Hard-to-find sprinkler problems usually leave clues.
Sometimes the clue is water. Sometimes it's pressure. Sometimes it's what the system is doing when it should be doing nothing at all.
Don't start throwing parts at a problem you haven't found yet.
A sprinkler system can make the same symptom for several different reasons. Low pressure does not automatically mean bad heads. A wet area does not automatically tell you where a pipe failed. We start with what the system is actually doing and work from there.
What are we trying to figure out?
The goal is not a fancy diagnosis. It's a useful one: where the problem is, what is causing it, and what actually needs to be repaired.
- Whether water loss is happening on the mainline, a valve, or a particular irrigation zone
- Why one zone is weak while the rest of the system works normally
- Whether a buried leak, damaged fitting, restriction, valve problem, or another system issue fits the symptoms
- Where buried valves or parts of an unfamiliar system are located when that is part of the problem
- Whether a previous repair addressed the actual cause or only the symptom
How we approach it
Start broad. Narrow it down. Repair what the evidence points to.
Listen to what changed
When it started, which zones are affected, what happens when the system runs, and what has already been tried.
Isolate the problem
We work through the system to narrow the issue to the area or component actually causing the symptom.
Explain what we found
You should know what appears to be wrong and why before the repair turns into a pile of parts.
Fix the problem
Once the cause is clear, the repair has a target instead of being another guess.
Why these are hard to find in Colorado ground
Heavy Front Range clay does not let water rise, so a leak tracks sideways along the trench and surfaces somewhere else, or nowhere at all. In the sandier pockets it drains straight down and never shows. Looking for a wet spot is not a reliable way to find a sprinkler leak here, which is why so many people look and find nothing.
How the diagnosis is paid for
You pay for the diagnosis, and that amount comes off the repair when we do the work. So finding the problem is not free, and it is not charged twice either. You get told what is wrong even if you never hire us to fix it.
It is a site audit rather than just a sprinkler check. Irrigation is usually the main event, but if the real problem turns out to be soil, drainage or fertility, you will hear that instead. Our tech carries materials, so most repairs happen on the same visit rather than turning into a second appointment.
Another contractor couldn't find it?
Tell us what they checked, what they repaired, and what the system is still doing. Previous work is information too. Sometimes knowing what did not solve the problem helps narrow down what will.
Something still isn't adding up?
Call Craig and tell him what the system is doing. You don't need a diagnosis before you make the call.
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.
If a fiber or utility crew has been digging in your yard, that is a different situation with a different fix, because the damage is somebody else's to pay for. There is a separate page for sprinkler damage from fiber installation.
If your controller has two wires running out to the whole yard instead of one per zone, that is a decoder system and it is diagnosed differently. There is a separate page on two-wire and decoder faults.