Taking sprinklers off line

I'm putting in a brick walking path and no longer require sprinklers in the area and I want to take these out or cap them off. However, there is a sprinkler line running under the path that still accesses another area of grass.

What is the best way to cap the existing sprinklers or take them out without having to dig up the entire line?

I would unscrew each sprinkler head and replace them with a cap.

If you live where you have freezing temperatures in the winter, you must be able to blow the water out of that line in the fall or it will freeze and break. I would cap the line where it begins. You can leave the pipe in the ground, but I would not allow it to have water in it. Now if it never freezes where you are, then capping the risers would be OK.

Good point about winterizing, Gary.

If the line you need to cap is upstream from the section that you still want to water, then you won't be able to just cap it off at the beginning or you'll cut off the supply of water to that section.

It might be best to still replace the heads with caps, but put a riser on the very last one, so you can easily remove that cap to blow out the line in the Fall, and then replace it the next spring.

I read that he has more sprinklers downstream from the heads he wants to cap. In that case, winterizing won't be a prob bkz the downstream heads'll relieve the water.

If the head in question is going to be UNDER the patio, you should really splice and couple the line. Any capped riser might be too high and crack when the patio is installed.

If the sprinklers are outside of the area, but just aren't required to emit any more, the best thing (IMHO) to do is to remove the nozzles, fill their holes with silicone or epoxy, place a small bit of tape behind the nozzle and then slide it back into the head and screw it back into place. This will cause the head to pop up, but not emit.

THis will require NO digging, and will allow you to easily find the head if you wish to make future changes.

You could also use threaded plugs in the tees.