With your layout set, head down to your local hardware or yard store and start picking out your sprinkler heads. Most sprinkler assemblies come with tags that will tell you how much water pressure they require to operate effectively. If they don't, ask one of the helpful salespeople to look it up for you. Armed with the knowledge of what your home water pressure is, you can break that down into how many sprinkler heads you can fit on one valve. You can generally fit twice as many of the small sprayers on one stage, as you can of the large, rotating sprinklers.
You can then purchase your valves and timer based on what you need. The timer does not need to be anything fancy. You will need to locate it near the water source and some electricity, unless you buy one that works off a battery, so keep that in mind when shopping.
The other part of your sprinkler system is the piping. PVC is usually best and easy to work with. All you need to figure out how much tubing you need is a tape measure and the number of sprinkler heads. Measure out where in the yard you want your pipe to run. At each sprinkler head, you will need a riser. The length of the riser will depend on how deep your pipe is going to be laid and how tall your sprinkler head is. You will also need a T at each sprinkler head, and elbows at the valves and any corners. Keep in mind that you will need one line of pipe for each valve. The best way to figure this out is to draw it out. Have someone else look at it too. The worst that can happen though, is that you may have to go back down to the hardware store for a little bit more.
Next week, the jigsaw puzzle comes together . . .
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