I try and keep the manifold as close to the house as I can. Most of the time I have to dig 10-15 feet for the PVC mainline, But on the larger yards where I need two valve boxes, I connect in the house and in and out of the PVB with PVC, go under the rock border along the house, then immediatly change to a poly mainline. I've been using poly main for about a month or two now. Then I just branch off to the two manifolds with the puller and I'm all set.