Padrino's Sprinklers & Landscape

Fiber crew tore up your sprinklers?

They're boring under lawns all over the Front Range right now, and they hit irrigation lines doing it. We fix them.

Call (970) 415-1430
The part nobody tells you

The worst damage doesn't show up for weeks

Sprinkler damage after fiber installation isn't always obvious right away. A boring crew can cut a lateral, nick a fitting, or leave dirt inside the line, and the problem may not show up until the irrigation system runs again.

When a bore or a trench cuts a lateral line, the pipe fills with dirt. The crew patches the pipe, backfills the hole, and it looks fixed. It isn't.

The dirt is still inside the line. Nothing happens until that zone runs. Then the water picks up all that soil and pushes it down the lateral, straight into every head downstream. They pack solid, one after another.

So the call we get is usually not "they hit my sprinkler." It's "a bunch of my heads stopped working and I don't know why." Weeks later, and it doesn't look connected to the digging at all.

That's also why it's worth reporting even if the crew already came back and repaired their cut. The pipe got fixed. The line didn't get flushed.

What to actually look for, next time you run it:
  • Heads that barely dribble, or come up and won't pop, while the rest of the zone is fine
  • One zone weak all over, or a run of heads that quit in sequence
  • Grit or mud spitting out of a head on start-up
  • A dry patch showing up in a spot that was fine last month
  • Wet ground or a soft spot near where they dug
If they dig over the winter

A blown-out system hides the damage completely

Once the water is out for winter, a cut lateral does nothing at all. No leak, no wet spot, no sound. The system sits there from November to April looking exactly like a system nobody touched.

And you cannot test for it while it is dry. Pushing air down the line will not tell you, because every head leaks air anyway, so there is nothing to hear and nothing to hold pressure. To actually find a break you would have to charge the system with water, run it, and then blow it out a second time. In freezing weather that means putting water back into a system you just spent money emptying, and hoping the weather holds while you do it.

So there is no clean way to check. Which means the thing that protects you is not a test, it is a record.

If a crew works your yard between the blowout and spring:
  • Photograph the machine, the trench or bore line, and anything with a company name on it. Get the date in the shot if you can.
  • Report it to the provider then, even with no damage to claim yet. You are putting a marker down while it is fresh.
  • Mark roughly where they dug, so somebody can start there in April instead of guessing.
  • Tell whoever starts your system up in spring. That is the day it will show, and knowing where to look changes how long it takes to find.

The reason this matters is timing. A claim filed in April about digging that happened in December is a hard conversation. The same claim, opened in December with photographs and reopened in April, is a much easier one.

The question everybody asks first

Who pays when a fiber crew cuts your sprinkler line?

Usually the company that did the digging, or the subcontractor they hired. If a boring crew went through your irrigation, the damage is theirs to make right, and every one of them has a property damage claims process for exactly this. It is not automatic. Nobody calls you. You have to report it.

The catch is that Colorado 811 does not mark sprinkler lines. A free locate covers gas, electric, water, telecom. Irrigation is a private utility on private property and sits outside that. So a crew can do everything right by the book and still bore straight through your lateral, and they often do, because a sprinkler line is only six to twelve inches down.

That is also why the answer is not "call 811 and complain." It is a property damage claim against the company that dug, and it goes better with dates, photographs, and a plain description of what broke. The form below writes that description for you.

Which companies are doing this in Denver right now

The crews boring under Front Range lawns are working for Google Fiber, Quantum Fiber, Comcast Xfinity, Metronet and Intrepid Fiber, plus the subcontractors each of them hires. The truck in your street often carries the sub's name, not the provider's. Photograph it either way. That photo is the single most useful thing you can have when you file.

What if the crew already came back and fixed it?

Then the pipe got repaired and the line never got flushed. Dirt entered the lateral the moment it was cut, and it is still sitting in there. The next time that zone runs, the water carries the soil downstream and packs it into every head on the line. This is why so many people call weeks later about heads that quit for no apparent reason. It is still worth reporting, and it is still worth having someone look at it.

Where we go

Denver and the metro, including Aurora, Lakewood, Arvada, Westminster, Thornton, Centennial, Littleton, Englewood, Wheat Ridge and Commerce City, out to Longmont, Broomfield, Parker, Castle Rock and Highlands Ranch.

We repair irrigation. We are not attorneys and nothing here is legal advice. What we can tell you is what got damaged, how it got damaged, and what it takes to put it right, in writing, which is what a claim needs.

Tell us what happened

Takes a minute. We'll call you back and go over what happened.

We'll call you back. If it's easier, just ring (970) 415-1430 instead.

Then file your claim

Fill the form above first, then press this. It writes your claim statement using what you just typed, so you're not staring at a blank box trying to remember dates.

Open in email

Why there's no form to download: none of the fiber companies publish a public property damage claim form. You call or email them, and whoever picks up asks you to describe what happened. That's what the statement above is for. Paste it, or read it out.

  1. Shut the water off first at the main valve or the backflow device, before anything freezes or floods.
  2. Photograph the damage, the trench or conduit, and the name on the crew's truck if they're still around.
  3. Flag or stake the spot so nobody has to hunt for it later.
  4. Get a written repair estimate. That's the number the claim runs on. We'll give you one.
  5. Write down who you spoke to and when, every time. These claims get handed between departments and the person with a log wins.

Straight with you about two things

We're a sprinkler company, not a claims service. We don't file paperwork with the fiber company or argue with their insurer for you. What we do is come out, find what got cut, document it properly with photos and a written assessment, and repair it. That documentation is what you hand to whoever's paying, and it carries a lot more weight coming from a trade than from a phone snapshot.