Sprinkler system maintenance is the scheduled check that keeps a working system working — running every zone, adjusting heads, clearing nozzles, reviewing the controller program, and looking over the backflow assembly before anything fails. We do this for homeowners and commercial properties across San Antonio and the surrounding Hill Country.
Most people book maintenance for one of two reasons: something small has started drifting and they’d rather catch it early, or the seasons are turning and they want the system checked before summer heat or a hard freeze. Below we cover what a visit actually includes, the signs your system needs attention now, when you can reasonably skip a service call, and how timing works in a climate that doesn’t follow the northern spring-start, fall-shutdown template.
A maintenance visit is a check and tune-up, not a repair. We run every zone and watch it work.
•Zone-by-zone walkthrough with the system running
•Head and valve check, including alignment and spray arc
•Leak inspection across visible lines and the valve box
•Head realignment or clearing where nozzles have crusted over
•Controller review and reprogramming for the season
•Visual check of the backflow preventer
Maintenance and repair are billed differently. A tune-up covers the check and the small adjustments. If we find a cracked line or a failed valve, that’s repair work with parts and labor quoted separately — and we’ll tell you before doing it, not after.
Some things shouldn’t wait for a scheduled visit.
•A water bill rising with no change in your watering
•A zone that won’t pop up
•Brown or dead patches spreading in one area
•A controller running on an odd schedule, or at odd times
Bexar County’s expansive clay and caliche soil shifts buried lines and heads season to season. That’s why a system that worked fine last year can drift out of alignment without anything obviously breaking — the ground moved, and the heads moved with it.
We’d rather tell you to wait than have you pay for a visit you don’t need yet.
Clearing debris from a head, swapping a nozzle, or resetting a controller schedule are all reasonable homeowner jobs. If that’s the whole problem, handle it yourself.
The line is the backflow assembly, buried valve wiring, and the point of connection to your water line. Texas reserves that work for a licensed irrigator, and it isn’t a formality — it’s where a mistake contaminates drinking water.If something turns out to be a fault rather than routine upkeep, that’s sprinkler repair, and it’s a different visit.
Most maintenance advice online was written for colder climates. Spring start-up and full fall shutdown make sense in Minnesota. Here the calendar looks different.A spring check before heavy watering season and a pre-freeze check in late fall covers most systems. Older systems on clay soil often want a mid-season look as well, since ground movement pulls things out of alignment through the summer.
San Antonio doesn’t need northern-style winterization with compressor blow-outs. What does need attention is the exposed hardware — backflow preventers and above-ground heads are the parts that crack in an occasional hard freeze. A maintenance visit is also the moment to confirm the controller is running within current local watering rules. Inside San Antonio, those are set by SAWS and can tighten during drought stages, so it’s worth checking what applies before the season starts. Hill Country properties on other utilities follow their own rules.
We’d rather tell you to wait than have you pay for a visit you don’t need yet.
Clearing debris from a head, swapping a nozzle, or resetting a controller schedule are all reasonable homeowner jobs. If that’s the whole problem, handle it yourself.
The line is the backflow assembly, buried valve wiring, and the point of connection to your water line. Texas reserves that work for a licensed irrigator, and it isn’t a formality — it’s where a mistake contaminates drinking water.If something turns out to be a fault rather than routine upkeep, that’s sprinkler repair, and it’s a different visit.
A spring check and a fall pre-freeze check as a baseline, more often for older systems on clay soil. A check is also the moment to confirm the controller runs within current local watering rules.
It depends on zone count, system age, and accessibility. Some companies charge a flat per-visit fee for a standard tune-up and quote separately once repairs are found. Our estimates are free.
Full blow-outs are rarely needed locally, but exposed backflow preventers and above-ground heads do need protection before a hard freeze.
Texas requires a licensed irrigator for backflow and irrigation work. It’s a legal requirement, not a credential a company opts into.
Clearing heads, swapping nozzles, and resetting a controller are fine. Backflow and valve work requires a licensed pro.
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