FAQ
Irrigation in Hidden Hills, answered
The questions we hear most from Hidden Hills homeowners.
Almost always friction loss over distance. Water loses pressure as it travels, and the longer the run and the smaller the pipe, the more it loses before it reaches the last head on the line. On parcels this size a single lateral can stretch a very long way, and by the end there is not enough pressure left to pop a head fully or spin a rotor at its rated radius. The fixes are structural: larger mains, shorter laterals, valves placed closer to what they serve, and stations rebalanced so no zone is asked to do too much.
More than most owners expect, and that is a feature rather than a cost problem. Large lots simply cannot be watered well from a handful of valves, because each station is limited by the flow and pressure available to it. Splitting the property into more stations lets every head run at its design pressure and lets planting with different needs get different schedules. We hydrozone deliberately: lawn separate from shrubs, shrubs separate from trees, drip separate from spray, and any slope kept on its own so runoff can be managed with cycle and soak.
Yes, with advance arrangement, which we handle before the first day. Access here is controlled, so crew entry, trenching equipment, pipe, valve boxes and controller hardware all have to be cleared ahead of time rather than turning up at the gate. We schedule deliveries so pallets and pipe bundles are not sitting where they block a drive, and we plan the trenching sequence so open ground is closed the same stretch of work rather than left across a property. It is ordinary coordination, but it keeps a large install from stalling.
Separately from the ornamental landscape, and with hardware chosen for abuse. Turnout and arena footing want a different application than a lawn does, so those areas belong on their own stations with their own schedule. Heads in or near horse traffic need to be well set, protected and placed out of hoof paths where possible, and we favor rugged bodies and valve boxes rated for traffic instead of light residential parts. Wash areas and trough supply are plumbing rather than irrigation, but we coordinate the layout so the two do not fight for pressure.
It plays a direct role. Fire exposure is high in this area, and the zone closest to structures should be fire wise: well spaced, low fuel, kept green and free of dead material. That only stays true if it is watered reliably, which means the clearance area near the house gets its own dedicated stations rather than sharing a valve with a distant slope that gets a completely different schedule. We also keep systems free of leaks and geysering heads, because a station that fails unnoticed leaves that critical band dry through the worst months.
The valve stays, the delivery changes. We add a filter and a pressure regulator at the zone, cap or convert the spray heads, and run tubing with inline emitters through the beds at spacing suited to the plants and the soil. Emitters go at the root zone, not aimed at foliage or fence lines. Drip suits shrub beds, native planting and trees on these large parcels because it puts water where it is used and loses very little to wind or evaporation. Run times get longer and less frequent, which the controller has to be reprogrammed to reflect.
Yes, when it is programmed honestly. A weather based controller adjusts run times against local conditions instead of repeating the same minutes in January that it ran in July, and that alone removes a large share of the waste in a typical system. The catch is that it only works if each station is set up with the right plant type, soil, slope, sun exposure and head type. We enter that information during commissioning and walk you through the interface. A rain sensor or the built in equivalent stops a cycle when it is not needed.
Frequently, and it is one of the cheapest improvements available. Too much pressure at the head does not water better, it atomizes the spray into fog that drifts away before it lands, and it accelerates wear on every component in the line. Pressure regulating heads or a regulator at the valve bring each station into the range its nozzles were designed for. Drip zones need regulation without exception. Too little pressure is the opposite problem and gets solved upstream through pipe sizing and zone balance rather than at the head.
Methodically, because acreage makes guessing expensive. We isolate the main and watch whether pressure holds with all valves closed, which separates a mainline leak from a lateral or valve problem. Then we run one station at a time and watch for the symptoms: a soft wet area, a sinkhole in the dirt, a head that keeps trickling after shutdown, water surfacing well away from any head. Valve boxes get opened and diaphragms and solenoids checked. Once the section is identified we open the ground at that point rather than trenching hopefully across the property.
Usually spacing or mismatched nozzles rather than run time. Sprinklers are designed for head to head coverage, meaning each head throws far enough to reach the next one, and where that overlap fails you get dry rings and arcs no amount of extra minutes will fix. Mixing rotors and sprays on one station causes the same thing, since they apply water at very different rates and the zone can only run one length of time. We check spacing, arcs and nozzle sets, then correct by adding heads or matching precipitation across the zone.
We do. Daniels Landscaping stays accountable for the whole job, start to finish. The people trenching your mainline are the same people setting the valves, sizing the manifold, placing the heads, running the drip and programming the controller before they walk the system with you. That continuity is why zones end up balanced and why the person who answers a question about your system a year later actually knows how it was built. No portion of the installation goes to an outside company.
It is the device that keeps irrigation water, along with whatever is in the soil around a head, from being drawn back into the drinking water supply if pressure drops. Every system tied to potable water needs protection of the correct type, installed at the right height and location, and it is checked as part of the local requirements here. We install the appropriate assembly, keep it accessible rather than buried behind planting, and test it during commissioning. If an existing system is missing one or has an obviously failed unit, we tell you plainly.
Restrictions generally limit watering days and times and prohibit obvious waste such as runoff into the street, and a big parcel makes compliance harder because there is more to schedule inside the same window. That pushes design toward efficiency: drip in beds, rotary nozzles instead of high rate sprays, tight hydrozoning, cycle and soak on slopes, and a controller that responds to weather. Local water agencies sometimes offer rebates for efficiency upgrades, though we make no claim about eligibility or amounts. We build the system to meet whatever the current rules require.
It matters a great deal on sloped ground. Instead of running a station for one long stretch and watching the excess sheet downhill, the controller splits that time into shorter cycles with pauses between them so water infiltrates before more arrives. On clay soils and on any grade, the ground can only absorb so fast, and everything past that point becomes runoff. The total volume applied stays the same, but far more of it reaches roots. Nearly every station we program on hillside planting here uses some version of it.
Yes, and the key is keeping it off the same valve as anything thirsty. Native and dry climate planting wants deep, infrequent water and dies from constant shallow moisture at the crown, so it needs its own station, its own emitters and its own schedule. We place drip away from the base of the plant to encourage roots to spread, run long intervals rather than daily sips, and taper the schedule as things establish. Mixing that planting into a lawn zone is the most common way good drought tolerant landscapes get killed.
It is not a standalone item, it is a stage with a fixed place in the sequence. Mainline, valves, sleeving under future paving and lateral trenching all happen after grading and drainage but before any hardscape or planting goes down, because nobody wants to cut a finished driveway to reach a pipe. Heads, drip and the controller are set once planting locations are known. On a large parcel there is more trenching than on a typical lot, so it occupies more of the schedule than owners anticipate.
Yes. Hidden Hills is separately incorporated, so anything requiring review, inspection or a permit goes through the city itself and not through Los Angeles, even though the property is in the San Fernando Valley area. Straight repair and replacement of heads and valves is routine work. Where a project touches the water service, adds a backflow assembly, opens trenches across areas the architectural review process cares about, or accompanies a larger landscape change, we confirm the local requirement before we start rather than assuming.
Call Daniels Landscaping at (818) 443-9300 and we will arrange gate access for a visit. We run the existing system station by station, check pressure, look at head spacing, valve condition and controller programming, and measure the distances that drive pipe sizing on a lot this size. You receive a free written estimate spelling out zones, hardware, trenching and controller in plain terms. Our California license number is 1138709, and the crew that prices the system is the crew that installs it.