 7

  Fill the trenching machine with enough gas to complete the trenching of the entire system.

• 8

  Turn the trenching machine on and raise the trencher boom, or the digging component, up. Confirm that you have turned off the boom.

• 9

  Move the trenching machine over to the area nearest the irrigation start up valves. Lower the trenching boom just above the ground.

• 10

  Turn the trenching boom on to a low speed. Lower the boom slowly down to the ground, until it begins to dig. Increase the speed of the boom, until you have achieved the desired digging depth and speed.

• 11

  Pull the trenching machine backward along the future irrigation pipe area in a straight line. Dig corners and turns with a hand shovel. Lift up the trencher boom at the approach of a turn and realign it along the next irrigation line.