Subsurface irrigation install process

Subsurface Drip Irrigation Installation Process

With more than 16 years' experience in subsurface irrigation, and in the early years, the need to be innovative with methods to install being constantly looking a better ways for irrigation systems to work.

When installing subsurface drip irrigation, there are a couple of ways to carry out the process, installation via trenching or using a vibratory plough attachment. Soil type and quality, is the factor that matters most, the harder the soil the more likely it is that the ground will need to be trenched with a chain trencher to be able to get the required depth in the soil for the dripline to be installed. This method is the most labour intensive, as trenches need to be manually cleaned out, before dripline can be laid in than backfilled. Some soil types are hydrophobia (water repellent soil) which will take a little time to absorb the water produced from the home, trenches will appear to be wet and soggy for a period, but over a number of weeks the surrounding soils will start to take up the moisture and eventually distribute evenly over the irrigation field.

When using a Vibratory plough, dripline is feed directly into the grove that is cut by the plough, than as the machine tracks move back over the plough cut, the ground folds back closed, leaving very little disturbance. Only head and tail courses need to be cut with trencher, than supply lines installed and connected to the dripline, flush taps and air bleed valves installed. This is by far our preferred option to install subsurface drip line, we have changed our way of installation and connection of dripline to the header lines, from the years of experience gained.

Filtration - Irrigation

With the years of experience and customer feedback, we continually strive to improve our installation process, plus the appearance of the wastewater treatment system. In the early days when we installed drip irrigation, the standard practice was to install the filtration, off the side of the tank, and also if required the indexing valve was also placed here, this was unsightly and prone to damage.

Now depending on the application, the filters & indexing valves are either installed below ground in a large valve box adjacent to the treatment system or the filters are installed inside the wastewater treatment system pump well, both options with easy access for servicing and minimalizing the visual impact.

Civcon will not cut corners; sometimes we miss sales due to this, because we believe in supplying the customer with what will work best for their application, not what is the cheapest. We use dual stainless steel mesh filtration cartridges on our subsurface irrigation installations, not single, these cartridges start at 32mm and go up in size depending on the size of the irrigation field.