When a homeowner calls us about a brown patch, irrigation is the cause far more often than disease or insects. A sprinkler system fails quietly — one head at a time — and the lawn shows the damage weeks later.
1. Dry patches that survive a heavy rain
If an area stays brown even after several days of solid summer rain, the soil in that spot is likely compacted or hydrophobic from repeated drought stress. That almost always means a head has not been reaching it for a long time.
2. Water running down the driveway
A tilted or misaligned head throws water onto hard surfaces where it does nothing but raise your bill. It also means the turf that head was supposed to cover is getting less than it needs.
3. A zone that never comes on
A dead zone usually points to a failed solenoid, a wiring break, or a valve that has stopped opening. The lawn in that zone will decline fast in summer, so it is worth diagnosing immediately.
4. A sudden jump in the water bill
An underground lateral line break can waste hundreds of gallons per cycle with almost nothing visible above ground. Sometimes the only clue is a soft, spongy area of lawn that never seems to dry out.
5. Heads that stay up after the cycle ends
Retract failure means debris in the head body or a worn wiper seal. A head stuck in the up position is one mower pass away from being destroyed.
6. Misting instead of spraying
A fine mist means system pressure is too high for the nozzle. Most of that water evaporates or blows away before it reaches the soil — you are paying for water the lawn never receives.
7. A controller nobody has touched in a year
A schedule set last winter will badly underwater a lawn in July and overwater it in January. Controllers need seasonal adjustment, and they need to match current Palm Beach County watering restrictions.
