Sprinkler Winterization & Spring Startup in Middle Tennessee

We shut down the supply, drain or blow out the lines with compressed air at a safe pressure, clear the valves and heads, and protect the backflow assembly, which is the part most exposed to freezing air. The controller is set to its off or rain mode so it does not try to run a zone during a January thaw.

The cost of one winterization visit is a small fraction of replacing a cracked backflow device and repairing the line it feeds.

Startup is more than turning the water back on. We pressurize slowly to avoid water hammer, walk every zone, look for leaks that developed over winter, straighten and clean heads, check nozzle patterns against the current landscaping, and reprogram the controller for the season ahead.

It is also the moment when problems get caught cheaply, before a hidden leak runs all summer on your water bill.

Landscaping grows. A head that cleared a shrub two years ago now sprays into it, and a young tree has shaded a zone that used to bake. Startup is when we correct those so coverage matches the yard you have now rather than the one you had at installation.

Winterization is not just shutting off a valve. Water left standing in lateral lines, heads and especially the backflow device expands when it freezes, and a cracked backflow assembly is one of the more expensive irrigation repairs there is.

We shut down the supply, then run compressed air through each zone in turn at a controlled pressure until the heads run dry. Too much pressure damages heads and seals, so the process is deliberate rather than fast. The controller is set to its off or rain mode, and the backflow is drained and left in the correct position for winter.

Turning water back on is the easy part. The value of a startup visit is what gets found: heads knocked out of alignment by mowers over the winter, a broken riser, a zone that is not opening, or spray patterns now blocked by plants that grew all last season.

We pressurize slowly to avoid water hammer, run every zone, adjust arcs and nozzles, and reset the controller for spring conditions rather than leaving last August's schedule in place.