How to do your own sprinkler check
By Gino Bargellini
Licensed Irrigator, Backflow Inspector, Certified auditor
The key to successfully irrigating your lawn or landscape is to make sprinkler checks routine. If you do not have the time you can hire a professional to come or you can simple turn on your sprinklers periodically to make sure they are function properly and pointed in the right place. Doing so can save you both time and money. You are going to set your sprinkler controller to manually run for about 2 minutes at each zone. This will allow you time to evaluate the zone for any damage or leaks. Buy markers or flags to mark heads that need to be repaired.
Common sprinkler repairs
Mis-directed or misaligned heads–Children and pets running across lawns and moving mowers may cause damage to your heads that you will not be aware of until it’s too late. Something as minor as hitting the nozzle and changing the direction can have quite an impact on your lawn or landscape. If your nozzle is pointing towards the sidewalk and not your grass you won’t realize you have a problem until the lawn turns brown. Leaks go often undetected as well. Heads that come out of the ground on an angle will not have the same distribution pattern and may lead to browning in the missed areas.
Broken heads
This is the worst offense. A broken head can waste as much as 4,000 gallons of water every time it goes on. So if your sprinkler goes off at 3am you will not have a clue that you are not only loosing 4,000 gallons of water but that the rest of the zones is not being properly watered.
Not all sprinkler parts are created equal–meaning that they are not usually interchangeable. If you need to replace things like nozzles, heads, and valves you are better off going to a irrigation supply that will have parts from multiple manufactures. Doing so will also ensure that you get quality commercial grade products. If you would like to schedule a sprinkler check or any other irrigation work please feel free to calls at 214-257-8155 or email us at Sales@dallascurbappeal.com.
Gino Bargellini is the Vice President of Dallas Curb Appeal, a full service landscape contractor and DFW Christmas Lights, installing holiday lighting across the Metroplex.
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