Irrigation Boring Tools

If your goal is to install an irrigation system in your own yard but you don't want to destroy your garden in the process, look to a number of irrigation boring tools to keep your yard intact.

If you've yet to seed your lawn, then digging trenches in which to lay down irrigation lines prior to laying down the lawn is standard procedure. But what if you like the lawn you have and you'd like to avoid tearing up your existing sod? The answer is to use boring tools to create a tunnel through which to thread the pipes. One method is to attach a jet-type nozzle to your garden hose and use it to wash away soil, then push the PVC pipe through as you go. This is an effective method when tunneling under short segments of sidewalk or walkways, but it won't work well for longer tunnels, or if you have rocks or concrete to get through.

For longer, tougher boring, try a ground piercing tool. Placed at the entrance to a trench about five feet long, the tool – which is driven by a jackhammer – can bore a 2-inch diameter hole up to 60 feet in length. The hardened steel tip can bore through rock or concrete.

If you don't have a jackhammer, there are other irrigation boring tools available that attach to a hand drill. A threaded galvanized pipe is attached on one end to a drill bit, on the other to the boring attachment. A garden hose is plugged into a valve on the attachment, flushing away the detritus and keeping the tool lubricated as you work. This tool can tunnel up to 70 feet, essentially coring out material as it goes. Once the desired tunnel length has been reached, the pipe – now packed with the unwanted earth, rock, etc. – is pulled back out, bringing the bored-out material with it.

Contractors have traditionally gone with the water-jet/hammering method as it's low-tech and doesn't them anything in new equipment. But the investment in irrigation boring tools pays for itself in the savings of man hours – they do the job much faster, averaging about one or two feet per minute. This means that a 60-foot driveway could be prepared for an irrigation line in a little over an hour.

Saving time, money and the homeowner's lawn, the new generation of irrigation boring tools are a smart alternative to digging up sidewalks, walkways and lawns.