Thought I should update this. The bore was drilled on 10 feb. I worked from Monday the 6th 6:30am to 7-8+pm to the Thursday getting all the necessary stuff in.
Ended up running 40mm, used 40m worth total plus 12m of 25mm. Got it (legally) in the car as well haha
Going under the drive was the easy bit. Basically I got a piece of 20mm conduit, duct taped the hose in at one end and marked the conduit so I knew when it was about 50mm proud of the end of the 40mm pvc. Then I plunked/ hydromined it under very carefully so as not to wash too much sand out and under mine it. Took me all of an hour to do it.
With help of my victa SPFC TAC edger (with disc blade) and my masport home gardener rotary hoe (set up with 280mm wide tines) I dug the trenching out. 30-40cm deep through the lawn and 20-25cm in other areas.
The rotary hoe really saved my back, doing the hard yakka breaking up the soil and ripping roots.
Then lifted 10m of paving and ran the 40mm and conduit to the front solenoid location. Pulled a swift one by running the 7 core through the old poly pipe going under the back path (saving lifting 8m of slabs).
Ended up using 6x Hunter PGV 25mm valves (3x front and back) and made my own manifolds which was easier (and cheaper) than the commercially available ones. Ran 7 core through the roof cavity so only 2 pieces of (hidden) conduit up the wall.
Also plumbed in 4x taps into the main line to hand water with, and have provision for 2x venturi fertiliser injectors.
Ended up teaming 2-3 of the original poly stations together per valve. Getting minimum 250kPa pressure on the biggest one, mostly 300-350kpa. The bore seems pretty happy to run to around 80-90l per minute before it starts drawing down too much. Ended up expanding some stations, adding several extra hunter pgj gear drives to the front lawn and will add another in the back soon.
Bore ended up being 35 metre deep as opposed to the 42m other companies quoted. The guy who drilled it said to me when he quoted in January that the groundwater atlas is off in the area and we should hit water somewhere around 24-26 metres. Ended up hitting at 25m so it’s a good 10m into the ground water.
Have tested it at 6.3-6.4 pH and TDS of around 300mg/l so low salt level and no iron staining expected touch wood.
Couple of niggling issues I need to finish off like the gear drive aim and add a couple more heads to sort out a few dryer garden spots. And I have a dicky valve on zone 5 – it will water hammer when the bore is turned on before shutting itself after 10 seconds.
Garden has gone absolutely nuts, especially the lawns. All I have done is put Baileys 311 + grosorb on the lawn. The other day I went and did the rest of the garden, due to size that is around (at recommended rate) just under 20kg of grosorb soil wetter and around 40kg of pelletised manure (in this case a mix of Neutrog Rooster booster, Gyganic and Multigrow organic2000 Blood and bone).
This week (when I get a chance) I am going to have a play with the venturi and apply some liquid ecohumate, seasol and molasses
The only real casualty from the whole thing is my right arm – I don’t know if I have torn a tendon in my shoulder, arm or popped something in my back or what but the first week after install was terrible – couldn’t get 2hrs of uninterrupted sleep without shooting pain down my arm. Still not good, but getting progressively better. Thankfully nothing else immediately went out.
All up, it was a fairly sizable investment, but glad I have done it
