If some of your lawn sprinklers start spraying wildly or if they refuse to come up or go back down, then there might be one or more clogged or broken sprinkler heads. A single sprinkler head might be broken if you hit it with a lawnmower. You could damage several if you drive across your lawn with a car or truck. Sometimes, sprinkler heads wear down due to age and heavy use. As long as the rest of your lawn irrigation system is still in good shape, then fixing the spraying problem might be a matter of replacing or repairing the sprinkler heads. This is a look at how it's done.
Examine The Sprinklers In Action
When you call a sprinkler repair service to your home, they will probably start by turning on the sprinklers so the faulty heads can be identified. Things to check are heads that pop up like they should and the quality of the spray. Some heads may dribble water and others may spray it out wildly. Once the problem sprinkler heads are found and marked, then the soil around them is removed. This entails lifting away the sod carefully so it can be replaced later and then digging a hole around the head to expose it fully along with the pipe that feeds it.
Pull Off The Heads For Cleaning Out Clogs
If the problem is dirt clogged in the heads, then cleaning the heads might get them working again. The heads screw into a tube and are usually easy to unscrew for cleaning. However, if your sprinkler system is old and parts are corroded, the repair person may need to use tools to get the pieces apart. Once the head is taken apart, it can be rinsed in clean water and then reassembled and tested. If the heads still don't operate properly after cleaning, then replacing them is the best solution.
Replace Broken Sprayer Heads
Sprinkler heads can be purchased individually so there is no need to take your entire sprinkler system apart to replace the heads. The broken ones are unscrewed and then new ones are put in their place. It's usually easy to tell when a sprinkler head is damaged because you'll see broken pieces or cracks. Sometimes, it isn't as easy to tell when a sprinkler head is damaged, but you'll know for sure if the problem is solved once the heads are replaced and the water turned on.
Each new sprinkler head is checked again for proper operation and the right spray pattern. The spray pattern will need to be set properly so the water goes in the direction you want. Once the heads are working like they should and spraying in the right direction, soil is placed back in the holes and the sod put back in place.
Broken and clogged heads are common problems with sprinklers, but they are just one part of the lawn irrigation system. Problems can also develop with the pipes or the timer. When your lawn sprinklers aren't working right, you can waste water and the appearance of your lawn can suffer, so you want to have repairs done as soon as you can. Contact companies like Pacific Sunscapes for more information.