Last night came home to a soupy flower bed. In this area have sprinklers and for the past few weeks have also noticed what appears to be a rat hole developing. I put out a rat trap and filled in the hole, but haven't been able to catch the rat who keeps recreating the hole. Apparently, because of the hurricane or whatever, the rat decided to go a bit deeper and found a sprinkler pipe. The picture below shows two pvc pipes. The mud obscures it but you can see the bite marks slightly in the red circle.



The PVC pipe on the left squirts out a ton when the flower bed sprinklers turn on. But I have not been able to get the PVC pipe on the right to squirt out at all. I assume the rat's teeth simply did not go deep enough to puncture it, but I'm a little worried to saw off the section without knowing exactly what it's for.

My question is - knowing 100% that the one on the left delivers water for sprinklers, is there any chance the one on the right does anything besides deliver water to a different zone?

The house is on the right hand side of the picture, but then there's also a pool on the left which is the main thing that makes me nervous. I doubt any pool lines would be layed next to sprinkler lines as they would have been put in by totally different people, but I really don't want to screw something up with the pool system.

I've fixed PVC breaks before and I know it's not too difficult to get done. Just trying to determine if I should immidiately start sawing off the right one without knowing exactly what it is for. At worst can always turn off water to the house I guess.

Is there a chance it goes to something else? Sure. Is it likely? IMO, no. They probably laid out the spinkler pipes together and covered them up. Even if it was something else, like you said just turn off the water and fix it and then turn it back on.

Is there more than one zone in that direction from the valves? If so, likely water.
Turn on that zone and see if you can feel the water running through it.
Other possibility is a conduit for the control wires.

There is another zone and I assume it feeds that.

Do electric wires need to go to each sprinkler head? I thought the zones were "controlled" closer to the box and then the sprinkler heads fed by water pressure essentially. I don't want to cut through the PVC pipe if it possibly houses wires - especially with all the water sitting around.

Thanks

Wouldn't be house wires. Was thinking sprinkler control wires. They will just run from controller to the valve.
Usually direct buried unless they are in an area where they could be damaged, like under a driveway or sidewalk or possibly in a flower bed where digging may take place.

If it heads to another zone, it's probably just water.
I would be tempted to leave it be until it starts leaking.

Can cut a piece of schedule 40 pvc like 2" long, cut it open length wise, use pvc cement on that area slip it over it right over that piece. Seen that done before without issues. Basically just reinforcing the exterior pipe.

Can't say for sure if it was a rodent or what but there was more than one deep dent like this. Also a rat or something had definitely been burrowing in this same spot for a while leading up to the water issue. Put some more rat traps out just in case.

(From the OP) the other pipe ended up not being a sprinkler pipe. It was a live water pipe that I think fed an outdoor spigot. Cut it and it sprayed a bunch. Then turned off the water and replaced it.

Apache said:

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IMO not a rat hole. Looks like a spike/rod was driven between the two pipes and nicked both. The hole was a result of water leaking out.
I've installed for 25 years and the only time animals have been an issue was rodents chewing on drip emitters to get moisture during a drought

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I agree.

maybe a capybara, but not a rat

FatZilla said:

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That is definitely a puncture from a tool/pole. Material is pushed in, not eaten away like a rodent would.

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Thanks - That surprises me because I certainly have not ever pushed any tools or poles down there and there has not been a water puddling/flow issue until a few days ago.

You or the neighbors call 811 recently? Don't know why they'd be that close to a house but if they were probing for a line… could hit it.

It's a tool most definitely.

Ag13 said:

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FatZilla said:

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That is definitely a puncture from a tool/pole. Material is pushed in, not eaten away like a rodent would.

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Thanks - That surprises me because I certainly have not ever pushed any tools or poles down there and there has not been a water puddling/flow issue until a few days ago.

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I live on a golf course and a lot of utility lines run underground in our easement each side of the metal fence. I have no clue why, but when xfinity & ATT were in our subdivision to lay fiber optic cable, the security cameras picked up guys pushing metal rods in the ground along the easement.

Those rods punctured 2 sprinkler supply lines.

They are probing for lines... but using too much force it seems.

aggiedent said:

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Ag13 said:

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FatZilla said:

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That is definitely a puncture from a tool/pole. Material is pushed in, not eaten away like a rodent would.

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Thanks - That surprises me because I certainly have not ever pushed any tools or poles down there and there has not been a water puddling/flow issue until a few days ago.

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I live on a golf course and a lot of utility lines run underground in our easement each side of the metal fence. I have no clue why, but when xfinity & ATT were in our subdivision to lay fiber optic cable, the security cameras picked up guys pushing metal rods in the ground along the easement.

Those rods punctured 2 sprinkler supply lines.

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Now that's interesting. There is actually a thick black wire that runs parallel with one of the PVC pipes. It's obscured by the mud in the original photo but it hugged it so close to the pipe that I kind of struggled to move it out of the way to saw the PVC section. I assume it's an internet/phone line. No clue why anyone would be digging for it though and unfortunately don't have any cameras on that part.