Before you go down the YouTube rabbit hole of How To’s, be sure you know what you’re looking for, because we didn’t.
Last fall, we discovered that we had two stations not working on our sprinkler system. It was late enough in the fall that we figured “we’ll deal with that in the spring”. Well, spring is here, so in April, we started dealing with the sprinkler system.
First, we called two different lawn care companies in our area. One got back to us right away and said, “You’re on my list”. Great! Three weeks later, no call. So we reached out to another. “I can be there this evening or tomorrow evening.” Finally! Some help! No dice. Still haven’t heard from either one.
Easter weekend, we decided to take matters into our own hands. YouTube knows everything, or at least, you can find helpful information. So, we spent that weekend changing solenoids and valves for the two stations that weren’t working. Guess what? It didn’t fix the problem.
We spent the next two weeks trying to figure out this dumb problem, searching for answers because we honestly didn’t have much of a clue what we were doing. I finally stumbled across a YouTube video that instructed us to check the wiring. Low and behold, we found the problem!
The next step? Tracing the wiring to find the break. We started at the obvious place: where it came out of the garage. We found all of three feet of wiring and then it disappeared under the sidewalk. Instead of wasting more time on this ridiculous project, we decided it would be easier to lay new wiring. So dig a trench we did. One hundred feet of it, to be exact. Of course, we hooked everything up before we started digging to make sure that was the actual problem and our problem was fixed.
The work began on a Saturday and ended on a Sunday, with working sprinklers. After plenty of cussing, dirt, and sweat, we are now able to compete with our neighbors for the best yard in town. Now to re-seed the bare spots, fertilize, and keep the dogs off the fresh seeded areas.
