A great idea to lower lawn sprinkler heights. The optimum ideal and expectation for those of us who have reticulated lawn watering systems is to ensure that all our sprinklers are set correctly below lawn mowing heights, beneath the level of the lawn and the top of the soil itself. This installation will ensure our sprinklers do not become a tripping hazard for people, which could cause personal injury, and that the sprinklers don’t get broken during lawn mowing. There are a number of ways to lower our sprinkler heights quickly, but sometimes we find that we just cannot lower them any further. Here’s the solution.
Why Some Sprinklers Cannot Be Lowered
If our lawn reticulation system was installed by professionals, or we chose to install our own system to professional standards, then the entire watering system will be fed by hard while water pipes that are laid out around the lawn and garden areas, out of sight underneath the soil.
These pipes will have predetermined spots where a joiner has been installed. An opening with a screw slot will face upwards at that join. A more flexible short riser is then attached to the white pipe at one end, and the sprinkler is attached to the other end of the joiner.
In most cases we can solve the problem of a sprinkler that is sitting proud by using a shorter riser, or a shorter sprinkler of a different brand, or a combination of both. We can even top soil around the sprinkler to raise the lawn itself a little if need be.
However, we do run into serious problems when the rigid white water pipe underneath the soil was not sunk deeply enough into the soil. We can use a shorter riser, a shorter sprinkler, and top dress the lawn too, and still have a sprinkler which sits way too high above the surrounding lawn.
In this case it’s time to think outside the box, so let’s solve this problem.
The Articulated Riser
We can go into our local hardware store and ask for one of these and the only thing we’ll receive in return is a blank stare of bewilderment. We can’t buy them that I’m aware of, but someone should make something similar to solve this problem forever, it really is a missing link in the vast array of options available for the lawn reticulation systems we use.
So let’s make one ourselves.
We’ll need these parts:
- one short or medium length riser
- four elbows
- one sprinkler
Now we just join them together as shown in the image.
Attaching and Using An Articulated Riser
First we need to dig a large hole around the existing sprinkler.
We then attach one end of the articulated riser to the rigid white water pipe, and we can attach our sprinkler to the other end of the articulated sprinkler.
What we now find is that we can lower the sprinkler as low as we want, all we need do is dig a little lower into the soil so that the arms of the articulated riser can sink lower as need be.
The other thing we quickly discover is that the new sprinkler is now offset, it’s in a different position than the old sprinkler was, and that’s okay too. The articulated riser will swivel in any direction we want, so we swivel the sprinkler into our new preferred position and we’re good to go.
So now we’ve got this new great big hole around our new sprinkler setup, what do we do?
Just fill in the hole with the same soil that was removed, and let the lawn grow over the patched area to repair itself, it shouldn’t take very long to repair in the growing season.
That’s it, our sprinklers are now below lawn and soil height and installed correctly !!
or to raise the sprinkler higher if it was installed too low - or if our lawn thatch layer increased too high
The one last advantage of this system is that if a sprinkler perhaps doesn’t fully retract one day, and it gets tripped on by a household member or if it goes through the lawn mower if it was out of sight, then the possibilities of damaging the rigid white pipe underneath the soil are now greatly reduced, as there is far greater flexibility in the articulated riser system than there is if we had used just a single riser going vertically directly from the white pipe to the sprinkler. It’s a great shock absorber.
Now, all we need is for a manufacturer to invent and produce a low cost alternative to this system that can be used on all our sprinklers as standard. A great little idea for an invention and a patent perhaps.
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