Irrigation in San Fernando, CA

We run the system with you present, one station at a time, and watch what each one really does. Heads that mist, sink below grade, sit tilted, or spray the driveway get noted. Valves are checked for seepage and for closing fully. The controller gets compared against actual behavior, which is often two different stories. Only once we have seen the whole system do we talk about scope. Sometimes the buried pipe is fine and the fix is nozzles, adjustment, and a controller. Sometimes the mains are done and a new layout is the honest answer.

Occasionally, though less often in this city than elsewhere, because so much of the housing here predates the pipe most people picture. Old lines go brittle with age and pressure cycling, and the giveaway is a system that springs a new leak every time a repair is made somewhere else. When we cut into a line and it shatters rather than saws cleanly, that tells us what the rest of the yard is going to do. Where mains still test sound we reuse them and put the money into heads, valves, and control instead.

Almost always the diaphragm inside the valve, which is a rubber part that hardens and stops seating over the years. A weeping valve looks exactly like a broken lateral, since water keeps trickling from the lowest head long after the controller says the station is off. Grit caught under the seat causes the same symptom. On a system of any age we usually rebuild or replace the whole manifold rather than chase valves one at a time, because they were all installed together and they age together too.

Fewer than owners assume, and that works in your favor. Yards in this city are modest and level, so a property commonly divides into a small handful of areas: a front lawn or turf panel, a front bed, something out back, and rear planting on drip. Short runs mean each station carries its heads comfortably without running out of pressure at the far end, and there is simply less pipe to buy. What we avoid is stacking plants with different water needs onto one valve just to save a station, because that trade always costs you a plant.

Throw distance settles it. Standard sprays cover short radius areas at a high application rate, which suits narrow parkway strips and small turf panels. Rotors need real distance to justify the pressure they consume and rarely belong on lots this compact. Rotary nozzles thread into an ordinary spray body but deliver slow rotating streams at a much lower rate, so water arrives gently enough for soil to take it in and does not blow apart in afternoon wind. On tight level yards they usually outperform the sprays they replace.

Partly. Level ground has no natural fall, so anything the soil cannot absorb has nowhere to go except sideways across the walk or into a low spot near the house. Compacted lawn and clay soil make it worse by shedding water at the surface. The scheduling fix is cycle and soak, meaning several short applications with rest periods between rather than one long run, so each pass has time to move down into the root zone. Lowering the application rate with rotary nozzles works alongside it, and a collection point handles what still ponds.

Yes, and on older systems it is usually the single upgrade with the best return. The spray body comes out and a fitting goes in that filters the water and regulates pressure down to what drip needs. From there, inline emitter tubing routes through the bed at spacing suited to the plants and gets pinned down under mulch. Water lands in the root zone instead of on leaves, fence boards, and paving, so evaporation and runoff both fall sharply. Overspray disputes along a property line end at the same time.

It is one of the cheapest ways to cut water use on an older property, and this city has a lot of controllers that belong in a museum. A mechanical timer repeats whatever schedule somebody set years ago, watering identically in a cool damp week and a heat wave. A weather based controller pulls local data and adjusts run times through the season, skips after rain, and lets a rain sensor act as a wired backup. Most can be reached from a phone, which is worth a great deal when a valve sticks open while you are at work.

Run times climb, but the schedule should shift too. Full sun and dry air pull moisture out of soil fast, so watering in the early morning delivers far more to the plants than a midday cycle that evaporates before it works. Fewer, deeper waterings drive roots down where the soil stays cooler, whereas daily light sprinkling keeps roots shallow and vulnerable. A weather based controller handles the seasonal ramp for you. Mulch across bed surfaces does more for summer survival in this climate than adding minutes to a station.

Pressure higher than the nozzle was designed for. Fog is water broken into droplets small enough to drift off target and evaporate before landing, so you pay for water the plants never see. High pressure also shortens the life of seals and fittings throughout the system. Pressure regulating spray bodies hold the outlet steady at the right value, and where the whole service comes in high, a regulator at the point of connection fixes every station at once. Low pressure presents differently, showing up as heads that fall short of where they should reach.

A backflow prevention assembly at the point of connection. Sprinkler lines sit in soil that may carry fertilizer or animal waste, and a pressure drop on the main can pull in the wrong direction. The assembly is what prevents that reversal. Which device is appropriate, and what testing applies to it, comes from the requirements the City of San Fernando enforces along with your water provider, not from the Los Angeles rules that govern the neighborhoods across the boundary. We look at what is already installed before touching anything, since many older systems here predate current standards.

By narrowing it down first. A patch that never dries, a water bill that jumped without explanation, seepage from the lowest head on a station, or a valve that will not close fully each point somewhere different. We run stations individually and watch, isolate the section, then check the valve before assuming the pipe failed, because a bad diaphragm imitates a broken lateral almost perfectly. Once the section is confirmed the excavation is small and deliberate, which matters a great deal when the line runs beneath lawn, a walkway, or a driveway.

It means grouping plants with similar water requirements onto the same valve so run times can actually be set correctly. Turf, shrubs, and mature trees want different volumes on different intervals, and when they share a station somebody always loses. Either the shrubs sit wet to keep the grass green or the grass browns to spare the shrubs. During a retrofit, separating them is frequently as simple as adding a valve to the manifold. Once stations follow the planting instead of following whatever pipe happened to be there, the schedule finally means something.

The heads are spaced farther apart than the nozzles can cover. Sprinklers are designed so each one throws all the way to the next, and without that overlap you get dry arcs no matter how long the station runs. The other common cause is mixing nozzle types on one valve, which leaves part of the area receiving twice the water of the rest while the schedule is set for the driest spot. Matching precipitation rates across a station and spacing heads to reach one another corrects both, and it usually shortens total run time.

They push the whole design toward efficiency, since a limited number of watering days means every minute has to land where it counts. Because San Fernando is its own incorporated city rather than part of Los Angeles, the schedule that applies to you comes from the city and your water provider, not from the Los Angeles ordinance the surrounding neighborhoods follow. Confirm the current days and windows with the city directly. A system built with matched nozzles, drip in the beds, correct arcs, and a smart controller keeps planting alive inside those limits.

Sometimes. Local water agencies periodically offer programs covering equipment such as weather based controllers, high efficiency nozzles, and turf replacement, and the terms move around from year to year. We will not name a dollar figure or tell you that you qualify, because eligibility is decided by the agency and not by a contractor. What we can do is document the equipment we install and give you the paperwork an application asks for. Check with your water provider before work starts, since some programs require approval ahead of installation.

One licensed contractor, from the first trench to the final adjustment. Daniels Landscaping stays accountable for the work. The people who open the ground are the people who set the valves, glue the pipe, pull the control wire, place and aim the heads, run the drip through the beds, and program the controller before they leave the property. Continuity counts more on irrigation than on most trades, because whoever adjusted an arc knows exactly why that head sits where it does. One company installed it, so one company answers the phone about it.

Reach Daniels Landscaping at (818) 443-9300 and we will set a time to run your system while you watch, so you see the same things we do. From that walk you get a free written estimate listing the stations, heads and nozzles, valves and manifold, any drip conversion, pressure regulation, and the controller. Our California license number is 1138709. The estimate spells out what is being replaced against what is being reused, and no work goes on the calendar until you have read it through and told us to go ahead.