Yard Guard - Winterizing the Yard

I figured since I spent the week posting about my yard, I should finish it off with one last post. Before owning our house, I had never even heard of insulated spigot covers or draining the sprinkling system. 

We did have sprinklers when I was growing up but I didn't know they needed to be drained.

I had a friend that told me that they never drained their sprinklers in the winter. So, one year I didn't drain them and we almost flooded the basement when an ice shard broke a main sprinkler line. 

Also, I didn't put the insulated spigot cover on the spigot in winter and at least three times I had a pipe bib freeze causing flooding when we went to use the hose in the spring. So, with that, I ALWAYS winterize my yard now. 

First step with the spigots is to make sure the hose is off of the spigot, drained and coiled. Then make sure the spigot isn't leaking. If it is, see this post as to how to replace the washer on the spigot. 

Once the spigot isn't leaking, get some kind of insulated spigot cover. The type I show are the most common and only cost a few dollars at any hardware store. 

I always check the area for spiders. This black widow was under the little spigot run off I leave under the spigot in case of drips etc. I killed it. For some reason, they like to winter over in the insulated covers so I try to spray bug spray in them as well.

The insulators work with a little rubber strap that goes through the center of the cup. There is a little circle that you hook onto the bottom of the spigot like a rubber band. Once it is around the bottom, you have to hold tension on it like you see in the photo to the right or the strap will fall off and you won't have a good seal.  

Then, you push the little button on the side of the green square on the front (it can be any color but on this one it is green.) This releases the tension on the rubber strap and you then pull the strap back out like a draw string and that pulls the insulated cup onto the spigot. There is a foam seal at the edge that you can see in the above photo well. It needs to be squished against the siding on the house to keep any cold air from getting in and freezing any left over water in the line. Then, you are done with the spigot. 
 
To turn off and drain the sprinklers, you turn off the water at the main for the yard, not the house. There is usually a little round plastic cover (usually white) over the hole. Mine got mowed this year for the uncountable time. 

It is good to have the cover as it keeps garbage from getting down there. When we bought the house, the little boy that lived there put rocks down the hole and it made it very difficult to turn on and off the sprinkler main. I used a shop vac and taped two hoses together to get the rocks out of the hole. This year, I had already replaced the cover once and it got mowed up again so leaves got down in there. 

There is a little brass turn off down there and this little metal turn on key fits over that and you turn it 1/4 turn and the water is now off. There is only one way you can turn the switch, it goes 1/4 each way for on and off. You will see water starting to fill the hole as the main drains and you can hear it as well. 
 
Then, you get into the sprinkler boxes and open all the valves on every sprinkler line. You can see the little knobs on the tops of the valves. One direction is open, the other is closed. They are usually closed. I open the line and let them drain for a few hours. I then close the valves so they don't get stuck open over the winter. 

The last thing I do is to allow the sprinklers to run one cycle for one last day pushing anything else in the line out. Then, I turn off the sprinklers at the timer, to the off position. 

Some homes have a drain switch on the sprinklers that you can turn 1/4 turn that will drain the entire yard. Not all systems have that but mine broke a few years ago but as long as I do what I mentioned in this post, I have been fine. 

If you have a yard, it is worth doing a yard, winter guard. I hope you have a dry winter.