Question
Hi,  I recently bought a house that has an irrigation system.  The coverage is decent, but spotty in some places.  There are only 3 zones and there should probably have been 4.  My controller is a 4 zone clock.  The system is Nelson.  I have looked to see if I could just change the nozel's from 10's to 12's or in a few cases 15's, but with the layout of the yard I can only do this in a few spots.  My question is can I add heads to an existing zone even if I go a little over the 16gallons per zone to increase my coverage?  I don't want to add another full zone as I will have to rip apart my yard fairly extensively. If I can add to a zone do I need to  go 1" pvc or can I just "T-off" the flexy's if the run is not more then 10ft?

Thanks for the advice.

Answer
Hey Brian, I hope this helps. It depends on how many gallons per minute you are getting that will determine if you can go over 16 gallons per minute. I'm sorry but you will need to calculate this. I would recommend, if you do add heads, is to tee off of the main lateral line(feeder line)with 1/2" pvc to the new heads, instead  of the swing joints at the heads. Another thing to consider, there is a fairly new nozzle called an MP rotor, that puts out a small amount of water (1 gpm), but it can throw up to 20 feet. You could try changing just the nozzles on the heads to the new rotor nozzle, and could adjust these new nozzles to throw as little or as far as you need, to give you better coverage. The situation you have, is the reason they invented these new nozzles. They are a little expensive though ( $4.00 to $5.00 apiece.) but it could save you a lot of labor. Good luck and have a great day.