Irrigation sprinkler heads deliver water efficiently to landscapes, ensuring healthy plant growth. These devices often sit at or just below ground level, making them susceptible to damage. Protecting them ensures longevity, maintains system efficiency, and preserves the visual appeal of the lawn.
Reasons for Protecting Sprinkler Heads
Protecting irrigation components ensures mechanical preservation and hydraulic efficiency. Physical impact from maintenance equipment is a leading cause of failure. A lawnmower blade or trimmer can crack the plastic housing or misalign the internal mechanism. This damage leads to leaks and uneven water distribution, causing dry patches or oversaturation.
Chemical exposure also poses a threat, particularly from strong fertilizers, herbicides, or paint overspray. Paint or debris can clog fine nozzle openings or inhibit the smooth pop-up action, rendering the head ineffective. Furthermore, turfgrass can grow over the head, blocking the spray pattern and preventing water from reaching the intended area.
Temporary Protection During Yard Work
High-risk activities like mowing, aeration, and exterior painting require temporary, targeted protection to prevent immediate damage. During routine mowing and trimming, placing a physical barrier around the head is an effective preventative measure. This can involve using brightly colored traffic cones or inverted buckets to create a visible, hard perimeter that directs equipment away from the vulnerable component.
For lawn aeration, marking the heads with small flags or temporary paint before starting is advisable to prevent heavy tines from shearing the head off. Exterior painting projects, particularly those using sprayers, necessitate a complete covering to prevent paint from fouling the mechanism or nozzle. Commercial paint covers, often made of foil or plastic, are designed to quickly adhere over the head and escutcheon plate.
If commercial covers are unavailable, painter’s tape and plastic sheeting can be used to create a temporary seal, but the cover must be removed immediately after the paint has dried. Applying paint to the nozzle is strictly prohibited because it can impede proper function.
Long-Term Aesthetic Solutions and Camouflage
Beyond immediate protection, many property owners seek ways to permanently integrate sprinkler heads into the landscape for aesthetic reasons. Commercial options like heavy-duty sprinkler donuts, made from recycled rubber or concrete, are placed directly around the head. These rings create a buffer zone that prevents grass and weeds from encroaching and protects the head from minor impacts, all while remaining flush with the lawn.
For heads located in mulched beds or rock gardens, a discreet PVC pipe cut a few inches taller than the surrounding material can act as a subtle, long-term shield. This method prevents mulch or decorative stones from migrating over the head and blocking its spray pattern. The non-moving body of the head can also be color-matched to the surrounding soil or mulch using landscape-safe spray paint, minimizing its visibility without affecting the pop-up riser or nozzle.
Strategic planting is another method, where low-growing ground covers are planted around the sprinkler head to conceal the base. Plants like creeping thyme or sedum can be used, provided their mature height will not interfere with the trajectory of the water when the head is fully extended.
Winterizing Sprinkler Heads Against Freezing
Protecting the entire irrigation system from cold weather is a distinct process from physical damage prevention. In climates where temperatures regularly drop below freezing, water left in the pipes will expand as it turns to ice, potentially cracking the lines, valves, and sprinkler heads. The most reliable method to prevent this is to “blow out” the system using an air compressor to force all residual water from the pipes.
The compressed air must be introduced carefully, with the pressure regulated to a safe level. Typically, this should not exceed 80 pounds per square inch (PSI) for PVC piping or 50 PSI for polyethylene pipes. This process must be done zone by zone, starting with the furthest zone, to avoid damaging the internal plastic gears of the heads. Improperly draining the system or using excessive air pressure is a common cause of damage.
The above-ground backflow preventer, which is often metal and highly susceptible to freeze damage, also requires attention. After the system is drained, the ball valves on the backflow device should be left at a 45-degree angle for the winter. This intermediate position prevents water from becoming trapped and freezing within the valve body itself, which could otherwise lead to a crack in the metal housing.