A dedicated sprinkler system can keep your lawn lush and green throughout the spring, summer, and well into the fall. Depending on where you live, you might have to winterize your sprinkler system to prevent freezing and damage from deeply penetrating frosts. When it is time for the spring sprinkler start up, some maintenance and preparation are needed.
Spring Sprinkler Start Up List
Your spring sprinkler system preparation should start with checking the weather to ensure winter truly is over and no damaging deep freeze events are likely to occur. When the weather allows it, you need to check the backflow preventer to ensure it has not suffered any damage.
You want to look for any cracks, splits, or other sources of leaks. If anything is damaged, you should repair or replace any relevant parts before putting water in the system.
Inspect the Sprinkler Heads and Valves
The spring sprinkler start up routine requires you to closely inspect the heads and valves on the spring system. You should remove each one and inspect it for dirt, grime, corrosion, or other issues that could affect how it works.
You can create a flush point by removing the sprinkler head at the end of each sprinkler zone. Then you just turn on the water and flush out any debris that might have collected inside the system. After you have flushed the system and inspected the heads and valves, you can move on to the controller and backflow preventer.
Inspect the Controller and Get the Backflow Preventer Ready
You need to check the controller located inside to continue the spring sprinkler system preparation. The check is simple and requires you to look for any obvious damage, replace the batteries as needed, and make sure the buttons are working. The backflow preventer needs to open up along with its test port.
Once that is done, you can turn on the water. You should do that slowly so that the water pressure can build up gradually within the sprinkler system. It should take about half a minute to gradually turn the sprinkler’s water main from closed to fully open.
Check System for Leaks and Other Issues
With water in the system and pressurized, you can give your sprinkler system a close inspection for leaks. You do that by closing all of the flush points and then looking for spots where water might be coming from the sprinkler system.
If you locate a wet or muddy patch of lawn and the sprinkler is off, a leak is likely. You can fix a leak by uncovering the spot and checking the system. You might have to replace a connector or similar piece. Then you can rebury that section of your sprinkler system and put grass seed over the patch.
Once your system is filled with pressurized water and not leaking, you just need to set the controller for your preferred watering schedule.