Hello BTA80 Yes you question is indeed a large one. Anyway I will do my best to help. First most people will make suggestion concerning product choices. Do not worry about (for now) what product they are using but as to what spacing The contractor is designing. There is two basic design parameters for your lot (as I see it) Pop up which is 10¡¦, 12, 15¡¦ Spacing using the average pop up sprinkler. The other would be a medium throw sprinkler at about 25¡¦-35¡¦ spacing. The easiest way to think of your yard is to find the common denominator (that schoolin really paying off). Your yard is 70 x 90 roughly (I know it not quite that simple) the choices for this would be pop ups At 14¡¦ x 15¡¦ or Medium Rotors at 35¡¦ x 30¡¦ or 23¡¦x 30¡¦. This is a real simplistic view but hopefully it gives you a foundation of thinking about sprinklers. Keep in mind without proper spacing trying to fix any coverage/distribution uniformity is a uphill battle at best. Here are some thoughts about sprinklers in general. Pop up ¡VPros ¡´ Superior Coverage over medium range heads ¡´ Very durable not many parts to wear out, low replacement cost. ¡´ Wide range of nozzle spacing¡¦s and type from 4¡¦-18¡¦ with some manufactures. ¡´ Some manufactures offer other feature such as pressure regulating (fantastic feature) and check valves pre installed. Pop up Cons ¡´ Large amount of heads are needed for large areas increasing chance of mower damage. ¡´ More costly to install (large areas) than medium throw rotors as increased trenching and increased fittings/labor is needed.s Medium throw Rotors ¡V Pros ¡´ Still Relatively inexpensive per coverage area. ¡´ More coverage area decreases overall head count ¡V Less chance of toe stub º ¡´ Some manufacture offer superior warranty on these types of heads. Medium throw Rotors ¡V Cons ¡´ Poor distribution uniformity compared to most pop up type heads. ¡´ More moving parts and gears in the drive train increases chances for failure. Concerning product there are a lot of choices on the market but most contractor use either Rain Bird, Hunter, or Toro. Some also combine these products to get the best results. If I was to choose it would be in respect to the order of manufactures I just mentioned. I would be happy to answer any other question as best I can. I hope this helped.

The first thing to check is all the valve boxes to see if you have an open drain valve. These are typicly 1/2" valves. If all drain valves are closed than there is a leak in the main line and you should see running water shortly after turning the system main on.

As far as I know, you can do this, but you may get some water hammer. At home my well is 200 feet from the house. The bladder tank is in the basement. I open the tap, tank drains. Pump kicks in. Now I close my tap. Water is no longer exiting the system but there is 200 feet of water moving at 7 feet per second or so in the pipe from the well. The bladder absorbs the shock of that water, and slows it down. Now I put a T in at the well. One end of that T goes out to the nursery. I turn off the water at the nursery. 1000 feet of water in the pipe are still coming toward me, but there is no bladder where it can go. Oh, sure the bladder at the house end will absorb some of the shock, but the bulk of the water is moving away from that bladder, not toward it. net result is that all the bits of hardware at the end of the pipe have to absorb the energy. In my case this isn't much of a problem. I've done two things. One is that the end of my 1000 feet of pipe is about 50 feet from my last hose bib. This end of the pipe tends to collect air, and so acts as a buffer. Secondly, I don't have automatic valves, so the normal operation of turning off the valve is slow enough not to do damage. Thirdly, its black poly pipe, which has a certain streatch to it, and I've laid it out in a somewhat snakey manner. This allows the excess energy to wiggle the pipe. Most of the time water hammer in plastic plumbing is not a big problem, especially outside. In inside systems it is primarly a nuisance due to noise. It may be a problem if you use electric valvues.

i have drip irrigation .... its the irrigator type system offered by john deere landscape .... much more than 30 bucks for sure .. i have pure sand.. and i love drip irrigation ... i tried 'mixing' hosta and conifers ... it did NOT work ... the idea with hosta is to try to drown them .... conifers.. deep watering with drying in between ... your plan should be dependent on the stock ... do NOT mix diverse stock .. it will make your life easier all around ... i used the cheapo soaker hose long ago .. it became very problematic .... if you bury it.. you never know if it is working ... nor is it engineered for a certain flow rate ... obviously it is the easiest.. and cheapest ... you also wont know if it is putting out water at both ends at the same rate .... no one will be able to tell you how long nor how often you will need to run the system ... on your soil ... you will have to keep a shovel handy .. and run the system for a few hours .... and dig a hole and check out the pattern of water in the soil ... run it more.. and dig another hole ... etc ... other than that.. its all up in the air ... never forget .. the less you pay ... the less control you have over the system ... you cant buy a yugo .. and complain it doesn't run like a mercedes ... the other issue .. are you on a well .. and do you need a filter to remove sand from you water supply??? good luck ken