SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

First day on the job hit a gas line going to the pool heater. The worst part is that it was marked by the homeowner. I was too new to realize that three inches to one side of the flag does not mean your safe. Luckily never hit another gas line. Phone and cable are another story though.

You friggen got that right haha. What about the TING sound of a trenching shovel hitting a gas line skimmed below the mulch, we have had a few of those,absolutely ridiculous and dangerous. Then pool lines that arnt disclosed,getting sued then having them call for a blow out,my boss saying to him,dude you FRIGGEN sued me. I didnt sue you I sued your insurance,ya who the hell do you think pays for the insurance,that was funny. He didnt win obv because contracts limit liability. They were in some ridiculous spot. There is all kinds of fun stuff we deal with,ripping conduits off of houses

Don't forget about all the utilities being run on one side of a .25 acre lot. I've had sites where you couldn't pick out your head flag from the sea of utility flags. Where's the Trenching Shovel?

Roots are terrible, though. It's amazing what a simple leak call can turn out to be!

Lol i so wanted to go get the 410 ditch witch with the trencher,get rid of everything around the tree. and just trench out a new valve box. It would most likely kill his nice tree though. I brought the Axes and hatchets home that day and sharpened them. You can literally shave with them now,until the first swing in a dirty hole of course.
Come on everyone loves ripping peoples drainage out.

Roots are the sprinkler mans worst enemy. With downspout drains a close second on new installs.

There you go,good point. One thing you could also do,if you do find a manifold leak,and its small,and you dont want to pull everything apart,which if your looking at a 10 year old valvebox near a tree or somthing,its a sucky job. Just throw a master valve right after the back flow if your clock is in the basement or somthing,or where ever your main line is closest to a free wire,or the clock,BEFORE ANY VALVES OBVIOUSELY. just a thought
Funny Story*
I went to a house for somone who had a 19 year old system,he does everything himself usually,he had this 4 hitter valve box he couldnt find and it was making the pump cycle because somthing was leaking. Well when you put a valve set and medium rectangular box next to a sapling,after 20 years its a decent tree.So I tracked the valves he couldnt find,Tracker screams,found them in 1 minute, he was impressed,I was happy.Open the box,boom, there is the leaking weathermatic,replaced the guts and everything,turn it on.Well the bottom is cracked and thats whats leaking. start digging up the box,and its SURROUNDED by roots everywhere even 4' away from the tree covering all 6 lines I need to relocate.This guy loves to help, and show off his tools lol,I wish every customer was like this. He starts bringing out ratcheting pruners,a cheap ass 3 inch auger for digging bulb holes or somthing,its attached to a 1980's drill,100' extension cord set up,2 axes,sawzalls,saws,he emptied his shed. This was an absolute freekin nightmare.I was overwhelmed,slashed and hacked and sawed for 35 minutes, got like absolutely no where.the valves were 12 inches below the 2 inches of rooted mulch. So the mains have to be relocated, zones couplinged because I cant put it back under the tree. The guy comes back and looks at the freekin mess,chopped roots 15ft away, he says I can live with that leaking like that for now, its free water. I convinced him that that was stupid, it was leaking pretty bad.He does it all himself so he doesnt want to spend $70 hr for hours to do it right+ valves and all that.So he wants to move them at some point, but I threw a master valve in for the time being and got the valve to leak a little slower. That was the absolute most ridiculous thing ive almost ever seen.

If you have automatic drains on your system one of these could also be leaking. Take approach servicetechMA described but before you shut the meter off watch the dial to get an idea of how big the leak is.

could be a cracked manifold they are usually white or grey parts that the valves screw on to,if the valve box is run over with one of the manifolds under it they could have a tiny stress fracture that is hardly noticable,not likely but have seen it plenty of times. if its a weathermatic valve, or irritrol valve, they are the valve brands used around here that usually leak,the weathermatic valves usually leak on the sides.And the irritrol valves leak somtimes on the sides or usually on the top. if you look closely and dont see anything, maybe try digging up the valve box, leave the water off until the area is dry, and then have you or somone turn the backflow or main valve inside back on. obv before you start digging it all up watch it real closely after you leave the water off for a while,hopfully youll see it and wont need to dig up the box. good luck

what kind of system do you have?

My 2 valve boxes (4 valves each) are always flooded. How do I find the leak? Where is the water most likely coming from?