Make a simple and inexpensive DIY above-ground sprinkler system made from PVC Pipe. Water your lawn in half the time without a sprinkler system. Enjoy your green lawn.
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.
Supplies Used to Make an Above Ground Sprinkler System
Items linked below may go to similar items when exact items couldn’t be found online. Links are affiliate so when you purchase, I will get a small kickback to help fund the next tutorial!
- 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.
*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.*
How to Make an Above-Ground Sprinkler System
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.
Glue the shorter pieces across from each other using the same method as before into the cross-section.
On one of the short pipes glue on a threaded cap using the same glue method.
On the other end of the short pipe glue the hose adapter making sure the top still rotates freely after you have glued it.
This is what it should look like at this point.
Glue the elbows onto the ends of the long pieces. This is for the sprinkler heads.
Wrap Thread Seal Tape around both male ends of the adapter.
Screw the adapters into the elbow and tighten with adjustable pliers to make it nice and tight.
Screw the sprinkler head into the adapter.
And voilà! You are all done!. The entire project only took about 30-45 minutes plus a bit more for the drying time.
It even works and everything!
The kids thought that they needed to try it out and make sure everything worked OK too.
Have you made a DIY above-ground sprinkler system before? Share and leave a comment below!
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Claiming Our Space says
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.
Claiming Our Space says
Thanks for sharing on Tout It Tuesday. Hope to see you again for tomorrow’s party.
Michelles Tasty Creations says
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
[email protected] Off Friday says
It looks like the kids thought it turned out great!
Evelyn says
Are you a plumber? If not you should be, great tutorial:) Very clever. Thank you for sharing at Freedom Fridays.
Katie Adams says
No I am not a plumber and neither is my husband. But thanks for the vote of confidence 🙂
2Momma2 says
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
Chasity says
Did you ultimately bury thus or left above ground?
Katie says
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.
Debbie Fowler says
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.
Katie says
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.
Donna says
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
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
Dean Pegal says
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.
Evgeny says
What is a glue you are using? Why not soldering?
Katie says
It is a glue just for PVC Pipes. It is called PVC Pipe Cement. Thanks Evgeny!
Alfred says
Only see one sprinkler head where do you put the other are the two heads on one or separate
Katie says
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 🙂