The Dangers of DIY Irrigation Repair | How It Can Cost You

When it comes to the health of your garden and maintaining the integrity of your home’s foundation, irrigation repair is a vital part of your yard that requires routine maintenance and repair. Repairs can involve leaks, damaged irrigation pipes, clogged sprinkler heads, broken valves, or malfunctioning controllers. By ensuring that your system operates efficiently, you’ll be able to keep your garden and plants in good shape and help contribute to water conservation. In addition, you’ll be helping yourself by reducing your water bills, prolonging your irrigation system, and keeping your system up to date. But sometimes you should leave the irrigation repair to the professionals. This article will outline how important it is to help your heavily damaged irrigation system by NOT helping it.

DIY Irrigation Repair Can Result in Further Damage

What Further Damage Can Be Caused?

Trying to repair irrigation issues yourself can lead to further complications and costly consequences. You can worsen the situation by damaging the pipes. You can break the pipes by improperly mishandling them or applying too much pressure, which means you’ll need to spend money on new pipes. If you don’t install your sprinkler heads carefully and securely, lawnmowers can damage them the next time you perform your regular mowing session. Reproducing damaged wires without proper knowledge can result in system malfunctions that are not easy to fix again.

Also, be aware of any utility damage you may cause. If you dig without checking for gas or electric lines or don’t mark where they are, you can hit them and cause damage to yourself. Without any expert diagnosis, proper equipment, or proper knowledge on what to do, you’ll be costing yourself in the long run and probably end up going to a professional. We don’t want that to happen, so we advise hiring a professional to help you get to the bottom of your problem and successfully fix your system without any unnecessary hiccups or avoidable missteps.

The Dangers of Doing it Yourself

There are dangers of trying to repair your irrigation system yourself. Many people have injured themselves over repairing their irrigation system, and we don’t want you to be part of that statistic. Some health hazards that can occur are electrical hazards. Working with electrical components like pumps, timers, and controllers can open the door to an electrical hazard, especially since you’ll be in wet conditions. Improper handling of electrical wiring or failing to disconnect the power properly can result in severe injuries, like electrocution.

If your irrigation system uses chemigation, which involves injecting chemicals into the water, it exposes you to poisonous fumes and liquids. If you aren’t wearing proper safety gear, you can get sick from exposure to these materials. These are some of the most common hazards in DIY irrigation. By hiring a professional, experienced team, you can avoid injuring yourself and have a guarantee your irrigation system will be repaired, rather than a possibility if you do it yourself.

You Can Misdiagnose Your Irrigation Repair Problem

You’re Fixing the Symptom, But not the Cause

One of the ways many people fail to fix their irrigation system successfully is by not fixing it at all. How? Many people may try to repair their irrigation system, only to pay attention to the symptoms of a broken irrigation issue rather than the source. It is like putting a band-aid on a bruise. It covers and eliminates the issue, but it’s still underlying. By misdiagnosing an irrigation issue, you’ll be wasting time and money and may be causing further damage to your system. Either by making the problem worse or leaving the problem to continue to fester.

For example, people may notice a sputtering sprinkler head and promptly replace it. The issue wasn’t the sprinkler head but the underlying pressure issues or clogs in the irrigation pipe. Other problems can be even more insidious than that. Since irrigation systems are huge interconnected systems, many elements can malfunction at the same time, as low water pressure could stem from multiple leaks, clogged lines, or crushed pipes rather than just one singular line or irrigation pipe. Also, without specialized equipment, homeowners may fail to detect hidden issues like underground leaks or calcium buildup in pipes.

How it Can Cost You in the Long Run

Misdiagnosing the problem and then, in effect, worsening the problem through neglect can lead to significant long-term costs that were unavoidable if you just invested in professional help. For one, it can escalate repair costs. Minor issues like leaks or clogs can lead to more extensive damage like burst pipes or malfunctioning valves. So, while fixing a broken sprinkler head might cost $60-$100, an underground pipe leak can cost $700-$1,500. The costs can continue to rack up as more problems start popping up. It can also increase your water bills due to the excessive water waste being produced.

In addition, it’ll damage your landscape since your areas can be under or overwatered. Then your plants can suffer or maybe even die, especially if this happens during severe weather like a drought or a particularly hot day. People in Austin, Round Rock & Cedar Park are all too familiar with the dog days of summer in Texas. Lastly, it will reduce the lifespan of your irrigation system. Keeping your irrigation system working as long as possible is vital since a new one will cost roughly $3,600. Or more if you have a larger yard.

Why You Should Consider Professional Irrigation Repair

The Experts Know What They’re Doing

There’s a reason why professionals are called “professionals. Professional irrigation repair is essential for both commercial irrigation and residential irrigation. It helps ensure their irrigation systems work efficiently, last a long time, and remain functioning and healthy. We think it is worth investing in professional irrigation tune-ups, inspections, and check-ins on an annual or bi-annual basis. Experts are experienced and can catch hidden issues like underground irrigation pipe leaks or damaged valves and fix the problem early. By utilizing their early detection abilities, they’ll be able to prevent expensive repairs and help lower your utility bills, saving you money in the long run.

They can even advise you on water conservation and optimizing your irrigation system for superior water management. They’ll be able to provide insights on making seasonal adjustments and calibrating systems based on your local weather patterns and the needs of your unique landscape. Lastly, they can prolong your irrigation system’s life with regular maintenance and save homeowners the time and effort to deal with complex repairs and focus on more important things. Professional irrigation repair is a smart investment that can save money, conserve water, and keep your plants and lawn lush, green, and healthy.

Access to Specialized Equipment

Aside from their irrigation repair experience and savvy, irrigation professionals have access to specialized equipment that allows them to do their job, whether diagnosing, repairing, or maintaining irrigation systems effectively. The tools are able to handle complex irrigation systems with ease and ensure accurate repairs are done. For example, they may use advanced irrigation system test kits that can identify broken or malfunctioning wires. They can use irrigation testers and leak detection equipment to pinpoint minor irrigation issues hidden from the naked eye.

They can also use advanced excavation tools like trenching machines, professional shovels, and digging bars to dig up irrigation pipes. Their drip irrigation repair tools, like dripline punches, barbs, and emitters, can make the repair far more efficient. By using efficient, specialized equipment like this, professionals can accurately diagnose problems with minimal disturbance to your system, minimize any damage caused by the repairs, ensure efficient water usage is maintained, and help you save time and money for the repair. So, if you’re looking for a long-lasting solution, ditch DIY irrigation repair and ask for help from your friendly, local irrigation repair company.

Conclusion:

Now that you are thoroughly informed about the cons of doing DIY irrigation repair for seriously damaged irrigation systems, sprinkler systems, or sprinkler heads, where should you go from here now? Luckily for you, we can help you out. We at Progreen Landscape Solutions can help you overcome any irrigation issues. By performing your annual irrigation inspection or repairing any major damage to your irrigation system, we can help preserve the integrity and health of your landscaping, hardscaping, and outdoor living spaces.

We have years of expertise, access to high quality tools and products, and offer competitive pricing for our premium services. Through our hard work we continue to provide folks with a reliable source to draw from for advice and their irrigation needs. Interested in booking an appointment with us or seeking high-quality irrigation repair or irrigation inspection advice? You can contact us and fill out our form, or call us for immediate access to superior irrigation knowledge today.