During the winter months, many homeowners turned their sprinkler systems off because most vegetation went into a dormant stage. March is the time when most people begin cleaning up their yards and getting their flower beds ready for spring planting. Prior to planting new vegetation, it is very important that the sprinkler system is turned on and any necessary repairs conducted before the plants go in the ground. Often encountered are homeowners who have spent their hard-earned money and their precious weekend hours beautifying their yard with flowers, plants and new grass, only to find out that their sprinkler system is not functioning properly.

Because the north Texas area has experienced several bouts of freezing temperatures during these past winter months, it is quite possible that sprinkler systems will not perform properly when turned back on. There could be broken pipes, malfunctioning valves, busted sprinkler heads, its all a surprise until its turned back on.

By turning on the sprinkler system prior to planting new vegetation, homeowners can avoid a situation where they will need to water everything by hand, or worse yet, the new plantings suffer from the drought. Also, homeowners can avoid a situation where new plantings need to be dug up to repair sprinkler equipment either below or adjacent to the plants. This can be distressing to the vegetation as well as to the homeowner.

Homeowners do not necessarily need to have a professional conduct a system check; however, depending on what is discovered, they may wish to contact a Licensed Irrigator to conduct any of the repairs that are outside their comfort zone and/or abilities. Please keep in mind, it is state law that anyone working on a sprinkler system that is not their own, that they must be licensed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). This is very important to know if homeowners are working on a neighbors sprinkler system, and vice versa.

The System Check

The homeowner can do a simple check of their sprinkler system by turning on a single station at a time. It is a good idea to check your sprinkler system on a monthly basis.
The majority of newer controller models have a test function that homeowners can use to check the sprinkler system. Most are preset to run for two minutes per station.
Simply walk through the property as each station runs and look for geysers or low pressure areas.
If there is a station that has very low pressure and the spray heads are not popping up completely, this could indicate that there is a leak. The leak is robbing the pressure to adequately run the station properly.
When checking stations such as flower beds, it is important to check the shrub risers against the house to verify that the risers are not misadjusted and spraying water onto the wall, or more importantly, window frames.
There are literally hundreds of connections on a lawn sprinkler system that can spring a leak at anytime.
Keep in mind that there are irrigation supply lines running throughout the yard, typically in the front yard and back yard. These lines can leak even with the controller turned off.
A main line leak can usually be found by walking around the house and looking for any soggy spots.