Sprinkler Pipe Repair Mommy

I’m not a gardener.  I DO NOT have a green thumb.  My husband is the gardener.  He finds being out in the heat, digging through tough soil to plant trees and flowers relaxing.  Okkkkkkkkk.  I’m all for it because it makes our yard look beautiful.  He handles decorating the outside of the house and I handle the inside.

So after Hurricane Irma, some of our plants were leaning as I told you here.  My husband was on it right away to get things back in order.  In the process of him getting things back into order he sliced one of the pipes to our sprinkler system.  At first glance, it looked like it was just a flexible tube that needed to be replaced.  I told him I would pick up another one from Lowes and put it on the sprinkler head.  Easy peasy.  Well, as I go to detach the flexible tube off of the sprinkler head I look at the PVC pipe and it’s cracked.

I let him know. He looks up some videos on YouTube and determines that it’s an easy fix and we can fix it together.  I think, “Sure thing! We can do it!” That work week turned out to be a BUSY week for my husband so I decided I would fix the sprinkler problem all by myself and surprise him.  (I’m all about surprises aren’t I?? Read this post where I surprised my husband with some other handy work)  I looked at videos on YouTube.  The videos were 5-10minutes, real-time, no speeding things up and the folks were finished so I figured, “I can do that!”  5-10 minutes video doesn’t take into account:
-Going to Lowes to get PVC pipe cutter
-Going back home to cut off pipe to take with you to the store
-Going BACK to Lowes to get supplies needed for repair
-Finding the right size PVC pipe and connectors needed while in the store
-Watching video a couple more times to make sure you don’t mess up and have to start over
Oddly I found the right size PVC pipe and connectors pretty quickly WITHOUT the help of any staff at Lowes.  Once I got home, I got to work right away.  My husband had taken our son to Parent’s Night at school and I was planning to be done before they were back home. My two year old stayed entertained watching a show on my iPad outside near me while I worked.

You have to use primer and cement to get a good seal so I was making sure not to make a mistake.  BEFORE applying the primer and cement I put all the parts together.  It wasn’t fitting.  I couldn’t get the connector over the last section of PVC pipe to connect everything.  I cut a little PVC pipe from the end but not too much it still wouldn’t connect.  Back to YouTube. I saw a guy using an adapter so BACK to Lowes we went to find an adapter.  I had to ask for help this time. lol  Back to work with the adapter thinking I would be done in 5 minutes.  Not the case.  The adapter wasn’t sliding like the one in the video.  I’m FRUSTRATED now.  I’ve been working for over an hour and I had to stop working to go to the store for another part.  My husband and son arrived home from Parent’s Night and the surprise wasn’t ready.  It was starting to get dark.  I didn’t want to stop.  I wanted to be DONE.  My husband gave the kids dinner and their baths while I tried to finish things up.  That was the BIGGEST help because I didn’t have to worry about them on top of me not being done with this repair.  He brought out his headlamp for me to use.  So sweet!  I dug the hole longer hoping that I would be able to bend the PVC, without breaking it, and get the connector on.  I did a test and it worked! Now for the primer and cement. Once attached, it’s too short. SERIOUSLY!!  I bought a couple extra connectors so I cut another, a little bit longer, piece of PVC pipe and tried to connect without primer and cement.  It worked!  Alright, time to connect with primer and cement and be done with this suppose to be a “quick repair.”   I applied the primer and cement, bent and pushed and IT WORKED!! DONE!!  I made it inside in time to say prayers and sing lullabies with my little ones.

Even though I got a little frustrated with this repair I’m glad I did it all by myself.  Sprinkler repair is something I can do now and it shouldn’t take as long next time.  Hopefully, there isn’t a next time.  We’ll see what my husband decides to do next in the yard. 

FYI: Hubby helped out by filling the hole BEFORE I took a picture of my final work.  I kept the pipes visible for a couple days to make sure there wasn’t a leak but kept forgetting to take a picture.  I come home from picking up our son from school and the hole is filled.  Thanks babe!  (He’ll appreciate that when he reads this. lol)

Any other handy females?  What’s something that you’ve repaired?