Plumbers in Pleasanton, Texas

Where irrigation loses water quietly

A sprinkler system fails in ways that do not announce themselves, because most of it is buried and it runs when nobody is watching.

A weeping zone valve runs constantly. A valve that does not close fully lets water into that zone all the time, and on a slope it surfaces somewhere far from the fault. A permanently green or boggy patch in dry weather is the classic sign.

Broken heads waste more than they look like they do. A snapped riser or a missing nozzle discharges at full flow for the whole cycle. It is visible for two minutes a day and invisible the rest of the time, which is why it survives for months.

The controller is often the actual fault. A programme with overlapping start times, a forgotten second programme or a rain sensor that has failed will water enormously without anything being mechanically broken.

Mainline leaks run whenever the system is pressurised. Many systems keep the line to the valves under pressure all the time, so a leak there is a continuous loss rather than a cyclical one. That is the version that produces a shocking bill.

Isolate to prove it. Closing the irrigation isolation valve and then watching the meter separates the sprinklers from the house in about fifteen minutes, and it is the first thing worth doing on any unexplained bill.

Read the meter yourself, twice. A reading last thing at night and another before anything runs in the morning gives you overnight consumption on a property where nothing should be using water. It is the cheapest test available and it separates a real loss from a billing question in one night.

Backflow protection, and the testing nobody mentions

Irrigation is a cross connection risk, which is why the law treats the device that protects your drinking water as a serious component.

The assembly stops sprinkler water coming back. Water sitting in an irrigation line is in contact with soil, fertiliser and whatever is on the lawn. A backflow prevention assembly is what stops that being drawn back into the house supply when pressure drops.

Testable assemblies need testing by a licensed tester. Where your system has a testable device, periodic testing is a requirement and the paperwork goes to the water supplier. It is not a plumbing upsell, and the interval is set by the supplier rather than by us.

Hose bibs need their own small version. A hose left in a bucket, a livestock trough or a pool is a cross connection. An inexpensive vacuum breaker on each outdoor tap deals with it permanently.

Assemblies are exposed and they fail. Most sit above ground where they get hit by mowers, frozen in a cold snap and corroded over years. A device that has failed is protecting nothing, and it usually looks fine from a distance.

Keep the test reports. They matter at resale, and they are the record that the device was working on a date, which is worth having if a contamination question ever arises.

Position the assembly where it can be reached and protected. A device buried behind shrubs cannot be tested without a fight, and one sitting in the open beside a driveway gets hit. Somewhere accessible, visible and out of the traffic is worth asking for when anything is replaced.

Freeze, drought and living with a big system

An irrigation system is outdoor plumbing, so it takes the full weather.

Above ground parts freeze first. The backflow assembly, exposed risers and the isolation valves are the pieces that burst in a hard freeze. Insulating them, or draining the system, is the whole of the protection.

Know where your irrigation shutoff is. On a freeze night or a broken mainline, being able to isolate the sprinklers without shutting the house down is what keeps a problem small.

Drought restrictions change the maths. When watering days are limited, a fault wastes a larger share of what you are allowed, and a system running at night on a restricted day is also a compliance problem.

Do not let irrigation compete with the house. A system that draws hard on the same service line is why a shower goes weak when a zone starts. Separating irrigation onto its own connection resolves it properly on a larger property.

Walk the system once a season. Running each zone manually for a minute and watching it is twenty minutes that catches broken heads, misdirected spray and a valve that is not closing.

Livestock and stock tank connections need their own attention. On acreage the same supply often feeds troughs and fill valves that sit outside all year, and a stuck float there runs continuously into ground that hides it well. They belong on the same seasonal walk as the sprinkler zones.

How a call plays out

The phone is answered around the clock, holidays included. Tell us whether the bill jumped, whether there is a wet or green patch that should not be there, and whether the system has an isolation valve you can find. Those answers decide where we start.

Pleasanton and Atascosa County are on our daily route, with overnight dispatch. We isolate and meter test before guessing, we handle the plumbing side of the connection and its backflow protection, and we will tell you when the fault belongs to the controller rather than the pipework.