Maintaining the Irrigation System

 The temperatures are at record highs, and our lawn irrigation system does not seem to be working right.  Zone 6, especially, is not putting up the pop-up sprinkler heads effectively.  The further from the valve, the less it will pop-up.

So I call an irrigation company -- Sprinkler Medics -- to come evaluate my system, especially zone 6.  He doesn't think it is the valve and eventually is able to find  a leak under one of the heads.

The nipple between the head and the PVC piping had broken, so all the water was leaking out down near the PVC pipe.  Apparently our dirt is now porous enough that the water all went down, so there was no evidence at ground level.

But we replaced the nipple, put things back together, and things were better.

At least for a little while.  Now it looks like zone 6 is not working well, again.  So maybe another hidden leak?

But what about the other zones?  To check, we ran all zones for 5 minutes each to see how much water they used. 

1	8
2	101
3	40
4	105
5	7
6	31
7	149
8	112
9	102
10	33

This seemed to show that zone 2 used a lot of water.  Which seems unreasonable, since zone 2 is strictly underground. And zone 3 is is about twice as big.

But, letting zone 2 run, we can identify a stream of water coming from the middle of the zone, and tracing that back brings us to the leak.  The leak is coming from the box that holds the valve and other controls for zone 2.  We found the box buried in what is now very wet mud.

and opening it, we can see the actual leak.

The leak is at the joint between the on/off valve and the filter for the underground lines.  It appears that the ground has settled and caused the lid of the box to press down on the filter, eventually breaking the connection to the on/off valve.  We buy another filter unit from Home Depot, and while we may be able to extract the broken piece from the end of the on/off value and reuse it, the on/off valve is relatively cheap and being underground, a pain to replace, so we get a new one of that too.

Putting that all together, we can then re-install the box and put zone 2 back  into use.

Before we do that, we should also flush out the lines, so we find the lower flush box which is now 8 inches deep, by the rain barrel.

The upper flush box is not as deep, but harder to find.  It is 11 inches out from the house and 27 inches from the corner of the house and the sidewalk (right under the corner of the fence.

Now zone 2 uses 15 or 16 gallons in 5 minutes.  More if the flush valves are open, then up to 46 gallons in 5 minutes.

When we upgrade zone 4 and zone 6 to rotary heads, we find each of these zones also have a leaking head with a broken riser.  So 4 underground leaks in our irrigations system (so far).

Fixing the Diverter Valve for the Central Bathroom Shower

With our grandson, it seems easiest to throw him in the bathtub, and use the shower spray to wash everything off when he gets dirty.  This involves first getting the hot/cold water temperature correct and then switching the water from the tub to the shower, using the middle handle.

But for several months, turning it from the tub to the shower, while it does provide some water from the shower, mainly still means most of the water is going to the tub.  So we think the shower diverter valve needs a new washer or something.

Taking it apart, we remove the handle and unscrew the escutcheon to reveal the diverter value.

Using a big wrench, we can remove the value to leave an empty hole in the wall, going to the shower structure itself.

The valve stem has two white-ish plastic washers, one of which seems to have broken into smaller pieces of which we have only a couple pieces (on the paper towel to the left of the valve stem).

Otherwise, things look okay?  So we need a new washer.  But we don't know the actual size or where exactly it goes.

Going to Home Depot we find the Pfister Tub/Shower Compression Stem Diverter 910-022 132410, which looks almost the same:

But we were told, I think, that our fixture is from France, so it is unlikely that a U.S. diverter valve will work.  Still, we can see the two similar washers on the 132410, and we cannot find just the washers anywhere, so we buy the whole thing and use just the washers.

(I've highlighted the washers in red in the image on the right above.)

While we are here, we also replace the black rubber washer and screw on the end of the valve. So the parts we replaced were the two white-ish washers, the screw and the black rubber washer.

The larger washer that was replaced measures 1 inch interior diameter and 1 3/16 exterior diameter, and maybe 1/16 inches in depth.  The smaller washer, we don't have a measurement for.

When we reassemble everything, we haven't fixed it completely -- when you switch the water from the tub to the shower head, there is still some water going into the tub -- but there is less water going into the tub and more going to the shower.  And we don't remember if it ever cut the water to the tub completely, so we will declare success for now.

Maintaining the Bamboo Grove

We have done little for the Bamboo Grove since it was finished in 2010 and it has required very little maintenance. But in February 2021, we have a week of freezing temperatures with it getting down to single digits and not all the bamboo survived that.  It took time, but a year plus after that we found that some stalks had died and fallen over.

We extracted a large pile of dead bamboo from the Bamboo Grove and cut it into 6 foot pieces and put it out for the City to pick up with lawn clippings and leaves. Others appear to be dead too, but are still firmly rooted into the ground, so we'll wait for those to fall over.

But  it is difficult to get in to the dead stalks -- there is bamboo everywhere.  So we decided to cut a path thru the Bamboo Grove, to make it easier to get in and remove dead bamboo.  We started near the area behind the Jungle, where we are growing a new Oak tree (from an acorn).

We used the chain saw to cut down some bamboo stalks, to define a path that we can take into the Bamboo Grove

and continued that thru the Bamboo Grove

and then turned right and continued to the Blue Rock Pool.

We used the hedge trimmers to cut off small branches and leaves that pressed in on both sides of the path.

That produces a large pile of bamboo on the driveway that we will need to cut down to smaller pieces and get rid of.

Digging up the remainder of the Front Yard, Part 1

There remains one patch that we have not yet excavated -- between the sidewalk and the driveway, between the front porch/patio and the Rock Wall around Fuzzy.

 

We first move the granite pieces out of the way -- our intent is to use them as stepping stones later. 

We start by digging in the corner near the front door.

We discover a sprinkler line that runs diagonally from that corner.

Not expecting this line, we hit it a couple of places (so it now leaks) and we will redefine the sprinkler layout for this area (Zone 11), so for now, we just take it out and keep digging.

We extend this towards the driveway.

and in so doing, find another part of the sprinkler line, so we continue digging to expose it.

We remove the sprinkler line -- capping off the end that comes from the direction of Fuzzy. 

Which exposes a layer of rock, which we break up and remove, only to reveal -- Another layer of rock!

And at this point, we need to take a break, because we are expecting wet weather.

Back Deck Maintenance

The deck was replaced in November 2003, so it's approaching 20 years old.  It is made of ipe (iron wood), on a pine or fir under structure.  The ipe deck boards are attached by what are supposed to be brass screws, looks like #8 screws with a small T-15 Torx head; one site says they are "Finish/Trim" screws.

I've notice that some some of the heads have backed out and are sticking up; some more than others.  The worst seem to stick up maybe 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch.  Trying to screw them back down does not work -- they just spin in place.

Investigating why, it seem that the screw goes thru the deck board and into the underlying joist.  The smooth upper shaft of the screw is in the deck board and the thread goes into the joist.  The joist wood has deteriorated and so the thread has nothing to grasp, which is why the screw can pop up.  Also in some cases the screw has broken and the top half is disconnected from the threads.

So the solution seems to be to remove the old screw and move it, or a replacement to another position not too far from the original position, where it can find strong joist wood to hold the deck board in place.

Putting in a new screw involves:

(1) drilling a hole for it.  The ipe is very hard.  I used a 1/8 inch drill bit.

(2) installing the new screw.  At 2 inches long, these take quite a bit of screwing, so the easiest way is to put the T-15 Torx bit into a power screwdriver (I used my power drill with it's variable speed, on slow and easy).

Today I only did 4 replacement screws.  Took about an hour.

Stone Border for Backyard Bed

Most of our beds are well separated from anything else.  But we have one bed, in the backyard, up against the fence, that is not.

 Linda planted a passion flower vine to grow along the fence, but, it turns out, it also sends roots out into the yard and tries to pop up vines all thru the grass.  So our intention is to put a stone border around this bed, to keep the roots from getting into the yard.

The first step is to dig a trench around the bed.

Then, I tried to take it down deeper.  The design was to bury a metal barrier that would block any roots from going into or out of the bed, and then pour concrete on top of that and put limestone blocks -- the standard 4x4 ones -- on the top.

I bought some corrugated metal landscape edging.  Made by Dakota Tin, sold by Walmart $64.93.  Two pieces, each 10 feet long and 12 inches tall.  And a rubber mallet to hammer it into the ground partially below the concrete to be poured.

But digging down, we hit solid rock almost immediately.  Just barely 12 inches below the surface.  Apparently this section next to the fence was not excavated very far down.

We also uncovered two irrigation pipes leading into the bed -- one next to the concrete pad for the electrical box, and the other at the other end of the bed, next to the fence.

So the new design is to just use the metal edging as yet another part of the barrier -- forming one side of the concrete wall to be poured.  

The corrugated tin had to be shaped to fit around the irrigation pipes and the uneven rock at the bottom of the trench.  Then we bought the cement -- 15 bags.

 and we position the metal barrier in the trench.  

Then we pour the cement in the trench -- keeping the metal barrier to the inside of the cement pour.  We top it off with a line of 4x4 limestone blocks, put the dirt that we dug out back and it is done.

We have been pulling out any of the vine starts that we see in the yard for the last few weeks; we will probably need to do that for a couple months until the roots that are in the back yard now are exhausted and die.

Update: 25 July 2022.

The border seems to be helping with the vines growing out of the bed, but not with the grass growing into the bed.  The border was designed to be just at ground level, so we could mow the lawn with the tires of the lawn mower running along the top of the border. 

But Bermuda grass sends out runners, above ground, and these seemed to really want to just go right over the border and into the bed.  We need a higher border to stop the runners from just going right over the border.

So we got 20 feet of 4x4 limestone blocks from Whittlesey Brothers (27 June 2022, $36.90) and lined them up next to the border.

We bought a bag of mortar mix from Home Depot (25 July 2022, $8.64), and mortared the stones on top of the border.

This should keep the Bermuda grass out of the backyard bed.

It seems that after 3 to 4 months of pulling up every upstart vine we see in the back lawn, the roots have mostly stopped trying to send up more vines (unless they are just discouraged by the heat of a Texas summer, and lack of rain.)

More Sod for Back Yard

 The area where we took out the Monterrey Oak, and it's bed last summer and then added a Mexican Plum has been sitting since then.  So it seems it is time to finish it off.

First we spread more dirt, to even it out, as some of it has settled. 

Then we bought a half a pallet of Zoysia Palisades from The Grass Outlet.  $173.20. That is 80 pieces. We used about 50 to cover this area. 

There was another area just around the corner where the slope was too steep.  We added dirt to make it slope more gently, and then put another 20 sod pieces on it.

And the final pieces were put down at the bottom of the stairs to the back porch.  Stepping off the sidewalk at this point after coming down the stairs repeatedly has caused this section to sink below the sidewalk significantly, so new sod will help raise it up an inch or so.

These new pieces of the lawn will need frequent watering to keep them alive and get them established.  Part of the timing is they are predicting rain tonight.

Roof Vents and Insect Screens

 We have cockroaches.  Probably not.  I think they are water bugs or palmetto bugs, rather than cockroaches per se, but from a home owners point of view, I'm not sure the difference matters much.  They mostly live outside, in the trees or under rocks, but occasionally come inside.  We've tried home remedies, like boric acid power, and roach motels, and maybe those work, but they certainly don't get everything.

The house is pretty well sealed. Good windows, weatherstripping on all the doors, screens on all the windows. We have had situations where they apparently try to slip thru a door at the hinge side while it is open; occasionally I find one smashed between the door and the frame -- not quick enough to get out of the way when the door closed. But they tend to show up either in the utility room/kitchen area or the bathrooms.  In the utility room/kitchen, they could be coming in from the garage thru the kitchen door.  

But for the bathrooms, they either have to come thru a door and then make their way to the bathrooms, or they are coming directly into the bathrooms. Texas A&M says these are "one of the most common cockroaches in sewer systems", so it seems they could be coming up thru the pipes.

And there are two directions for them to come.  Up from the sewer, or down thru the vent pipes.  We have a set of pipes on the roof that are part of the plumbing.  These pipes vent sewer gas and allow air to enter to equalize air pressure.

But at least on our house, the vents are uncovered on the top, sheathed in lead (the stack flashing) and then painted.

So it might be possible for a bug to enter the pipe on the roof, go down until it meets a branching pipe which would take it to a p-trap.  The p-trap is filled with water, but a swimming bug could go thru that and then be in the house.  I don't know if that actually happens, but they are called "water bugs".

But all the vent needs to be able to do is to allow air to vent, so it seems reasonable that we could put an insect screen over the top of the vent and prevent this from happening.  I would imagine a wire cap sort of like:

 

But there does not seem to be such a thing readily available.  Part of the problem is that the vents may be of different sizes, but also because of the lead flashing.  Note the very top of the vent pipe is somewhat misshapen by the way that the lead flashing is tucked into the pipe.  A closer look at any of the vent pipes shows this problem

And there is also the problem of keeping the screen cap securely on the vent pipe.

Let us consider the scope of the problem.  We have 4 vents in the front of the house for the Master Bathroom: the sinks, the toilet, the bathtub and the shower.

These vary in size from 2.25 to 3 inches and are not totally round.  The lead flashing sometimes sticks out more in one direction than another.

The back bathroom has 3 vents: the sink, the toilet, and the bathtub.  For some reason, the vent for the sink is larger: 3.75 inches while the other two are only 2.25.

The central bathroom has two sinks, and 4 vent pipes: the two sinks, the toilet and the tub.

These all seem to be 2.25 inches, but the variation of the lead flashing takes it to 2.5 or 2.75 inches.

There is one vent pipe for the kitchen sink, 2.25 to 2.5 inches.

and one last vent pipe for the washing machine and the garage sink, at 2.25 inches.

That makes 13 vent pipes total.  One is 3.75 inches while all the others seem to be 2.25 to 3.00 inches.

Our approach is to put a patch of insect screen over the vent, and hold it in place with a worm gear clamp:

I will need clamps that adjust to a range of 2.25 to 3 inches for most of them and one that goes to 4 inches for that one big one.

A trip to Home Depot gets me most of what I need. A roll of silver gray fiberglass screen (36x84) from which I can cut 7 inch squares of screen.  I have one clamp here already, and bought one 4 inch clamp for the largest vent. And a bag of ten stainless steel 1-3/4 inch to 2-3/4 inch clamps to hold the screen in place.  And just in case the clamps are the wrong size, one 1-3/4 inch to 2-3/4 inch clamp separately, so that if it does not fit, I can return the bag of ten without having opened it. (But they work, so no problem there.)  $34.24.

I put the screen patch over the vent pipe, slide the clamp on, and tighten it.

We had 13 clamps.  Two of the vents are too big for the clamps we have; we  needed to get slightly larger ones.: 2.31 to 3.25 inches, another $5.61.

One possible problem is that we got the fiberglass screen.  That should be sufficient.  However, we noticed that a couple of the tops of the lead flashings have been chewed on, presumably by squirrels.  This happened once before and we had to have the flashing replaced.  Obviously if squirrels start chewing on the fiberglass screens, they will not last long.