Should I add minutes to cover a dry patch in the lawn?

Usually not. A dry patch normally means a coverage gap from a blocked, tilted or mismatched head. Extra minutes overwater the rest of the zone and can send water onto paving without reaching the gap. Fix the spray pattern first, then hand water the spot if it needs help recovering.

Why do my sprinklers keep spraying the sidewalk after I fix them?

Heads turn easily when they are bumped by mowers, feet or growing plants, and nozzles with too much throw reach past the grass. Run the zone briefly, turn each wayward head back, and choose nozzles whose spray distance fits the area so water lands on plants rather than concrete or walls.

Sprinkler Repair

Trace a dry patch, a geyser or a soaked strip back to the part that failed, then set the zone right for Peoria hours.

Request an estimate(623) 624-0780

Start with when the zone runs, not which head looks bad

Most Peoria sprinkler calls begin with a symptom on the ground: a brown arc at the edge of the lawn, a gutter that is wet every morning, a head throwing water onto the block wall. The first question is when the station runs. The City of Peoria Water FAQ says pressure in most of its system sits between 50 and 80 psi but can fall to about 40 during weekday peaks, 7 to 9 a.m. and 6 to 11 p.m. A zone that starts at 7 a.m. can look broken and be fine at 2 a.m.

So a repair visit runs each station by itself, at its scheduled hour where that matters, and walks it from the valve to the last head. One tilted or snapped head is a single fix. A whole station that rises late or falls short points upstream, to the valve, a cracked lateral or the supply. Water that keeps flowing after the station shuts off is a valve problem, and that changes the first step.

Finish the repair, then fix the schedule around it

A repaired zone should rise fully, reach head to head and shut off cleanly. Then the program needs checking, because many controllers carry extra minutes that were added to cover a broken head or a weak line. Once the fault is gone, those minutes push water past the roots and onto the sidewalk, which Peoria's City Code 13-36(d) treats as unlawful runoff when it reaches a street, an alley or a neighbor's property.

The city asks residents to schedule irrigation between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., so the finished program should start late enough to finish before the morning peak. On a slope or a narrow side strip, splitting the run into short cycles with a pause keeps water on the turf. The repair note should name the station, what failed and what was replaced. Single heads are covered under sprinkler head replacement, stuck or silent valves under valve and solenoid repair, and buried pipe under PVC pipe and mainline repair.

Source: City of Peoria, Water FAQ, Checked Oct 1, 2026