Irrigation Installation and Repair in Central Florida
"I've done crazy irrigation jobs." That's Jeremy Roeling, who started out in irrigation in 1996, years before he picked up tree work. We handle irrigation installation and repair across Volusia, Lake and Seminole counties, from new sprinkler systems to lost valves, dead pumps and tired timers.
What goes into a new sprinkler system installation?
A call to 811, a zone plan, and valves you can get back to later. Florida law requires two full business days notice before digging, and the call is free. Then we split the yard into zones by what's growing there and how much sun each part gets, so a burned out strip beside the road gets its own run time.
Jeremy still likes watching a new system come on. It's always good to see the spray pattern, with a little fog hanging off the heads. Getting there takes plain, careful plumbing. Our new sprinkler system installation in DeLand ran three inline valves on schedule 40 PVC off a common main. Control wire got spliced in waterproof connectors, and the valves sit in a box so nobody has to dig for them later. Nothing gets buried until it's tested. That's how Roeling Green Lawns does it on a front strip or a whole property.
Can you replace an irrigation pump or timer?
Yes. Pumps and timers are a big part of our repair work, and plenty of Volusia County lawns water from a lake or a well. Anything left at the water's edge wears out. One DeLand pump we replaced had rusted through on its concrete pad and couldn't pull the pressure the lawn needed. Timers are the quick half. We swap the old one, program your zones and run each one.
We started at the foot of the suction line out in the cattails and worked back to the control box. Then we shut the system down, drained it and broke the old pump free of its fittings, and the new unit went in with clean risers, a fresh priming setup and control wiring run back to its box. Testing comes last. A pump sucking air loses pressure long before anyone sees a problem, so we check the suction side and run every zone. The whole job is in our lakefront irrigation pump replacement in DeLand.
How do you find a lost valve or a broken line?
With a locator, before anyone picks up a shovel. Tracking down buried valves is something Jeremy is good at, and it saves your yard. The kit is a transmitter, a clamp, headphones and a probe. Energizing the control wire lets us follow lines and valves without trenching half the lawn to find them.
Jeremy Roeling, is a master irrigation repair specialist! …
Then comes the digging, and some of it is hard. In a yard full of oak roots, you may have to get a Sawzall down in the hole and cut your way to the pipe. It's not an easy task. We do it anyway. When a Sanford homeowner called about a soggy patch of lawn, we dug up a maze of old PVC elbows with bare wires tangled through the roots. We cut a narrow trench, laid new line and wire, then tested the zones and folded the sod back over. Every step is in our irrigation repair in Sanford.
Why do sprinkler zones stop turning on?
Usually it's a failed valve, a cracked fitting, or wiring that corroded underground. The Winter Park manifold we rebuilt had all three. The PVC was old and caked in dirt, one fitting had split, and the low voltage wire had corroded until the controller couldn't fire the zones. Patch one piece of a manifold like that and the failure moves to the next joint.
So the whole assembly came out. Fresh PVC and new zone valves went in, with every joint cut square, primed and glued, and new wire run to each valve. We pressure tested it. Then we ran each zone, one at a time, to check coverage. If a zone of yours has gone quiet, look at the timer first, then call us. We'll find it. You can see how that sprinkler system repair in Winter Park came together, valve by valve, from the old manifold to the new one.
Does a Florida irrigation system need a rain sensor?
Yes. Florida Statute 373.62 requires an automatic irrigation system to have a working rain sensor or another shutoff device, so your sprinklers don't run through an afternoon storm. If your system is more than five or six years old, test the sensor first. They fail quietly.
Schedules matter too. Volusia County sits inside the St. Johns River Water Management District, which limits established lawns to two watering days a week during daylight saving time and one day a week the rest of the year. Check the current rules before you set yours. When we finish a job, we program the controller to a real schedule and walk every zone while it runs. If you're pairing a new system with sod installation, we set the heads to the finished grade first. Most of our sprinkler calls come from DeLand, Orange City and DeBary. Jeremy grew up in Orlando and spent years working in Windermere, though, so we know those yards too.
