Okay, so you want a nice green lawn to come home to. It’s understandable, your lawn is the smile of your home. A lush lawn is so nice you have to take your shoes off and walk on it.
So you set up your sprinkler system to run three or four times per week for 10-12 minutes per zone. But ultimately, all you end up with is a mediocre lawn and a water bill that makes you not want to run your sprinklers anymore, sound about right?
The Watering Problem
We had a customer, Alfonso, who’s goal it was to win Yard of the Month in his neighborhood at least once. He complained about how he struggled to get his lawn that dark green color. He would water four times per week for 10-12 minutes but only parts of his lawn would turn dark green. Other parts of his lawn were brown-ish, and still looked like they weren’t getting enough water even though he knew the sprinklers were covering those areas.
He ended up moving the run times to 15 minutes as we got into summer, then up to 18 minutes per zone to try and over compensate for the areas that were struggling. This didn’t get the result he wanted on his lawn or on his water bill. He said his water bill clocked in close to $600 that month. He thought his only choice was to either pay the money or turn down his sprinklers, thus giving up on his goal to win Yard of the Month.
How We Fixed It
Call it fate for Alfonso, but one day he had a zone stop working. So he went to Google and found the highest rated sprinkler repair company in DFW to come fix it. That company is us, Lawn Sense.
We taught Alfonso about Soil Infiltration Rates. Simply, its the amount of water your soil can accept in an hour. He had an epiphany! This is why no matter how much he increased his watering time, nothing changed. His soil couldn’t accept anymore water at the moment, it needs a break!
Here in DFW we primarily have clay soil, which accepts the least amount of water. He had been wasting so much water all this time, but we figured it out together. What we did was create custom run times for each zone based off his lawns needs. And instead of watering once per day for 18 minutes. During the summer, he now waters four times per day. Each zone runs between two and five minutes, except the drip zones.
This eliminates virtually all water runoff, giving water time to soak into the soil. Less water waste means you won’t have to water as much to keep a green lawn. That’s what it meant for Alfonso.
To do this we calculated:
- Soil Type
- Precipitation Rates on each zone
- Slope percentage on each zone
- System Pressure
- Desired inches per week of water
We can do this for you too! At Lawn Sense, we are the true irrigation experts. Not just in repairs, but in optimizing sprinkler systems.