Here are a couple of videos to help you save water and money on you lawn. If you need professional sprinkler repair in Seminole County FL, Apopka or Winter Park, call Craig at 407-920-7246

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SPRINKLER REPAIR ORLANDO

The first video is a presentation  for the POWR program in Ocoee, Florida. ’07

These videos may take a minute to load; patience is a virtue

How Long To Water Your Orlando Lawn

The next video was a presentation done for Orange County Utilities in the summer of 2009. Very long Orlando lawn irrigation video, not for dial-up.

How To Save Money Watering Your Orlando Lawn

NOTE: Due to the large size of the following video file, you may want to hit start, then wait a few minutes

If you would like Craig Borglum (Me) to personally evaluate and repair your lawn sprinklers, please call 407-920-7246
Sorry, I do not service South Orlando (except commercial).

I am the ONLY IA CID/CIC/CLIA/ – EPA Water Sense Partner personally servicing residential sprinkler systems in Central Florida. No helpers, I do the work myself. Residential sprinkler service covering Seminole County, South Volusia County, Apopka and Winter Park Florida.

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Sprinkler repair Orlando tips

Sprinkler Repair Orlando Florida is critical due to the mild climate and long growing season. Because sprinkler systems consist of moving parts, and sprinkler systems in Orlando run most of the year, these sprinkler parts will wear out.

Now is the time to think about “tuning up” your sprinkler system as the hot, dry spring is almost upon us. April, May and June have the highest evapo-transpiration rates in South, and require the most supplemental irrigation. Here is the quick “tune-up” checklist for your sprinkler repair Orlando yard.

1. Make sure your timer is set to the correct time/day. If you experienced a power interruption during the winter, your sprinkler timer may have returned to the default program which is generally 10 minutes per lawn sprinkler zone, set to run every day. Not only is watering every day bad for your plants, wallet and the planet in general, it also violates watering restrictions in many municipalities. If this has happened to your controller, you need to change the backup battery in the sprinkler controller. Be sure to check if your sprinkler timer requires a rechargeable battery. If it does. and you replace it with a regular battery you can harm the controller circuitry.

2-a  Visually inspect each sprinkler zone. Starting with the first “zone” or section, look for:
A. Leaking seals on worn out sprinklers. Old leaking sprinklers can not only waste a lot of water and raise your utility bill, they can steal pressure from your zones leading to a lack of proper coverage.

2-b. Rotors not turning. Rotors, the heads that move and throw a long distance, will eventually stop turning. Rotor heads need to turn in order to provide head to head coverage. When closed case rotors stop turning, for example Hunter PGP’s, they need to be replaced. Impact rotors like the Rain Bird Mini-Paw sometimes stop turning due to some debris in the spring mechanism. Often times this can be solved by a simple cleaning.

2-c. Heads to low in the turf. This is one of the most common problems seen in St. Augustine, Bermuda or other grass types that produce thatch. As the thatch layer grows higher it begins to disrupt the spray pattern of the sprinkler head. If the spray head seems significantly low, you can replace it with a taller head. For example you can change a 4? pop up to a 6? pop up. If the head is only slightly lower than it needs to be you can raise it with a “riser extension” which are commonly available in all hardware stores.  Sprinkler repair Orlando

2-d. Plants blocking spray heads. As the landscape matures, often the sprinkler system needs to change along with it. Before drip irrigation became more common in residential sprinkler systems, a row of PVC pipes with sprinklers on top behind the shrubs was used to water both the lawn and the shrubs. In this type of irrigation design the shrubs will continue to grow higher and end up blocking the water from reaching the grass. With PVC couplings and pipe you could just raise the sprinklers, but there is a better approach. Using flexible PVC hose or “funny pipe” you can move the sprinklers in front of the shrubs into the turf. Then you can install adjustable sprinkler nozzles to throw some water back into the shrubs which are now behind the spray heads. Don’t worry if the shrubs do not receive as much water as the turf. Established shrubbery does not require as much water as does turf due to their deep root growth.   Sprinkler repair Orlando

2-e. Clogged spray nozzles. It takes only a tiny amount of debris to clog a sprinkler nozzle. When that happens coverage suffers. If it appears to only be a slight clog it is often possible to tap on the nozzle with a screw driver handle to clear the obstruction. If this does not work then the nozzle needs to be replaced. Some spray heads come with built in nozzles that cannot be replaced such as the Hunter PS. In this case, open the adjustable nozzle all the way to a 36o degree pattern. This will sometimes flush the obstruction. If it does not, the entire spray head must be replaced.  Sprinkler repair Orlando

2-f. Misaligned sprinkler heads. Sprinklers get out of adjustment as do most things with moving parts. Make sure that you are only watering the landscape, not the road or your patio. Straighten any lawn sprinkler heads that have tilted and are no longer straight.  Sprinkler Repair Orlando

3. Set individual zone run times. There is no “one size fits all” equation for setting zone run times. There are to many variables such as soil conditions, sun or shade areas, and sprinkler system design efficiencies. There are some basics that we can use to determine sprinkler run times. First, rotors and sprays have different run times due to their precipitation rates. In general, rotors must run three times as long as spray heads to deliver the same amount of water over their given area. So if the spray heads run for 10 minutes then the rotors need to run for 30 minutes. However, applying the needed amount of water all at once can lead to other problems. If you have a dense clay soil the amount of water required by the plants will run off if applied in one application due to the poor percolation properties of clay. So rather than apply 12 minutes all at once, it would be more beneficial to apply three separate applications of four minutes each. This is accomplished by setting the controller to three separate starts times spaced closely apart. If you have four zones consisting of two spray and two rotor zones, the settings would be as follows for the above clay soil example. the spray zones would run for four minutes and the rotors for twelve minutes. This is a total system run time for all zones of 32 minutes. We can then set the sprinkler controller to start every 45 minutes in succession. We would want the last start time to finish near daybreak so our start times would be 3:30, 4;15 and 5:00 AM.  Sprinkler repair Orlando.

4. Turn your controller to off. Watering your yard with a “set it and forget” approach is not the wisest course. Water your yard only when you see signs of wilt or stress. This will promote deeper root growth and healthier turf. Over watering your landscape also promotes a variety of pest and turf diseases. More is definitely not better when it comes to irrigation.
5. Don’t obsess over having a perfect lawn. When it comes to the national obsession over having perfect lush grass and sprinkler systems, I believe this mentality is in need of change. We pour billions of pounds of pesticide and fertilizer on our yards every year. All of this toxic goo eventually winds up in our drinking water. I personally believe it is okay to have a weed or two in the grass. At my home I have non-irrigated Bahia grass. It thrives naturally in Florida without any assistance from me. When it rains it’s green. When it doesn’t rain it’s brown but that’s okay. It will be green when it rains again. I do have a drip irrigation system on my flowers that I turn on occasionally when they need it. I never water my shrubs and they do just fine. Most of my plant material is either native to the State or drought tolerant. That way I have time for  sprinkler repair Orlando