Should You Install Sprinklers Or Sod First?

Another question that I get a lot of is should I put sprinklers in before or after I put in my sod? And the answer is pretty much ideally you want to put it in before. You cannot put that in after. After all the sod has been laid, but it is a real mess and you end up having to dig up some of the sod that you just laid and it is not ideal. So, the ideal situation is to take your--if you are going to do any packing of the soil before you lay your sod, do that before you put in your sprinklers and dig your trenches, put your pipe in the ground, put your sprinklers system in, and then lay your sod on top of the sprinkler system. So, what you want to do when you are putting in your sod is flag all the sprinkler heads and leave them this much above the dirt that much thick enough, so that they will still stick up above the length of the depth of the sod. But, still be down far enough that they would not get clipped by your lawn mower.

So, when you put your sod down, you will just lay it right over on top of the sprinkler and just take an edging knife and cut over the hole of the sprinkler, pop that down and then you are good to go. So, if you want to install your sprinkler system and you are putting in a sod, you want to do it before you lay the sod.