Irrigation repair & installation in Tampa Bay, set to the rules

The same handful of problems shows up in nearly every audit. Spray heads clipped by mowers and edgers. Clogged nozzles, or a spray head and a rotor sharing one zone even though they put down water at very different rates. Heads sunk below the turf or tilted toward the driveway, so half the water hits concrete. Leaking lines under a bed, valves that stick open, dead controllers and rain sensors that quit years ago.

Dry patches beside soggy ones almost always trace back to those faults, not to too little run time. Turning the timer up just wastes water and feeds fungus. Power outages cause their own trouble: many controllers lose their program, and the City of Tampa warns that a schedule running on the wrong day can still earn a citation. After every storm outage, check the clock and the day.

SWFWMD's Modified Phase III order, extended through March 31, 2027, sets one lawn-watering day by the last digit of your address: 0–1 Monday, 2–3 Tuesday, 4–5 Wednesday, 6–7 Thursday, 8–9 or no address Friday. Hours are 12:01–4 a.m. or 8–11:59 p.m., and properties under an acre pick one window. Hand watering and micro-irrigation of plants other than lawns are allowed any day before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

Several utilities run their own versions. St. Petersburg waters by even and odd address on weekends, Clearwater uses Wednesday and Thursday, Pinellas County Utilities splits days at State Road 580, and Pasco bans weekend watering. Citations can come without a warning. Confirm yours on the SWFWMD restrictions page (opens in a new tab) or in our watering-rules guide, and we'll program the controller to match.

Florida Statute 373.62 requires every automatic sprinkler system to have working rain-shutoff technology, and a contractor who services your system has to test the sensor and repair or replace it if it's missing or broken before finishing the job. We do that on every visit, because a sensor stuck in the off position means your system runs through a downpour.

Smart controllers go a step further, adjusting run times for recent rain and heat. EPA's WaterSense program estimates that weather-based controllers save an average home about 7,600 gallons a year. They still have to be locked to your legal day and hours, which we set during installation. Before buying one, it's worth asking about the free irrigation evaluations offered by the Tampa Water Department, Pasco County and UF/IFAS Extension.

Spray heads in a shrub bed waste a surprising share of their water on leaves, mulch, walls and windows. Converting a bed zone to drip puts water at the root zone through low-flow emitters or inline tubing tucked under the mulch, with a filter and pressure regulator at the valve so the lines don't clog or burst.

Drip also fits the current rules better. As of October 2026, under SWFWMD's order (through March 31, 2027), micro-irrigation of plants other than lawns is allowed any day before 8 a.m. or after 6 p.m., whereas spray zones are held to the once-a-week lawn schedule; check that your utility follows the district default. It's the natural partner for new beds from our landscape design crew and for raised vegetable beds, which need steady moisture through Florida's dry spring.

A new system starts on paper: rotors for open turf, sprays for tight strips, drip for beds, each on its own zone so nothing gets watered on another plant's schedule. Before new sod goes in, we make sure every zone reaches the corners. New systems and their permits go through a licensed partner where required; the City of Tampa, for example, has a residential irrigation and reclaimed-water permit.

Reclaimed water has a long local history. St. Petersburg built the first large-scale urban reuse system in 1977, and Tampa's reclaimed service is generally not subject to the restrictions, though suggested days still apply. Hooking up takes a permit and inspection, purple pipe, complete separation from drinking water and a backflow device. Backflow assemblies and potable tie-ins fall under the plumbing code, so we coordinate a licensed plumber for that part of the job.