1 and 2: Broken heads and heads that moved
Problem one is a broken or clogged head. Mowers, cars and foot traffic crack them, and sand and roots clog the nozzles. The area around it browns while the rest of the zone looks fine.
Problem two is a head that is tilted, sunk or turned. It sprays the driveway, the house or a shrub instead of the lawn. You are paying for the water and the grass is not getting it.
Run each zone and watch it. Five minutes per zone shows more than a season of guessing.
3 and 4: Mixed heads and poor coverage
Problem three is mixing head types on one zone. Spray heads and rotors put down water at very different rates, so one part of the zone floods while another stays dry.
Problem four is poor coverage. Heads should throw water far enough to reach neighboring heads. When they do not, you get dry strips and crescents between them.
Plants grow, too. A shrub that was small when the system went in can block a head entirely years later.
5 and 6: A stale timer and a dead rain sensor
Problem five is a timer that was set once and never touched. Run times that made sense in a dry spring are wrong in the rainy season and far too much in winter. The timer should change with the season and with your county's watering rules.
Problem six is a rain sensor that does not work. Florida requires automatic systems to have a working rain sensor or shutoff device, but they fail, get disconnected or get mounted where rain cannot reach them.
Overwatering from these two problems does not look dramatic. It shows up slowly as dollarweed, sedge, fungus and shallow roots.
7: Leaks and stuck valves
Problem seven is hidden water loss. A cracked line or a leaking fitting leaves a spot that stays soggy, grows faster or sinks. A valve that sticks open keeps a zone running long after it should stop.
Signs include a water bill that jumps, weak pressure on one zone and puddles that appear when the system has not run. These usually get worse, not better.
Have it checked zone by zone
Most irrigation problems are cheap to fix once someone actually looks. Corso inspects heads, coverage, valves, timers and rain sensors, repairs what is broken and tunes the run times to your lawn.
If you have dry spots, soggy spots or a water bill that does not make sense, send us the details through the quote form at /#quote.
