Grounds · Lawn & landscape irrigation
Irrigation
The sprinklers run at four in the morning, and nobody watches them. That is how a lawn dies a zone at a time, and it is how a set of impact windows is etched beyond polishing before anyone notices the spray was landing on the house. We install, repair and keep landscape irrigation on a written schedule — and we aim every head away from the building.
The coast
Why irrigation fails here
A system that would run for fifteen years inland is in trouble in five on this coast. The causes are the same from Palm Beach to Naples, and almost none of them are the controller's fault.
Sand and shell in the heads
The soil here is sand over shell and limestone. It gets into the line at every break, sits in the laterals, and finishes in the nozzles. A head that mists where it used to throw, or runs a stream in one direction, is usually plugged rather than worn out.
Well water and salt
Irrigation wells on the coast carry iron, calcium and sulphur, and near the Intracoastal they turn brackish as the salt front moves inland. The minerals scale the valves and stain everything they land on. The salt burns the turf at the edges first and the beds next.
Reclaimed water
Where a utility offers it, reclaimed water lifts the restriction on watering days but carries its own salts and nutrients. Heads, filters and the plant palette need to be chosen for it, and the system marked as the code requires.
Pressure on long runs
A waterfront lot is long and narrow, and the zone at the far end of the run is starved while the one by the meter blows mist. Unregulated pressure and undersized mains are the common reasons a lawn is brown in one corner and sodden in another.
Drift, roots and pavers
Heads sink, tilt and turn as the ground settles. Palm and ficus roots lift and shear laterals. A paver driveway relaid without the sleeves being found severs the line underneath. Each one shows up as a wet patch in the wrong place, months later.
A controller nobody has touched
Most systems are still running the programme the installer left on them, set for new sod and never revised. The rain sensor has been disconnected since the first time it stopped a cycle. The clock gained an hour in March and nobody set it back.
The house, not the lawn
A misaimed head costs a glass package, not a patch of grass
The irrigation trade talks about coverage and uniformity. It rarely talks about where the water lands when it is not on the turf. On a waterfront house, that is the part that matters, because the building is far more expensive than the garden and far harder to put right.
Every drop that leaves a sprinkler head carries whatever is dissolved in the supply — calcium, magnesium, silica, iron, and on a well near the water, salt. When that drop lands on hot glass, stone or metal and dries, the water leaves and the minerals stay. One cycle does nothing you can see. Two hundred cycles a year, in the dark, on the same panel, and the deposit has bonded to the surface.
On glass the sequence is well understood. Early deposits sit on the surface and clean off with the right chemistry. Left in place through enough wet-and-dry cycles, the alkaline minerals begin to attack the glass itself, and the haze becomes etching that no cleaning will remove. Hard-water overspray is among the most common causes of permanent mineral etching on exterior glazing — and on a house with floor-to-ceiling impact units, the remedy is not a polish. It is a replacement panel, measured, ordered, craned in and re-sealed.
Stone fares no better. Travertine, shellstone and coral stone are porous and calcareous. Hard water leaves a white crust that works into the pores; iron from a well leaves the orange tide-line you see on so many South Florida walls and pool decks. Stucco held permanently damp at its base grows algae and efflorescence. Bronze and stainless hardware spot and tea-stain; aluminium frames develop white corrosion under the mineral film. None of it is a maintenance item. All of it started at a sprinkler head set to cover the last foot of lawn against the house.
So we design and adjust every system from the building outward. The heads nearest the house are chosen and arced so nothing reaches the wall, the glass or the deck. Beds against the elevation go on drip rather than spray. Pressure is regulated at the head so the spray does not atomise and drift on the sea breeze. Where a well is the supply, the water is tested and treated before it is allowed near the house at all. And the whole arrangement is photographed and recorded, so that when a landscaper replaces a head next spring, there is a drawing that says which way it faces.
The dry margin
We hold a dry margin at the base of every elevation and around every pane. The last strip of turf against the house is watered by the head behind it, throwing away from the wall, or not at all. Lawn that cannot be reached without wetting the building is a design mistake, not a coverage target.
Recorded before it spreads
Where a house is already under our estate calendar, the window and glass programme records mineral etching before it advances and the exterior preservation programme rinses stone and metalwork of what the spray has left. The irrigation audit is where both of those begin.
Tested at the source
Well water near the coast is tested for iron, hardness and chloride before a system is designed around it, and filtration or treatment specified where the numbers call for it. On municipal supply the hardness is known and the design allows for it.
What we do
The whole system
From the backflow at the street to the last head at the seawall, held by one firm and written down. Service, repair and the seasonal programme are our own work. Permitted installation and the backflow connection are performed by licensed trades we direct, on the same statement.
Installation & replacement
New systems for new landscapes, and full replacement of systems past saving, designed from the house outward.
- Zoning by plant, sun and exposure
- Heads and nozzles matched for precipitation rate
- Drip in every bed against the house
- Pressure regulation and sleeves under hardscape
- Permitted installation by a licensed contractor engaged directly by you
- An as-built drawing when it is finished
Service & repair
The failures that show up as a dead corner, a wet patch, or a bill from the utility.
- Heads, nozzles and risers replaced
- Valves, solenoids and diaphragms
- Lateral and mainline leaks located and repaired
- Wiring faults traced and decoders replaced
- Pump, well and filter service
- Lines cut by other trades put right
Zone audit & coverage correction
Every zone run and watched, head by head, with the spray measured rather than guessed at.
- Each zone run in daylight and photographed
- Catch-cup test for distribution uniformity
- Arcs and radii set away from the building
- Mismatched and sunken heads corrected
- Pressure read at the head, not the meter
- A written report with a drawing of every zone
Controllers, sensors & smart scheduling
The programme written for the property it is on, and revised as the seasons and the planting change.
- Weather-based and soil-moisture controllers
- Rain shut-off tested and replaced where failed
- Flow sensing to catch a break the same day
- Cycle-and-soak on slopes and sand
- Watering days set to the local ordinance
- Remote access for the owner and the steward
Backflow testing
The device that keeps the irrigation water out of the drinking water, tested and filed on the interval the utility sets.
- Annual test by a certified tester we direct
- Results filed with the utility on your behalf
- Due dates held on the calendar
- Repair or replacement by a licensed plumber, under permit
Seasonal programme
A system visited on a schedule, so a failure is found in the week it happens rather than in the spring by a dead hedge.
- Monthly walk of every zone
- Controller reprogrammed for the season
- Heads cleaned of sand and shell
- Filters and screens flushed
- Overspray on the house checked each visit
- Photographs after every visit, to your telephone
Florida Statute § 373.62
The rain shut-off, tested every visit
Florida law requires every automatic landscape irrigation system to have a device that stops it running when the ground is already wet, and it places a duty on the contractor working on that system to test the device, repair or install it if it is missing or broken, and confirm it works before doing anything else. Most visits skip it. We do it first, every time, and write down what we found.
- TestEvery rain sensor, soil-moisture sensor or weather shut-off on the system is tested for correct operation at the start of the visit — not asked about, tested.
- Repair or installWhere the device is missing, disconnected or failed, it is repaired or replaced before any other work on the system is taken up. The law does not allow a contractor to leave it and move on, and neither do we.
- Confirm and recordThe device is confirmed working and the result recorded in the visit report, with a photograph. Local ordinances adopted under the statute carry fines for contractors who do not comply; the record is how you know the duty was met.
The duty is set out in Fla. Stat. § 373.62(1) and (2). The model ordinance under subsection (3) provides minimum penalties of $50 for a first offence, $100 for a second and $250 for a third or subsequent offence against contractors who do not comply.
Water restrictions
Two days a week is enough, if the system is right
The South Florida Water Management District limits landscape irrigation year-round, and the counties and towns adopt their own ordinances on top of it. The schedule depends on the address. We set the controller to the ordinance that applies, and we design and adjust the system so the allowed days are sufficient.
| Jurisdiction | Year-round schedule |
|---|---|
| District-wide | No landscape irrigation between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on any day. Reclaimed water, low-volume drip and micro-irrigation, and hand watering with a shut-off nozzle are allowed at any time. New plantings have an allowance for their first ninety days. Water-shortage orders, when declared, override the year-round rule. |
| Broward County | Two days a week, mandatory in every city: odd-numbered addresses Wednesday and Saturday; even-numbered addresses, properties without a number and mixed zones such as associations, Thursday and Sunday. |
| Miami-Dade County | Two days a week: odd-numbered addresses Wednesday and Saturday; even-numbered addresses Thursday and Sunday. |
| Palm Beach County | The district rule applies, and the county and its municipalities adopt their own ordinances, which vary from town to town between the district's two-day and three-day schedules. We confirm the schedule for your address before the controller is set. |
| The Gulf counties | Collier and Lee sit in the same district; Charlotte is split between the two, and Sarasota and Manatee fall under the Southwest Florida district with its own rule. The schedule is confirmed for the address at audit. |
Schedules are set by the district and the local ordinance and change when a shortage order is declared. Confirm the current rule for your address with your county or utility before relying on it.
Zoned by what grows there
Turf in full sun, turf in shade, beds, palms and the strip along the seawall each want a different amount of water. When they share a zone, the thirstiest one sets the run time and the rest drown. Zoning them apart is what makes two days a week work.
Matched precipitation
A rotor and a spray head on the same zone put down water at wildly different rates, so one corner is dry when the other is flooded and the owner answers by adding a third day. Heads matched for precipitation rate, and a catch-cup test to prove it, take the third day away again.
Cycle and soak
Sand takes water quickly and holds almost none. A long run on an allowed day sends most of it past the roots. Splitting the run into short cycles with a pause between lets the root zone fill, and a weather-based controller trims the next run when it rains.
Questions
Before you call
Do you install new irrigation systems, or only service them?
Both. We design and lay out new systems and full replacements, and we hold the service, the repairs and the seasonal programme afterwards. Installation that requires a permit, and the connection of the backflow preventer, are performed by licensed, insured contractors we direct, under our drawing and on our statement. Service, repair, zone audits and controller work are our own crews.
Can a sprinkler system really damage the windows?
Yes, and it is one of the most common causes of permanent etching on exterior glass. Hard water lands on the pane, dries, and leaves its minerals behind; after enough cycles the deposit bonds to the surface and then begins to attack the glass itself, at which point no cleaning will take it out. The same water leaves a white crust on travertine and shellstone and an orange tide-line where there is iron in the well. We set every head so that nothing reaches the house, and we record the setting so it survives the next landscaper.
What does a zone audit involve?
Every zone is run in daylight and watched head by head. We measure distribution with catch cups, read pressure at the head, check arcs and radii against the building, test the rain shut-off, read the controller programme and the watering days, and photograph what we find. You receive a written report with a drawing of every zone and a list of corrections in priority order.
Why does the rain sensor matter so much?
Because Florida law requires it. Every automatic landscape irrigation system must have a device that stops it running when the ground is already wet, and a contractor working on the system is required to test that device, repair or replace it if it has failed, and confirm it works before doing anything else. Most of the systems we see have had the sensor disconnected since the first time it interrupted a cycle. We test it at the start of every visit and record the result.
What are the watering restrictions in South Florida?
The South Florida Water Management District prohibits landscape irrigation between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. year-round and limits watering to set days by address. Broward and Miami-Dade are two days a week — Wednesday and Saturday for odd-numbered addresses, Thursday and Sunday for even. Palm Beach County and its towns adopt their own ordinances, which vary between the district's two-day and three-day schedules. Reclaimed water, drip and hand watering are allowed at any time, and new plantings have an allowance for ninety days. We confirm the rule for your address and set the controller to it.
Our well water stains everything. Can that be fixed?
Usually. Orange staining is iron; white crust is calcium and magnesium. We test the well for iron, hardness and chloride, and where the numbers call for it we specify filtration or treatment ahead of the system, or move the zones nearest the house onto municipal supply. The staining already on the stone and glass is addressed under the exterior preservation and window programmes on the estate calendar.
Will you work with our existing landscaper?
Yes. Most properties already have a landscape crew, and most landscape crews replace a head now and then without asking which way it faced. We hold the drawing and the schedule, we leave the crew to the grounds, and we check the heads nearest the house on every visit so that a well-meant replacement does not spend a year spraying the glass.
Which parts of South Florida do you cover for irrigation?
The same nine counties as the rest of the firm: Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe on the Atlantic, and Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier on the Gulf. The heaviest work is on the waterfront in Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Naples and Sarasota, and on commercial grounds in Miami and Pompano Beach. Response targets by county are on the coverage page.
Alongside
Part of the whole property
On a private residence, irrigation sits inside the estate calendar alongside the window, glass and exterior preservation programmes it protects. On a hotel, a plaza or an association, it is held with the building's plant under Amalfi Mechanical, where the backflow is already on the plumbing schedule. New landscapes that come with a renovation are laid out with Amalfi Construction so the sleeves are in before the pavers are.
Enquiries
Begin with a zone audit
Every zone run and watched, the heads checked against the house, the rain shut-off tested and the controller read, written up with photographs and a drawing. It obliges you to nothing, and the report is yours regardless.