Sprinkler System Repair

Sprinkler Systems

Are Watering Rules of Thumb Accurate?

Posted on September 25, 2017

One inch of water per week, 30 minutes per zone, 15 minutes per zone: no matter the advice, these one-size-fits-all solutions to watering lawns are all myths. You cannot apply this type of watering advice because all lawns and sprinklers differ. One inch of water or 30 minutes per week might be the right amount for some lawns and sprinkler systems, but certainly not all.

Determining How Much to Water

Every lawn is different. In fact, your yard might have changing water needs between sections. Several factors affect the amount of water your lawn requires. Watering recommendations are scientific. Factors which affect watering include:

Keep in mind that depending on your watering method, you might need to water for more or less time. If you have a sprinkler system, these are typically designed to distribute moisture evenly over your lawn. If you use, hoses and sprinklers or water by hand, you will need to be more careful about distributing water as needed across your grass.

Help From an Expert

A lawn expert can help you determine the ideal amount of water for your lawn by taking soil samples, measuring root depth, and measuring the inches of water put out by your sprinklers per hour. Contact Pearson Sprinkler Co. to have a lawn care expert help you.

Your Complete Sprinkler Maintenance Checklist

Posted on August 21, 2017

Properly maintaining your sprinkler irrigation system typically requires maintenance at two key times of the year: spring open and fall close. Following a careful maintenance checklist will save you money, water, and limit the potential for requiring any high-cost repairs.

Spring Open

Fall Close

Water is removed from the lines when winterizing a system. An air compressor attaches to the system’s main line after its backflow device to blow out the water.

Sprinkler systems in Plano, TX do not necessarily need to be completely winterized; the main concern with sprinklers in the winter are pipes bursting due to frozen ground water. If you choose to winterize your system or you would like to minimize the use of your system throughout the cooler months, contact sprinkler repair and installation professional at Pearson Sprinkler in Plano, TX. to assist you with the process.

Autumn Lawn Care: 7 Steps to Take Right Now

Posted on


Although summer, the official backyard season, is coming to a close, you should not neglect lawn care just yet. If you take the following seven steps throughout the autumn, your lawn will grow back with even more brilliance next year.

1.      Continue Mowing – The days are shorter and the temperatures are lower, but your grass is still growing. Continue to mow and water, perhaps less    frequently than in July. As you approach the final mow of the season, gradually lower your mower blades for a shorter cut which will encourage quicker  regrowth come spring.
2.      Remove Debris – Removing debris which becomes excessive in the fall, such as leaves, needles, or pine-cones ensures a healthy yard next year. Keeping your yard free from decaying substances also controls backyard bugs including ticks and mosquitoes.
3.      Aerate – Fall is the perfect time to aerate your yard, which loosens soil, improving the health of your lawn.
4.      Eradicate Weeds – In autumn, plants begin survival mode, drinking up as much as water and sunlight as possible  (including weed killer). Applying weed  killer to weeds which overwhelmed your yard through summer will ensure they do not return.
5.      Fertilize – Fertilizer are also more effective in fall. Fertilize your lawn now, ensuring plants have the nutrients needed for full growth next year.
6.      Fix Patches – Lay down a lawn repair mixture to regrow a full yard in the spring.
7.      Plant Bulbs – Autumn is the time to upgrade your garden for spring. Plant bulb flowers like tulips, hyacinth, daffodils, and peonies to enjoy their colorful blooms once the snow melts.

Autumn is the best time to ensure your lawn stays healthy through the winter and regrows beautifully come spring. Contact a local lawn care professional for help.

Watering Advice for City of Plano Residents

Posted on June 9, 2016

Plano, Texas has been ranked as one of the best places to live in the country by many sources for many reasons and for many, many years! We also believe that Plano is the best place to work! With our office being centrally located in Plano, we feel privileged to be able to provide our services to such a great community. Bryan, the owner was born and raised in Plano and feels heightened pride at being able to give back to his community in one form or another.

If you are trying to decide whether to water in the very early morning hours or the very late evening hours on your watering day (since watering is not permitted between 10am and 6pm), we at recommend watering with a “Cycle & Soak” technique in the very early morning hours as wind is at its lowest point during that time. In Plano, it still may be breezy in the late evening and this will cause the water droplets from the spray heads to be blown away and the rate evaporation will also be increased. Also, the peak heat of the day in the summer occurs around 5pm. Avoiding the peak, or near-peak heat of the day is ideal.

At our house, we water using four cycle times: 12am, 1am, 2am, and 3am. During each cycle, we set the system to water each zone for seven to eight minutes. By the time the next cycle starts, the clay-rich soil is ready to absorb more water. At the end of the fourth cycle, each zone will have been watered for 28 to 32 minutes, with very minimal runoff. This saves us water and money!!

Watering restrictions are currently in effect for the residents and businesses of the City of Plano. [Please visit the City of Plano’s website to review the current restrictions and to find out your permitted watering day(s) https://www.plano.gov/220/Water-Conservation-Restrictions-Home.] As of now, June 2016, the City of Plano is in Stage 1 watering restrictions. Watering using hose-end sprinklers or an automatic sprinkler system is limited to two days per week. Watering is allowed on Mondays and Thursdays for even-numbered houses and on Tuesdays and Fridays for odd-numbered houses. Watering is not permitted between 10am and 6pm. Exceptions include hand-held hoses, soaker hoses or permanently installed drip irrigation systems may be used on any day and at any time.
https://www.plano.gov/DocumentCenter/View/8081

Uses for Drip Irrigation

Posted on March 22, 2015

What a crazy summer we had last year – hot, hot, hot and dry, dry, dry!  Well, I guess the hot and dry isn’t so crazy, but the unprecedented watering restrictions sure were!  For the first time, many cities in our lawn sprinkler service area implemented once-every-two-week watering restrictions.  Although very similar, some cities enforced twice-a-month watering restrictions.  Because these restrictions were in place last summer, and continue to be until further notice, drip irrigation is beginning to become an alternative that many people are becoming more and more interested in for their gardens, flowerbeds and foundations.  When watering restrictions are in place, most cities allow watering using drip irrigation when aboveground watering is not permitted.  The permissible use of drip irrigation can differ city to city and can range from no restrictions at all to being allowed for up to two hours per day.  That’s not bad at all!

Drip irrigation was first developed in the mid-1960s and it has been used in landscaping since the mid-1980s in North America.  It has even been field tested at the Center for Irrigation Technology in Fresno, California since 1989.  Basically, drip irrigation consists of a series of tubes with holes and emitters that allow a specific amount of water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone.  Drip irrigation can be located on top of the soil, buried below a layer of mulch or buried four to eight inches below the surface.

Many of our sprinkler repair customers in Plano, TX like the idea of drip irrigation for their flowerbeds, foundations and parkways because those tend to be the areas that are most affected when severe watering restrictions are in place.  Drip irrigation is a great alternative to standard pop-up, rotor or other above ground sprinkler heads for several reasons:

Converting or adding drip irrigation is a bit more than laying down soaker hoses or attaching drip irrigation tubing to an existing station of your sprinkler system.  Adding drip irrigation involves installing new valves and equipment, creating separate watering zones.  Creating separate zones for drip irrigation will allow for a more precise and frequent watering schedule.  Also, drip irrigation requires a different level of water pressure as well as a different volume of water.  If it were on the same zone as pop-up spray heads, it would not function properly.

One thing that we highly recommend is the use of plastic stakes to hold the drip irrigation tubing in place.  Many Frisco lawn sprinkler companies tend to use metal stakes.  Metal stakes rust over time and can become sharp, damaging the tubing.  It addition, be careful with lawn equipment around drip irrigation.  The tubing is no match for a weed eater or lawn mower.  Rodents have also been known to chew through tubing in search of water.