Turf and beds
Sprinkler systems that cover the whole property, not most of it
New installation, quarterly maintenance and repair on residential and commercial systems across Central Brevard County. Hunter, Rain Bird and Toro, named on the quote. The estimate is free.
Chapter 01
The dry corner is a layout problem, not a pressure problem
Almost every call we take about a browning patch turns out to be a coverage gap rather than a weak pump. Sprinkler heads are specified to throw a certain distance, and the whole design depends on each head reaching the next one. That is called head to head coverage, and when it is right the arcs overlap so heavily that the ground between two heads is watered twice. It looks like overkill on paper. It is the only layout that survives wind, a slightly worn nozzle and a head that settles half an inch over five years.
When a system is laid out head to tail instead, and a lot of them are, the property looks fine for the first couple of seasons and then starts showing its geometry. You get pale crescents at the edge of each arc, usually along a drive or a property line, and they show up in the dry season first. Turning the timer up does not fix it. It just drowns everything that was already getting water.
So the first thing we do on an existing system is walk it with the zones running and watch where the water actually lands. On a new install we set the head spacing off the nozzle we intend to use before anything goes in the ground.
A Hartmann spray zone running through a tropical planting bed in Merritt Island, pop-up head throwing across palms, crotons and bromeliads
Why the brand goes on the quote
We use Hunter, Rain Bird and Toro. That is not a preference about performance so much as a decision about the next ten years. Those three are carried by every irrigation supply counter in Brevard County, which means a nozzle, a diaphragm or a whole rotor can be matched off the shelf years after the install, by us or by anyone else.
The alternative is a system built out of whatever was cheapest in the box that month, and the failure mode there is not dramatic. It is that one head breaks in year six, nothing matches it, and the repair becomes a small redesign of that zone. We would rather write the brand on the quote up front and have the property stay serviceable.
The same reasoning runs through the valves and the controller. Standard parts, standard wiring colours, and a manifold laid out so the next person can see what feeds what without digging the whole run up.
Chapter 03
Quarterly, before the dry season tells you
Maintenance on an irrigation system is mostly small mechanical work done on a schedule. Every head gets lifted and checked, arcs get reset where a mower or a car has knocked one round, worn nozzles get swapped, and the filter screens get cleaned. Brevard water carries enough fine grit to change a nozzle pattern inside a season, and a partially blocked nozzle throws short long before it stops working.
Customers on an annual or quarterly check tend to find out about problems from us rather than from the grass. One of them put it plainly in a review: they get the system tested and the heads checked and replaced every year, and Chuck has been out multiple times. That is the shape of it. It is not glamorous work and it is why the systems we maintain do not generate emergencies.
If something does need a second visit, there is no charge for it. That has been the policy long enough that customers mention it unprompted.
Hartmann Irrigation, Merritt Island since 1980. Licensed and insured, IR 52. Call (321) 454-3314.