Preparing Your Sprinkler System for Spring

Finally, winter is over!  Now is the time to start preparing your sprinkler system for spring.  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.  Before 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.

Because the McKinney sprinkler repair 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, it’s all a surprise until it’s turned back on.

By turning on the sprinkler system before planting, you can avoid a situation where you will need to water everything by hand, or worse yet, the new plantings suffer from the drought.  Also, you 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 you!

You don’t necessarily need to have a professional conduct a system check; however, depending on what is discovered, you may wish to contact a Plano sprinkler repair company to conduct any of the repairs that are outside of your comfort zone.

The System Check

• You can do a simple check of your 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 you can use to check the sprinkler system.  Most are preset to run for two minutes per station.
• Simply walk through your 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 mean that there is a leak.  The leak is robbing the pressure to properly run the station.
• When checking stations such as flower beds, it is important to check the shrub risers against the house to make sure that the risers are not misaligned and spraying water onto the wall or 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.