What does it entail?
    As a person walks past a lawn as an irrigation system is running, they might wonder: how do those heads just pop out of the ground like that?  Besides the backflow meter, heads are the only visible aspect of an irrigation system in use.  Although it is not complicated, there is an entire underground mechanism working to pump water out to where everyone can see it: the lawn.

    A residential irrigation system begins with a water source.  There is usually copper piping leading into the basement of a house which supplies the homeowners with water.  An irrigation installer ties another copper pipe into this line and runs it up and through the wall to the exterior of the house.  Just inches outside the house, a backflow meter is connected to the copper piping.  This meter has two handles on it that can stop water from going any farther into the irrigation system.  For instance, over the winter, you don't want water getting into the pipes of your system and freezing after all the water has been removed with a "blowout" machine.  Freezing will damage and destroy your entire system.  Secondly, the backflow meter keeps water that is already in the system from flowing backwards and possibly leaking into your basement.

    From the backflow meter, plastic PVC piping is run to the solenoid valves.  Once water reaches these valves, they serve the purpose of stopping or letting the water go into the rest of the system.  There are usually anywhere from three to ten valves, depending on the size of the lawn.  Each valve functions independently, running one and only one "zone" or lawn area at a time.  From the valves, polyurethane piping runs all over the lawn.  From this piping, an even smaller daimeter polyurethane piping is run and connected to each sprinkler head.

    The whole irrigation system is controlled by a clock installed in the garage or basement.  When set, it automatically runs any zone at a desired time.  It is quite simple.  Electrical wires run from the clock to the solenoid valves telling them when to open up and let water through.  Until then, the water is just sitting at the valves.  When a valve is opened, the water continues to the heads.  Many people think the heads are,electrical, but they're not.  The pressure of the water alone is enough to pop them up and spray all over the lawn.