Irrigation systems run before dawn, underground, when nobody is watching — which is why almost every expensive sprinkler problem starts as a cheap one nobody noticed. This section explains what the symptoms mean, in the order a technician would work through them.
Every article starts with a direct answer, then explains the cause, the diagnosis and the repair. Where a homeowner can reasonably handle something, it says so. Where the honest advice is to stop and call someone, it says that too.
The five sections
- Cost and value8 articles — What irrigation repairs actually cost in North Georgia, why prices vary as much as they do, and how to judge whether a repair is worth making.
- Leaks and wet spots10 articles — Water where it should not be — bubbling up from the ground, a wet spot that never dries, a system that leaks while it is switched off.
- Zone, valve and head problems16 articles — A zone that will not start, a zone that will not stop, weak pressure, misting, dry spots and heads that keep breaking.
- Controllers and timers8 articles — Dead displays, blown fuses, rain sensors, programming for Georgia conditions, and whether a smart controller is worth the difference on your system.
- Maintenance, watering and seasons8 articles — Spring startup, winterizing in a mild climate that still freezes, how often to water on Piedmont clay, the statewide watering window, and how to check a system yourself.
Would rather just describe it to someone?
Call 770.335.8595 and tell us what the system is doing. Which zones are affected and which are fine narrows it down faster than anything else.
Cost and value
What irrigation repairs actually cost in North Georgia, why prices vary as much as they do, and how to judge whether a repair is worth making.
- How Much Does It Cost to Replace a Sprinkler Valve?Most irrigation valves do not need replacing — they need rebuilding, because the part that actually failed is the solenoid or the rubber diaphragm inside, not the…
- Why Did My Water Bill Suddenly Go Up?If your water bill jumped and nothing about your household changed, an irrigation leak is the most likely cause, because a sprinkler system is the only thing on…
- Is It Cheaper to Repair or Replace an Irrigation System?Repair is cheaper than replacement in the large majority of cases, because the expensive part of an irrigation system — the buried pipe — is also the part that…
- Can an Irrigation Company Give Me a Price Over the Phone?A reputable irrigation company can tell you its diagnostic rate, its hourly rate and typical ranges for common repairs over the phone, but it cannot quote your…
- How Much Water Does a Broken Sprinkler Head Waste?A broken or missing sprinkler head does not just leak — it becomes an open pipe, discharging far more water than a working head and at a much higher rate, for the…
- What Is an Irrigation Tune-Up?An irrigation tune-up is a scheduled visit that runs every zone, corrects the small faults that accumulate over a season, and resets the controller schedule for…
- How Much Does a New Sprinkler Controller Cost?Many controller faults are repairs rather than replacements — a blown fuse, a failed transformer or a bad connection costs far less than a new unit. When…
- Is Irrigation Repair Worth It?Irrigation repair is usually worth it when the fault is actively wasting water, when it is degrading coverage across a zone, or when leaving it will damage…
Leaks and wet spots
Water where it should not be — bubbling up from the ground, a wet spot that never dries, a system that leaks while it is switched off. How leaks are located and what causes them.
- How Do You Find an Underground Sprinkler Leak?An underground irrigation leak is located by measuring, not by looking. A technician isolates the system at the irrigation shutoff valve and watches the water meter…
- Why Is My Sprinkler System Leaking When It Is Turned Off?Water moving while the system is off means something on the pressurised side is failing, because the mainline holds pressure around the clock even when no zone is…
- What Is the Difference Between a Mainline and a Lateral Line Leak?A mainline leak is on the pipe upstream of the zone valves, which is pressurised around the clock, so it wastes water continuously and is the more urgent of the…
- Why Is Water Bubbling Up From the Ground in My Yard?Water bubbling up from a lawn almost always means a broken irrigation line or a sprinkler head that has snapped off below the nozzle, leaving an open pipe at zone…
- Why Is There a Wet Spot in My Yard That Will Not Dry Out?A wet area that never dries is usually an irrigation leak, a valve seeping into a lateral, or water surfacing from a break further uphill. It can also have nothing…
- Where Is My Irrigation Shutoff Valve?The irrigation shutoff valve isolates the sprinkler system from your water supply, and it is most often found near the water meter, at the backflow assembly, or in…
- Can Tree Roots Damage Sprinkler Lines?Yes. Tree roots damage irrigation in three distinct ways: they abrade pipe and wire insulation as they grow against them, they exert enough pressure to crack older…
- Can Landscapers Damage Sprinkler Lines?Yes, and landscaping work is one of the most common causes of irrigation damage we see. Lateral lines sit shallow, valve wire runs alongside them, and neither is…
- Can Fence Installation Damage an Irrigation System?Yes, and fence installation is among the most reliable ways to damage an irrigation system, because post holes go deeper than irrigation pipe is usually buried and…
- Does Sprinkler Leak Repair Require Digging?Repairing a leak in a buried pipe does require reaching the pipe, so some excavation is unavoidable — but on a properly located leak that means one hole roughly the…
Zone, valve and head problems
A zone that will not start, a zone that will not stop, weak pressure, misting, dry spots and heads that keep breaking. The largest section, because this is where most systems fail.
- Why Won’t One Sprinkler Zone Turn On?When one zone fails and every other zone still runs, the fault is almost always in something that zone does not share with the others: its valve, its solenoid, its…
- Why Won’t My Sprinkler Zone Shut Off?A zone that will not shut off is either a valve that cannot seal or a controller that is still energising it. Unplug the controller: if the zone stops, the fault…
- How Can You Tell If an Irrigation Valve Is Bad?A bad irrigation valve shows up in one of three ways: the zone will not open, the zone will not close, or the zone opens weakly. The test that separates a valve…
- How Long Do Irrigation Valves Last?An irrigation valve body commonly lasts decades, because it is inert plastic with no moving parts. What wears out is the rubber diaphragm and the electric solenoid…
- Why Is My Valve Box Full of Water?A valve box full of water means either something in the box is leaking or water is getting in from outside and cannot drain. A seeping valve or a failing fitting…
- How Do Irrigation Companies Find Underground Valves?A buried irrigation valve is found by tracing its wire, not by digging for the box. A technician connects an inductive transmitter to that station’s wire at the…
- What Happens If Irrigation Wiring Is Cut?Cutting a station wire disables the one zone it feeds. Cutting the common wire — which every valve shares — disables every zone downstream of the break, which is…
- Why Does My Irrigation System Keep Blowing a Fuse?A controller fuse blows because something is drawing more current than the circuit is rated for, and on an irrigation system that almost always means a short in the…
- Why Are Several Sprinkler Heads Not Working?When several heads on the same zone stop working, the cause is usually one thing they share rather than several individual failures. A break in the lateral line…
- Why Is My Sprinkler Pressure Suddenly Low?When pressure drops suddenly across the whole system, the cause is something shared: the water supply itself, a mainline leak, a partly closed shutoff or master…
- Why Does One Sprinkler Zone Have Lower Pressure Than the Others?One weak zone while the others perform normally means the problem is in something only that zone has: its valve, its lateral line, its head count, or the elevation…
- Why Are My Sprinklers Misting Instead of Spraying?Misting means pressure at the nozzle is higher than the nozzle was designed for, so water leaves as a fine fog rather than as droplets. That fog drifts on the wind…
- How Long Do Sprinkler Heads Last?Sprinkler heads have no fixed service life, because most of them are replaced for damage or wear rather than for age. The parts that degrade are the wiper seal,…
- Why Do My Sprinkler Heads Keep Breaking?A head that breaks repeatedly in the same place is telling you something about its installation or its location, not about head quality. The usual causes are a head…
- Why Are My Sprinklers Watering the Sidewalk?Sprinklers watering a sidewalk, driveway or street are throwing water that cannot possibly reach a root zone, and if it runs into a gutter, street or storm drain it…
- Why Do I Have Dry Spots Even Though My Sprinklers Run?Dry spots on a system that appears to be running normally are usually a coverage problem rather than a water-quantity problem. Sprinkler zones are designed so each…
Controllers and timers
Dead displays, blown fuses, rain sensors, programming for Georgia conditions, and whether a smart controller is worth the difference on your system.
- My Sprinkler Controller Has Power But the Sprinklers Will Not Run. Why?A controller with a working display proves only that its logic board has power — it says nothing about whether 24 volts is reaching the valves or whether water is…
- Why Does My Sprinkler Controller Have No Power?A completely dark controller means its supply has been interrupted or its transformer has failed. The order to check is the outlet or breaker feeding it, any GFCI…
- Why Won’t My Sprinkler Controller Advance Through the Zones?A controller that will not step through its zones properly is more often misprogrammed than broken. Zones set to zero run time are skipped silently, multiple…
- How Long Does a Sprinkler Controller Last?Irrigation controllers routinely last well over a decade, and plenty of units installed twenty years ago still work. What ends them is rarely wear from use — it is…
- Should I Replace My Old Irrigation Controller?Replace an old controller when it has a fault that cannot be repaired, when it has fewer stations than your system needs, or when it lacks scheduling capability you…
- Are Smart Irrigation Controllers Worth It?A smart irrigation controller is worth it on a system that is hydraulically sound, on a property where the schedule would otherwise never get adjusted, and for…
- Why Is My Rain Sensor Not Working?A rain sensor fails in one of two directions, and they look nothing alike. Failed open, it stops interrupting the cycle and the system waters straight through a…
- How Should I Program My Sprinkler Controller in Georgia?Programming for North Georgia comes down to three things: schedule inside the 4 p.m. to 10 a.m. window that applies to publicly supplied water, split run times into…
Maintenance, watering and seasons
Spring startup, winterizing in a mild climate that still freezes, how often to water on Piedmont clay, the statewide watering window, and how to check a system yourself.
- When Should I Start My Sprinkler System in Georgia?In North Georgia, most systems come back into service in early spring once the risk of a hard freeze has passed and the landscape is actually starting to need…
- Do I Need to Winterize My Sprinkler System in Georgia?Yes, though North Georgia needs less than colder regions. Winters here are mild enough that deeply buried pipe is generally safe, but cold enough that the exposed…
- How Often Should an Irrigation System Be Inspected?A full zone-by-zone inspection once a year, at spring startup, suits most residential systems, with a mid-season walkthrough on larger or more complex properties.…
- How Often Should I Water My Lawn in North Georgia?Water deeply and less often rather than a little every day. Fewer, longer sessions drive moisture into the soil profile and encourage deeper rooting; daily light…
- How Should I Water New Sod in North Georgia?New sod is the one case where frequent, light watering is correct. Until roots grow into the soil beneath it, sod can only draw water from the thin layer it arrived…
- What Are the Watering Restrictions in Georgia?Under the Georgia Water Stewardship Act, landscape watering with publicly supplied water is permitted only between 4 p.m. and 10 a.m., any day of the week. Private…
- How Can I Check My Irrigation System Myself?Run one zone at a time and walk it from start to finish. That single habit catches most irrigation faults, because almost everything wrong with a system is visible…
- Why Is My Drip Irrigation Not Working?Drip irrigation fails in ways spray zones do not, and almost all of it comes back to filtration and pressure. A loaded filter starves the zone, a failed pressure…
Found your symptom and want it fixed?
Diagnostic-first visits. We identify the fault, then give you an estimate before any work or digging begins.
The two symptoms worth acting on today
Most of what is described in this section can reasonably wait for a scheduled visit. Two things cannot, because both are continuous water loss that does not stop on its own:
- A zone that will not shut off. Uncontrolled watering for as long as it is left, plus saturation damage to the ground and anything built on it. See why a zone will not shut off — and in the meantime, closing the irrigation shutoff valve stops it.
- A water meter that moves with every zone off. That is a mainline leak or a valve seeping, and mainline is pressurised around the clock, so it bills you every hour of every day. See leaking while the system is off and where to find your shutoff valve.
About this section
Plain-English answers to the questions homeowners actually ask about sprinkler systems, written by the people who repair them. Each article gives a short direct answer first, then the detail behind it — what causes the problem, how a technician diagnoses it, and what the repair usually involves.
Some of them, yes, and each article says where the line is. Checking programming, clearing a nozzle screen, walking the zones, finding the shutoff valve and resetting a GFCI are all reasonable homeowner tasks. Working inside an energised controller, digging for a suspected leak and defeating a fuse are not, and the articles say so rather than leaving you to find out.
No. Irrigation Medics’ own service rates are stated as ours and are accurate. Every other figure is introduced as a general North Georgia market estimate, published to give you a sense of scale. The cost of a repair depends on what failed and how hard it is to reach, which is why a real number comes after diagnosis rather than before.
Because irrigation runs before dawn, underground, when nobody is watching. A broken head, a seeping valve or a mainline leak produces no noise and often no visible symptom, so for most homeowners the bill is the first indication that anything is wrong. Recognising a fault before the bill arrives is most of what this section is for.
Yes, where there is something factual to say — the statewide watering window, how Piedmont clay affects run times and runoff, spring startup and winterizing in a mild climate that still freezes, and watering new sod. We deliberately do not publish drought response levels or provider-specific rules, because those change; your water provider is the authority on your account.
Who writes this
Irrigation Medics repairs irrigation and sprinkler systems across Hall County and the Gwinnett and North Fulton corridor, from a Gainesville base. Everything here comes out of the repairs themselves — the faults that turn up most often, the symptoms that get misread, and the questions homeowners ask on site. See about Irrigation Medics and where we work.