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I have an irrigation system in my yard. It is not a new system and sometimes needs a bit of maintenance. I often need to cut the PVC pipe when repairing a leak or adding an extension to the system. A standard home irrigation system is made up of one half inch pipe. This is a fairly narrow pipe, which makes it easy to work with. There are several ways to cut it. The goal in cutting PVC is always to get a straight and clean cut. A straight and clean cut will fit much better into a connector piece than a curved cut or ragged cut piece will.  ABOVE: Ratchet PVC Cutter You can use a hacksaw to cut any size PVC. A hacksaw is a fairly inexpensive tool. A hacksaw does leave a bit of a raged end which you need to sand to be smooth before connecting it to the system. It can also be a challenge with a hacksaw to get a straight cut. With practice you can probably get pretty good at cutting fairly straightly and sanding the edges. If you are preparing a piece of PVC on a workbench a hacksaw will work pretty well. However, I often find myself cutting a piece of PVC that is part of my system, and so in the ground. It can be pretty awkward to get a hacksaw down into there without a lot of excavation. In most hardware stores you find ratchet cutters designed to cut PVC. I have seen these priced at under twenty dollars, and they often come in a little kit with some other pieces for working on irrigation systems. In my own experience these work extremely well with half inch PVC pipe. You get a very nice clean cut. I have tried to cut pipe larger than one half inch, and have not had as good results. You do still get a clean cut, but the cut is not quite straight.  ABOVE: Heavy Duty PVC Cutter If you do need to cut PVC for irrigation that is thicker than one half inch you might consider a heavy duty PVC cutter. I had to make some repairs to a main line in my system that was three quarters of an inch. To do that I purchased a heavy duty PVC cutter from Klein Tools. These will cost quite a bit more than the basic cutter, so I wouldn't recommend them if you only need to cut one half inch pipe. More about: Tools and Supplies More Articles6 Ways to Spot a SucculentAll About Garden Hand Pruners All About Mulch for your Garden All About Plant Food or Plant Fertilizer for Your Garden All About Pruning Saws All About PVC Pipe Connectors All About Shovels for your Garden! All About Soil pH in Your Garden All About Sphagnum Peat Moss for your Garden All About Using Soil Moist Granules An Illustrated Guide to New England Wildflowers An Illustrated Guide to Some Great Herbs Close Up Photos of Vegetable Seeds Fantastic Asiatic Lily Planting How To Videos Fantastic Bonsai Gardening Videos Fantastic Container Tomato Gardening How To Videos Fantastic Daylily Care How To Videos Fantastic Herb Gardening How To Videos Fantastic Hosta Care How To Videos Fantastic Orchid Care Basics How To Videos Fantastic Organic Vegetable Gardening How To Videos Fantastic Paper Seed Starting Pots How To Videos Fantastic Phalenopsis Orchid Care How To Videos Fantastic Rose Care How To Videos Fantastic Rose Pruning How To Videos Fantastic Time Lapse Videos of Roses Fantastic Tomato Gardening How To Videos Fantastic Tree Planting How To Videos Fantastic Tulip Festival Videos Fantastic Videos of Cactus Flowers Fantastic Water Gardening How To Videos Gardening Basics Growing Aeonium Growing Aloe Growing Limonium Growing Pleiospilos Growing Purple Coneflower Growing Sansevieria I Love Gardening Kiss the Gardener Planting Perennials - The Hole How To Rose Lover Tips for Propagating Sedum Tips for Using Roundup ® in Your Garden Tulip Lover
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