Draining the Outdoor Faucets and Sprinkler Lines

Blowing out the sprinkler lines and draining the outdoor faucets before the first hard freeze is the November chore that closes the watering year. It comes after the last mowing and before the ground locks, on an afternoon when the air has the flat cold of the first hard freeze and the leaves have been down long enough to lie flat and wet. The daylight is going by the time the work starts; the person with the job works from the basement outward, shutting the water off where it enters the house, then chasing every drop out of the pipes with gravity, a wrench, and a tank of compressed air.

The shut-off

Inside, at the point where the pipe goes through the wall, the shut-off handles turn clockwise until they stop. The irrigation system has its own shut-off, a ball valve or a gate valve wrapped in foam on the line between the house and the valve boxes. Both are closed before anything outside is opened. In the basement, the sound is the same sound a valve makes at the end of summer: a hard click, then silence. Both handles sit snug against the stops, and the water beyond them goes still.

The open spigots

Each outdoor faucet is then opened all the way. The long frost-proof kind has its stem set back inside the heated wall, and opening it lets the water in the exposed brass drain out through the spout. The plain kind drains the same way, though it leaves more water standing in the riser behind it. The first water comes out brown at the start, then clears, running with the force of a late-summer hose; it slows to a thread, then to a drip. The drips hang on the threads for a moment before falling onto the mud where the downspout emptied all fall. The faucets are left hanging open.

The low drains

With the spigots open, the irrigation system gives up its water at the low points. The valve boxes are scattered across the yard, each one a green plastic lid set flush in the grass. Under the lids are small brass drain valves fitted at the bottom of the manifold and at the lowest dip of each line. The valves are turned open one at a time, beginning at the high end of the yard. Water runs out the tiny openings in brown spurts, carrying a summer's worth of fine silt, then slows to a leak. The last drains empty in a rhythm of single drops that can be counted. Each drain valve is left open until the blowout is done.

The blowout

Now the compressor comes up from the truck. A short hose reaches from the compressor to the blow-out fitting, which is a hose bib or a brass coupling fitted into the supply line ahead of the irrigation valves. The hose is screwed on hand-tight, and the regulator is set well below the pressure the pipes can safely take. The zone valves are worked one at a time. With one zone open and the rest closed, the heads in that zone lift one after another, each rising out of the grass and putting up a fine mist that catches the low November sun. The mist thins to spits, then to vapor, and the heads begin to sing a hollow note as the last water leaves them. The zone valve is shut, the next one is opened, and the mist moves across the lawn in order, zone by zone, until the last head has gone quiet.

The backflow

Above the ground near the foundation, the backflow preventer holds water in its own brass chambers. It is drained last, after the zones have had their air. The small test cocks on its side are turned open, and the plugs at the bottom of the chambers are loosened. Water that has been sitting in the brass all day pours out, clear and cold, and makes a dark spot on the gravel. When the spot stops growing, the test cocks stay open, and the plugs are replaced without being tightened.

The hoses

Every garden hose that was left lying in the yard is a line full of water. A hose connected to an open spigot will keep the whole length wet and freeze solid along the ground. The hoses are pulled straight, one end lifted, and walked along until the water pours out the lower end. Each hose is coiled into a loop a foot across and put in the garage or the shed, with the couplings wiped dry on a rag. The hoses are stacked off the ground, empty, with the couplings wiped dry.

The final check

The last pass around the foundation checks everything that was opened. The drain valves under the valve boxes are closed again, the blowout done, and the valve box lids are screwed down flush with the grass. The compressor hose is disconnected from the blow-out fitting, and the fitting's cap goes back on. The outdoor faucets hang open against the foundation, and the sprinkler valve box lids sit flush in the grass.