Irrigation system repair and maintenance in Spring Hill, FL

Signs your sprinklers need work

Brown strips along the fence, the driveway or the sidewalk are often the first sign: the heads there are broken, blocked by grass, tilted or spraying the pavement instead of the lawn. Puddles and soggy spots point the other way, to a leak or a head that sticks on. A zone that doesn’t come on at all, or water running at the wrong time, usually means a valve or the timer.

The side yard in the photos below shows how a strip along a fence can die out, and how it comes back with new sod once the water reaches it.

What a system check covers

Each zone gets turned on and walked. Broken heads get replaced, heads buried by grass get raised and cleaned, and spray patterns get turned back onto the lawn and beds and off the walls and driveway. Then the timer is set to the days and hours your address is allowed to water.

Florida law requires automatic sprinkler systems installed since 1991 to have a rain sensor or a similar shutoff device that stops them after enough rain, and a check is a good time to make sure yours works. Watering days change during water shortages, so check the district’s current rules for your address.

Watering the right amount

More water isn’t better. Lawns watered a little every day grow shallow roots and invite weeds like dollarweed, while lawns watered deeper and less often grow roots that hold up through dry spells. New sod is the exception: it needs water every day for the first couple of weeks while it roots in.