fixing the sprinkler valve, originally uploaded by espeedy123.
Yes, it’s great to be able to do stuff yourself. And yes, this is supposed to be “Hands On.”
But sometimes, it’s easier and better to hand a project off to someone who knows what they’re doing.
One example? Sprinkler repair. I would advise anyone who thinks they have a problem with their automatic irrigation system to hire a professional to repair it. I knew a couple weeks ago I had a slow leak on my property, and I suspected the sprinkler. Near a couple heads on the side of the house the ground seemed wetter than it should be, but it was tough to tell given the 45 straight days of rain we’ve had. I logged onto my favorite referral site Angieslist and found a popular company called Billy Jack to come take a look.
I’m glad I handed this project off, and here’s why:
- The repair guy diagnosed my problem immediately, and it wasn’t what I thought. Knowing as little as I did about sprinklers, I figured maybe the head was broken or a pipe busted near the head. Turns out the problem was a broken valve 50 feet from the head itself.
- Unless you installed your system, you may possibly have trouble even locating where some of the parts are you need to fix. My system has 10 zones, and for each zone there is a separate valve, buried in the ground and covered with a round plastic cap. My thick St. Augustine turf had completely obscured these — I never even knew they were there. To find them, the repair guys put some sort of electrical meter in the ground, and used headsets to somehow detect valve locations. Not very DIY.
- The system involves water and electricity. A dangerous mix! An electrical current is required to open and close valves. The repairers knew where to cut it off. I didn’t.
- Do you really want to dig a bunch of holes in hundred degree heat? OK so this isn’t a very positive DIY attitude, but it is true. Why waste time digging holes when you could spend time on other more fulfilling DIY tasks!
erin covert * hands on 
If it’s over your head, I agree. Leave it to a professional. However, learning new things is part of being a DIY’er. When I started doing this stuff some 25 years ago, I had difficulty screwing in a light bulb. Now there are very few things I would’t do myself.