Seasonal sprinkler system maintenance in Burlington County, NJ is key to ensuring your system works well all year wrong. The most important task to perform each fall is winterizing your sprinkler system. This process involves a sprinkler technician visiting your home and removing water from pipes, sprinkler heads and valves. If you fail to accomplish this task, here are five impacts that will likely greet you next spring:
- Blown pipes: Cold winters in New Jersey may freeze the ground up to three feet. This places outdoor plumbing at risk, and if there’s water remaining in those pipes, they will freeze and shatter. You will likely not discover this damage until spring arrives and you turn on your sprinklers. They will not produce water, and you may create sinkholes underground where pipes used to be.
- Damaged components: Even above-ground components are in danger. Sprinkler heads often break because people step on them, mow over them or even drive cars on top of them. Freezing them places additional dangers on them. Frozen sprinkler heads may burst or merely break more easily because freezing weakens their materials.
- Contamination: The backflow preventer valve has an important role—it keeps irrigation water from entering drinking water lines. Without it, there’s a good chance of fertilizers, animal waste and dirt entering your drinking water. Backflow preventer valves can break when they freeze and make this a very real danger in your household. If you did not turn off water sources to outdoor plumbing, you may face this impact before you need to use your sprinklers again.
- Expensive repairs: The problem with a sprinkler breakdown is that there’s no such thing as small repairs. If a pipe bursts, we have to replace the entire pipe. In cases where there is extensive damage, we may have to dig up and replace the entire irrigation system. Costs add up when you consider the replacement cost of a backflow preventer valve and any destroyed sprinkler heads. Once this job is finished, it’s likely you’ll wind up spending more on restoring any landscaping you lost during the excavation process.
- Disruption to routine: Sprinkler system repair companies are often busy in springtime covering any damage irrigation systems suffered in winter. It may take some time to schedule someone to come over, assess the damage and give you an estimate. Meanwhile, you still need to water your yard, but now you have to do it manually with hoses and conventional sprinklers. This increases your yard work burden while cutting into time you would rather spend just enjoying the spring.
Now is the time to schedule sprinkler winterization. While you may be tempted to perform winterizing yourself, please resist the temptation. Most homeowners fail to use enough air pressure, which leaves water lingering in pipes, sprinkler heads and valves to freeze and cause these impacts anyway. There’s also the possibility that you will use too much pressure and blow off sprinkler heads and valves. Basically, saving money on winterizing your sprinkler system in Burlington County, NJ could lead to expensive repairs anyway.
Star Sprinkler Systems Inc. is available for seasonal sprinkler maintenance. We assist homeowners, municipal agencies and businesses in keeping sprinkler systems functioning and landscapes flourishing. Call us today to schedule an appointment to winterize your sprinkler system.