Last updated · Orlando, FL

Irrigation repair in Orlando depends heavily on the age of the neighborhood. In College Park, Delaney Park, Colonialtown and the other in-town areas around Lake Eola and the chain of lakes, many systems were installed decades ago, extended piecemeal, and now sit under live oaks much bigger than they were at install. Lakefront homes add a pump that draws from the lake. Newer suburban parts of the city have the opposite issue: young systems set up for a builder’s bare lot. Questions: (407) 674-2841.

Faults typical of older in-town systems

  • Valves that will not close. Worn diaphragms let a zone weep or run on after the controller shuts it off. A lawn that stays wet in one strip, or a water bill that creeps up, points here.
  • Intermittent zones. Old direct-burial wire spliced without waterproof connectors corrodes, so a zone runs one morning and skips the next. Checking resistance at the controller narrows it to the wire or the solenoid.
  • Crushed or lifted lines. Live oak and laurel oak roots squeeze shallow PVC laterals and tilt heads. A head that sprays into the sky or the sidewalk often sits on a root.
  • Buried heads. After years of thatch and top dressing, pop-ups no longer clear the turf and spray sideways. Raising them on risers restores the pattern.

Fix the zone before touching the grass. If a strip has been dry for weeks and the turf there is dead rather than dormant, repair the coverage first, then see the notes on replacing sod in Orlando so the new strip lands on water that actually reaches it.

Lakefront pump systems

Orlando has dozens of named lakes, and many shoreline homes pump irrigation water from them instead of using potable water. That setup adds its own failures:

  • Clogged intake or foot valve. Weeds, algae and silt block the screen; pressure falls zone by zone.
  • Lost prime. If the pump hums but delivers little water, the suction line may have drawn air.
  • Low water. During dry spells the intake can end up too near the surface or in muck.
  • Relay faults. A controller that cycles while the pump stays silent points to the pump start relay or its breaker.

Lake water carries algae and sediment that wear heads and nozzles faster, so check filters and nozzles more often than on a potable system.

Narrow lots and mixed coverage

Many in-town lots have side yards barely wide enough for a walkway. Spray heads there often wet the neighbor’s wall or the driveway while the turf strip stays dry. Low-angle nozzles, matched precipitation rates on each zone, and moving shrubs to drip usually fix more than adding heads.

Rain sensor and watering days

Florida law requires a working rain sensor or soil moisture shut-off on automatic systems. Orlando follows the St. Johns River Water Management District calendar: odd addresses Wednesday and Saturday, even addresses Thursday and Sunday through October 31, then one day a week from November 1 (odd Saturday, even Sunday). No watering from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and no more than one hour per zone. After any repair, reset the controller for the current season.

Nearby pages

Irrigation installation in Orlando, sod installation in Orlando, and the general irrigation repair guide.

Quick answer

Irrigation repair in Orlando usually means old valves, corroded splices and oak-root damage in the in-town neighborhoods, or intake and prime problems on lake-pump systems. Fix the fault, confirm the rain sensor works, and set the controller to the St. Johns district days. Questions: (407) 674-2841.