Sprinkler Repairs and Dead Zones
A zone that will not start and a zone that starts but waters nothing are two completely different faults. Guessing between them is how people replace parts that were never broken.
What usually goes wrong
- A head snapped off or driven over — the most common call, and the quickest fix.
- A head that rises but will not turn, or turns but will not rise.
- A valve that weeps, so one zone never fully shuts off and the box stays wet.
- A wiring fault or a failed solenoid, where the controller says the zone is running and nothing happens.
- Gradual pressure loss across a zone, which usually means a leak underground rather than a bad head.
Diagnosis before parts
The useful work is finding out which of those it actually is. A zone that is dead at the valve is an electrical problem. A zone that runs at low pressure is a hydraulic one. They look identical from the kitchen window and they need different repairs.
We run the zones, watch what each head does, and check the valve and the wiring before quoting anything. If the answer is that one head needs replacing rather than the system needs work, that is what you will be told.
Systems we did not install
Perfectly fine. A good part of repair work is on systems put in by somebody else, sometimes years ago, sometimes with no records of where anything is. Finding the valve boxes is often the first job.
Most of it is found at the startup
The majority of these faults are found in April rather than reported in July, because a spring startup runs every zone in front of somebody who is watching for exactly this. A fair share of them are also caused by the fall blowout that never happened.
Sprinkler repairs, asked and answered
One zone is not coming on at all. Is that expensive?
Usually not. A dead zone is most often a solenoid or a wiring fault at the valve, and both are small parts. The cost is in finding it, not fixing it.
My water bill jumped. Could that be the sprinklers?
It can be. A valve that does not close fully will run water quietly for weeks without anything looking wrong above ground. It is worth checking.
Can you work on a system you did not install?
Yes. A lot of repair work is on other people's systems, including ones with no documentation at all.