Avoid damaging your sprinkler system

Whether you are trimming bushes, digging up weeds or planting a garden, make sure you don’t interfere with your sprinkler system while landscaping your yard. After all, you don’t want to put in your landscaping, just to encounter a bigger problem – damaged water lines. 

Here are some tips that will help you avoid any costly fixes to your lawn’s sprinkler system, or damage to your yard.

Use a landscape map to protect your system from damage

One common cause of sprinkler system damage occurs during times of landscape upkeep. 

In some instances, a sprinkler head can be damaged when run over with lawn equipment. In other instances, a shovel or other yard tool could pierce the piping when digging in the ground to install plants. These mistakes are often due to not using a landscape map. 

Landscape maps play an important role in protecting your sprinkler system. If you have not already done so, we recommend you place a flag down or make a marks in your yard where your sprinkler heads are located. In the future, this will help you to remember where those heads are located. Once you have marked them, create a landscape map of your yard.

To make the map, do the following: 

• Sketch a layout of your yard, including buildings, large trees and shrubs, property lines, fences, utility lines, paved areas, and the sprinkler heads. 

• Next, measure permanent objects such as the house, driveway, lengths of fences, etc. and add those measurements to the rough map. 
• Now, measure accurate locations by using stakes and string to mark a straight line along a property boundary. Beginning at one corner of the property, measure the distance from the boundary to the nearest corners of the house, trees and other objects on your map.
• Next, transfer those measurements to graph paper and use the rule of one inch to represent four feet for small yards or one inch to 20 feet for larger yards.
• Lastly, trace paper overlays by tape the base map to a table or board and then laying sheets of tracing paper over it and make additional maps as needed to show specific items in the yard.

Monitor your water consumption, track areas that are greener

Most homeowners  want a green yard, but sometimes certain areas appear more green than others. In some cases, this can indicate a leak in your sprinkler line. Excessive water consumption is a problem brought about due to a damaged sprinkler system and this can be an expensive surprise to your water bill. 

For homeowners with a septic tank, this could also indicate a leach field or other possible issues with your septic system. 

Test your backflow prevention and timer to ensure sprinkler system is properly working

To protect your indoor plumbing from getting contaminated, a backflow prevention device will ensure the safety of your water. It is critical to inspect the backflow prevention device, as well as timers, on a regular basis, in order to protect your home from contamination from your sprinkler system backflow. If you do not already have a sprinkler system with programmable controls, we recommend looking into that in order to improve your sprinkler systems performance. 

Contact Plumbers 911 to have a professionally trained, licensed, bonded and insured plumber check on your sprinkler system to ensure you have no problems with contamination.