So much information, yet I'm left with so many questions! 1. You say the system was left dormant for "quite some time". Could you quantify that a bit better? 2. House fire? Never knew about that. What happened? 3. When was this sprinkler system originally put in? Considering you say it used to be a mechanical timer I'd think the 1970s or maybe even the 80s. When I was a "wee young lad", the people 2 doors down, at the corner, had an inground system that used impact sprinklers. I'd only see them on during the day, but this was back in the day when you could do that, much like when a man could mow the lawn (using a 2-cycle Lawn Boy) whilst smoking a pipe and no Millennial Soccer Mom would immediately throw a lawsuit that her "angels" got some secondhand smoke when she drove by. They had the green cap in the center of the cover--man that took me back 35 years! I remember some other houses around the corner had impacts as well, but they weren't inground ones, they were either on a stake or mounted to a tree or bush or something. All metal impacts, and they had a frame with a top sheet aluminum thing that some tinsnips were used to cut "tabs" in. Those tabs could be bent down to attenuate the stream, which of course made the sprinklers even more noisy. I used to have a couple of them when people redid their sprinkler systems, if they're anywhere they're at my dad's house buried under the bushes in the backyard. 4. That pump looks pretty old as well, and by no surprise, I don't see a single drip of water there! I'd gather the pump sat dormant as well? It's got an A.O. Smith motor; that will run forever. 5. This is why it's important to use your inground sprinklers every year. Otherwise, they get grown over and forgotten about. Lines freeze and break, heads stop working, and you're left with a yard full of questions. Once you get inground sprinklers, it's another maintenance item around the house that needs tweaking or adjustment from time to time. Once they're neglected, that's the end of it, and The Earth Heals Itself™. I'll comment more on this later on. 6. That Filter-Flo would make for some NICE videos. That plumbing solution is ingenious, not rinky-dink! You did the best you could with the tools available to you! First of all, I must say, the urinal in the garage is absolutely brilliant. Exceptionally so if it was one that "fell off the back of a truck" or was removed from service. The garage is a man's area, and thusly it can use a man's toilet. It comes as no surprise that the urinal "drain" couldn't handle the capacity from the washing machine, it pumps way too fast. If it were plumbed directly into the line it should be fine. What you did was to create a reservoir, and limit its output. While cumbersome looking, maybe to the point of even being "in the way", the end result is: It works! Getting back to always using the inground sprinklers: I know of 3 systems that were left dormant, and never recovered. 1. My dad's house. This system is so old, there IS NO TIMER! It's completely manually controlled. I don't know the brand of heads, but they're all a sort of bluish color, all metal. There were 3 (if I recall correctly???) others that were on stakes and stuck up out of the ground. There are 4 valves on the house, old gate valves. I think each one was its own zone. When my dad moved in, he actually tested it out and it worked, and he had a map of the property and marked the approximate location of the heads. I remember once, again, as a wee young lad, that my dad tested them, I remember he left me on the back patio with the backyard heads running and vaguely have a memory that he went to take a shower? Perhaps that was a test to see if it were viable to do so with the sprinklers running? Not sure. Then there was another time, we turned them on, and he went around with a screwdriver and little spade and sort of dug up the ones that didn't pop up because they were overgrown. He never used these sprinklers after that, and I asked him about it, he said something to the effect of "they don't do a good job". Being how cheap my dad is, it was probably more "they use too much water". Anyway, sometime I think in the summer of 1988 or 89, he built a shed, and one head is permanently under that shed. There used to be a brick barbecue in that location, and it was right alongside it. I think when the BBQ was knocked down we found another head that didn't seem to ever work. Anyway, the system was never used, then one of the valves on it broke, either wouldn't turn off or turn on, don't remember. All of them are screwed up now. The final nail in the coffin was some 15 years ago or so, one of his cats died, and he buried it in the backyard. While digging, he inadvertently broke one of the lines. The sprinkler that was used over all the years was an old Nelson oscillating one, I think my dad said it "came with the house", meaning it was left behind by the previous owners. The hose to it runs across the flower bed and down the walkway halfway, and has been in that position for so many years that I think it's permanently bent in that position. If that hose is still there, it's at least as old as I am. It broke a couple times, and my dad fixed it with a piece of pipe and 2 hose clamps. If and when he waters his lawn, it's still with an oscillating sprinkler halfway up the walk. The sprinkler has changed, the old one sprung a leak, and bad--he used to take it in for the winter but stopped doing so and the housing broke. He never watered the back. 2. xjoe81x's house: As you know, he had a while new system put in. The old system that was there was also a victim of letting it rot and decay. The previous owners also had marked approximate locations, but the system was too far gone. They had also mentioned how they had a few heads "capped off" which is something I had never heard about, and sure enough, we found one of those caps when the new system went in. We only ever found 2 of the original heads in that system; there's a third we had discovered but it never got ripped out so it's still in the lawn. Maybe if I get a metal detector one day it can be found. If you've never gone back far enough, xjoe81x and I had tried to test what was left of that old system of his back in the day: Part 1: th-cam.com/video/T8zgNRq3irY/w-d-xo.html Part 2: th-cam.com/video/YVDi3l469Gw/w-d-xo.html 3. My own house! When I bought it, it allegedly had sprinklers, but the installation got damaged probably when the pool was installed, and it was never fixed. The main water valve feeding the system was off, and when turned on, water would run and run and run, and it would flood the area by the pool equipment in the back. I never knew where the control box with the valves were, that was well overgrown and didn't appear to actually have a box around it, it was just buried and that was it. They marked on the paperwork "sprinkler system is not part of sale" which was legalese for "we're not going to fix it for you". I had found 2 pipes sticking out of the ground, one was a dud and was actually just a buried piece of pipe; water came out the other end. The other one actually had a head on it, somewhere in the front by the walkway, it was a pop-up mister head. There was no saving the old system; when I had mine installed they found the old valve assembly and gave me that as a souvenir. I also had to have a plant removed from the backyard that was tilting the central air conditioner, and the gardener I had hired accidentally had found an old head I never knew about. Chances are quite good the system that was here was operational up until maybe 2002 or 2003, the previous owners didn't care about it and I guess had planned to fix it later, but that never happened. I also have a video of that head the gardener found: th-cam.com/video/sVUnP4BaGis/w-d-xo.html
So much information, yet I'm left with so many questions!
1. You say the system was left dormant for "quite some time". Could you quantify that a bit better?
2. House fire? Never knew about that. What happened?
3. When was this sprinkler system originally put in? Considering you say it used to be a mechanical timer I'd think the 1970s or maybe even the 80s. When I was a "wee young lad", the people 2 doors down, at the corner, had an inground system that used impact sprinklers. I'd only see them on during the day, but this was back in the day when you could do that, much like when a man could mow the lawn (using a 2-cycle Lawn Boy) whilst smoking a pipe and no Millennial Soccer Mom would immediately throw a lawsuit that her "angels" got some secondhand smoke when she drove by. They had the green cap in the center of the cover--man that took me back 35 years! I remember some other houses around the corner had impacts as well, but they weren't inground ones, they were either on a stake or mounted to a tree or bush or something. All metal impacts, and they had a frame with a top sheet aluminum thing that some tinsnips were used to cut "tabs" in. Those tabs could be bent down to attenuate the stream, which of course made the sprinklers even more noisy. I used to have a couple of them when people redid their sprinkler systems, if they're anywhere they're at my dad's house buried under the bushes in the backyard.
4. That pump looks pretty old as well, and by no surprise, I don't see a single drip of water there! I'd gather the pump sat dormant as well? It's got an A.O. Smith motor; that will run forever.
5. This is why it's important to use your inground sprinklers every year. Otherwise, they get grown over and forgotten about. Lines freeze and break, heads stop working, and you're left with a yard full of questions. Once you get inground sprinklers, it's another maintenance item around the house that needs tweaking or adjustment from time to time. Once they're neglected, that's the end of it, and The Earth Heals Itself™. I'll comment more on this later on.
6. That Filter-Flo would make for some NICE videos. That plumbing solution is ingenious, not rinky-dink! You did the best you could with the tools available to you! First of all, I must say, the urinal in the garage is absolutely brilliant. Exceptionally so if it was one that "fell off the back of a truck" or was removed from service. The garage is a man's area, and thusly it can use a man's toilet. It comes as no surprise that the urinal "drain" couldn't handle the capacity from the washing machine, it pumps way too fast. If it were plumbed directly into the line it should be fine. What you did was to create a reservoir, and limit its output. While cumbersome looking, maybe to the point of even being "in the way", the end result is: It works!
Getting back to always using the inground sprinklers: I know of 3 systems that were left dormant, and never recovered.
1. My dad's house. This system is so old, there IS NO TIMER! It's completely manually controlled. I don't know the brand of heads, but they're all a sort of bluish color, all metal. There were 3 (if I recall correctly???) others that were on stakes and stuck up out of the ground. There are 4 valves on the house, old gate valves. I think each one was its own zone. When my dad moved in, he actually tested it out and it worked, and he had a map of the property and marked the approximate location of the heads. I remember once, again, as a wee young lad, that my dad tested them, I remember he left me on the back patio with the backyard heads running and vaguely have a memory that he went to take a shower? Perhaps that was a test to see if it were viable to do so with the sprinklers running? Not sure. Then there was another time, we turned them on, and he went around with a screwdriver and little spade and sort of dug up the ones that didn't pop up because they were overgrown. He never used these sprinklers after that, and I asked him about it, he said something to the effect of "they don't do a good job". Being how cheap my dad is, it was probably more "they use too much water". Anyway, sometime I think in the summer of 1988 or 89, he built a shed, and one head is permanently under that shed. There used to be a brick barbecue in that location, and it was right alongside it. I think when the BBQ was knocked down we found another head that didn't seem to ever work. Anyway, the system was never used, then one of the valves on it broke, either wouldn't turn off or turn on, don't remember. All of them are screwed up now. The final nail in the coffin was some 15 years ago or so, one of his cats died, and he buried it in the backyard. While digging, he inadvertently broke one of the lines. The sprinkler that was used over all the years was an old Nelson oscillating one, I think my dad said it "came with the house", meaning it was left behind by the previous owners. The hose to it runs across the flower bed and down the walkway halfway, and has been in that position for so many years that I think it's permanently bent in that position. If that hose is still there, it's at least as old as I am. It broke a couple times, and my dad fixed it with a piece of pipe and 2 hose clamps. If and when he waters his lawn, it's still with an oscillating sprinkler halfway up the walk. The sprinkler has changed, the old one sprung a leak, and bad--he used to take it in for the winter but stopped doing so and the housing broke. He never watered the back.
2. xjoe81x's house: As you know, he had a while new system put in. The old system that was there was also a victim of letting it rot and decay. The previous owners also had marked approximate locations, but the system was too far gone. They had also mentioned how they had a few heads "capped off" which is something I had never heard about, and sure enough, we found one of those caps when the new system went in. We only ever found 2 of the original heads in that system; there's a third we had discovered but it never got ripped out so it's still in the lawn. Maybe if I get a metal detector one day it can be found. If you've never gone back far enough, xjoe81x and I had tried to test what was left of that old system of his back in the day:
Part 1: th-cam.com/video/T8zgNRq3irY/w-d-xo.html
Part 2: th-cam.com/video/YVDi3l469Gw/w-d-xo.html
3. My own house! When I bought it, it allegedly had sprinklers, but the installation got damaged probably when the pool was installed, and it was never fixed. The main water valve feeding the system was off, and when turned on, water would run and run and run, and it would flood the area by the pool equipment in the back. I never knew where the control box with the valves were, that was well overgrown and didn't appear to actually have a box around it, it was just buried and that was it. They marked on the paperwork "sprinkler system is not part of sale" which was legalese for "we're not going to fix it for you". I had found 2 pipes sticking out of the ground, one was a dud and was actually just a buried piece of pipe; water came out the other end. The other one actually had a head on it, somewhere in the front by the walkway, it was a pop-up mister head. There was no saving the old system; when I had mine installed they found the old valve assembly and gave me that as a souvenir. I also had to have a plant removed from the backyard that was tilting the central air conditioner, and the gardener I had hired accidentally had found an old head I never knew about. Chances are quite good the system that was here was operational up until maybe 2002 or 2003, the previous owners didn't care about it and I guess had planned to fix it later, but that never happened. I also have a video of that head the gardener found: th-cam.com/video/sVUnP4BaGis/w-d-xo.html