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How to Make an Above-Ground Sprinkler System

February 12, 2021 By: Katie18 Comments

title image for How to Make an Above-Ground Sprinkler System

Make an above-ground sprinkler system using PVC pipe and some sprinkler heads. Below is the step-by-step tutorial.

Man it’s hot outside, and my yard shows it! Yard work is not my favorite thing and our poor lawn has been losing it’s gorgeous green from spring and is starting to look dry and brown.

We needed to figure something out for watering. The previous owners put in a sprinkler system but it has never worked, and replacing the whole system is out of our budget.

One of hubby’s friends at work had made a sprinkler out of PVC pipe and hubby was sure he could make one too!

We headed to Home Depot and brought back all of our goodies and started building.  We went in not knowing exactly what we needed or how to build it, but the Home Depot employee was very helpful so we knew exactly what to do.

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Be sure to look around the blog for more DIY tutorial ideas!

Supplies You’ll Need to Create this Project:

This post contains affiliate links.

  • 10-foot 3/4″ PVC Pipe cut in half (2, 5-foot pieces)
  •  2-foot 3/4″ PVC Pipe cut in half (2, 1-foot pieces)
  • PVC Pipe Cement
  • Plumbers Tape
  • 2 Sprinkler Heads
  • 3 threaded cap
  • 3 male thread adapter
  • 2 close riser
  • 2 elbows
  • 1 cross-section
  • 1 hose adapter
supplies used to make an above-ground sprinkler system with PVC pipe

*I tried to use the correct verbiage for all of the different pieces, but this was our first time working with PVC, so if I named something wrong I am sorry.*

Above-Ground Sprinkler Tutorial:

Start by gluing the longer ends to the cross-section. You want to glue the inside of the piece you are attaching it too and the outside of the pipe that is going into the piece.

pvc pipe glue
pvc pipe glue in a piece of pvc
applying pvc pipe glue
joining two pieces of pvc pipe together
wiping away the excess glue

Glue the shorter pieces across from each other using the same method as before into the cross-section.

adding more pieces of PVC pipe

On one of the short pipes glue on a threaded cap using the same glue method.

jpoining pieces of pvc pipe

On the other end of the short pipe glue the hose adapter making sure the top still rotates freely after you have glued it.

joining pieces of pvc pipe
using pvc pipe to make a sprinkler

This is what it should look like at this point.

how the pvc pipe sprinkler looks so far

Glue the elbows onto the ends of the long pieces.  This is for the sprinkler heads.

adding the elbow

Wrap Thread Seal Tape around both male ends of the adapter.

wrapping with plumbers tape

Screw the adapters into the elbow and tighten with adjustable pliers to make it nice and tight.

tightening the pvc pipe pieces

Screw the sprinkler head into the adapter.

screwing on the sprinkler head

And voilà!  You are all done!.  The entire project only took about 30-45 minutes plus a bit more for the drying time.

the finished pvc pipe sprinkler

It even works and everything!

the finished pvc pipe sprinkler

The kids thought that they needed to try it out and make sure everything worked OK too.

three kids standing in the sprinkler

If you love this sprinkler tutorial, please give it a five-star review and help me share it on Facebook and Pinterest!

Our Crafting Essentials List:

  • So many of our crafts use a Cricut Machine, this is by far, my favorite tool! And there are different machines to choose from to fit every budget.
  • Sharp scissors are a must, and these Precision Edge Scissors are the best.
  • Keep your supplies and projects organized with these Stackable Storage Baskets.
above ground sprinkler 3

How to Make an Above-Ground Sprinkler System

Yield: 1 PVC Pipe Sprinkler with 2 Heads
Active Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes
Difficulty: Moderate
Estimated Cost: $30

Make an above-ground sprinkler system using PVC pipe and some sprinkler heads.

Materials

  • 10-foot 3/4" PVC Pipe
  • 2-foot 3/4" PVC Pipe
  • 2 Sprinkler Heads
  • 3 threaded cap
  • 3 male thread adapter
  • 2 close riser
  • 2 elbows
  • 1 cross-section
  • 1 hose adapter

Tools

  • PVC Pipe Cement
  • Plumbers Tape

Instructions

  1. Begin by gluing the longer ends to the cross-section. You want to glue the inside of the piece you are attaching it to and the outside of the pipe that is going into the piece.
  2. Glue the shorter pieces across from each other using the same method as before into the cross-section.
  3. On one of the short pipes glue on a threaded cap using the same glue method.
  4. On the other end of the short pipe glue the hose adapter making sure the top still rotates freely after you have glued it.
  5. Glue the elbows onto the ends of the long pieces.  This is for the sprinkler heads.
  6. Wrap Thread Seal Tape around both male ends of the adapter.
  7. Screw the adapters into the elbow and tighten them with adjustable pliers to make them nice and tight.
  8. Screw the sprinkler head into the adapter.

Notes

If you love this sprinkler tutorial, please give it a five-star review and help me share it on Facebook and Pinterest!

© Katie Adams
Project Type: Home / Category: For the Home

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Comments

  1. Claiming Our Space says

    July 4, 2012 at 1:47 am

    What a great project. We need to whip up some of these since our underground sprinkling system died this summer after limping along for the last 2 summers. I would love it if you shared this on Tout It Tuesday.

    Reply
    • Claiming Our Space says

      July 9, 2012 at 4:49 pm

      Thanks for sharing on Tout It Tuesday. Hope to see you again for tomorrow’s party.

      Reply
  2. Michelles Tasty Creations says

    July 10, 2012 at 2:56 am

    Katie,
    Awesome tutorial! Something my husband would do too. Thanks so much for linking up to Creative Thursday last week. I can’t wait to see what you link up next. Have a great week.

    Michelle

    Reply
  3. [email protected] Off Friday says

    July 16, 2012 at 5:14 pm

    It looks like the kids thought it turned out great!

    Reply
  4. Evelyn says

    July 17, 2012 at 12:46 am

    Are you a plumber? If not you should be, great tutorial:) Very clever. Thank you for sharing at Freedom Fridays.

    Reply
    • Katie Adams says

      July 22, 2012 at 5:13 pm

      No I am not a plumber and neither is my husband. But thanks for the vote of confidence 🙂

      Reply
  5. 2Momma2 says

    May 15, 2013 at 8:18 pm

    Great project! I have seen some PVC sprinklers with holes on the pipe for kids to play in but hadn’t thought about using a sprinkler head. We want to make one this summer with a lot of water for the kids. Great job!

    http://Www.exploringdomesticity.blogspot.com

    Reply
  6. Chasity says

    April 19, 2014 at 10:39 am

    Did you ultimately bury thus or left above ground?

    Reply
    • Katie says

      April 21, 2014 at 8:19 pm

      No we didn’t bury it. You use it above ground and move it to different parts of the lawn to water. They are nice because you can get a larger area without having to move a little one around so much.

      Reply
      • Debbie Fowler says

        June 7, 2018 at 10:53 am

        Just curious where you stored it after watering — or even for the winter. I would so love to do this but I’m at a loss as to where I would put it when not in use.

        Reply
        • Katie says

          June 11, 2018 at 8:58 am

          Hi Debbie! We kept it on the side of hour house. We kept it on the ground but you could hang hooks to keep it off the ground.

          Reply
          • Donna says

            July 24, 2018 at 4:21 pm

            Katie, Have you tried rotor heads instead of the pop up sprayers? I need to make one for my daughter, but would rather use rotors to get more coverage.

          • Katie says

            July 30, 2018 at 6:37 pm

            Donna, I haven’t tried this design with the Rotor heads so I can’t say for sure, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work! How is that for helpful. Thanks Donna

  7. Dean Pegal says

    August 2, 2018 at 10:10 pm

    You did it really well. PVC Sprinkler system makes it very easy to take care of our garden and also the maintenance of PVC System is not very expensive. It works fine, Just try it.

    Reply
  8. Evgeny says

    September 30, 2018 at 5:26 am

    What is a glue you are using? Why not soldering?

    Reply
    • Katie says

      September 30, 2018 at 10:44 am

      It is a glue just for PVC Pipes. It is called PVC Pipe Cement. Thanks Evgeny!

      Reply
  9. Alfred says

    November 10, 2019 at 5:57 pm

    Only see one sprinkler head where do you put the other are the two heads on one or separate

    Reply
    • Katie says

      November 11, 2019 at 11:17 am

      This PVC Sprinkle holds two sprinkler heads. One on each end. Since the sprinkler is so long it was hard to get them both in the same picture 🙂

      Reply

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