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What Size Sprinkler Should You Get

By: njlawn February 17, 2024 6:33 am

: 3 Minutes to Read What Size Sprinkler Should You Get

Designing an irrigation system for your home takes a lot of planning, a good budget and a lot of hard work. If you are planning to install a complete irrigation and sprinkler system on your property, there are a few things you need to be certain about before making too many plans. Based on the size of your property, the plants you have in your gardens and the type of lawn you have, an irrigation specialist will be able to offer advice on what type of system and which type of accessories will suit your needs.

Design Your System

The first thing you need to do is design your system. To do this you will require a property plan drawn to scale, and information on how and where the water flows on and away from your property, as well as an indication of your water pressure.

The basic design of an irrigation and sprinkler system relies heavily on the size of your yard and what you are watering.

Where possible, sprinklers should be located on the edge of the lawn spraying inwards. Your sprayers should face away from buildings, driveways and paths. Sprinklers are mainly designed to water your lawn rather than your gardens, however if you don’t have a secondary irrigation system in place for your gardens, you may want to incorporate them into your plan.

Dimensions Of Your Lawn Regulate Sprinkler Size

The dimensions of your lawn will regulate the radius of the sprinkler you need to use. A 20-foot by 10-foot lawn would use 10-foot radius sprinklers and a50-foot x 150-foot lawn would use multiple50-foot radius sprinklers.
Sprinklers need to be spaced head to head (facing each other) because sprinklers leave a dry space under themselves. Most lawns are unevenly spaced, so consideration must be made to ensure all areas of the lawn will be watered at the same time, with no spaces missed. A simple way to create your plan to make this happen is by separating your lawn areas into squares and rectangles. Because odd shaped spaces can be an issue, radius arcs are usually used to mark out each sprinkler’s reach. You can use a compass to create this on paper. The result should be complete coverage, and you should classify each sprinkler by type, arc and to make it a simple process to link them all up.

Specific Sizing Per Square Foot

For the best performance you should use large gear drive sprinklers for 30ft radii and medium gear sprinklers at 20ft radii. Spray sprinklers are normally available in 10ft to 20ft options.

For further information on the technical specifications of your new irrigation system, you should discuss your plan with a professional. For larger properties there are many options like rotor pop up sprinklers which spray a solid rotating stream of water to cover large areas of lawn.

Use Impact Sprinklers for Large Spaces

Impact sprinklers work the same as pop up rotors but are for use on even bigger areas of grass. They use an impact bar to spray both short and long distances with the sprinkler. These types of systems are best used with rainwater harvesting systems or connected to other natural bodies of water like lakes or dams if it is an option. The size of area you want to water will affect the choice of irrigation and sprinkler system you choose.