Customer question : ‘When the landscape & irrigation was re-done, we have experienced a drop in water pressure in the house at the same time, is there a connection ?’

Short Answer : A drop in water pressure inside the house at the same time the sprinklers are running shows that the home is sharing the external (for the yard) & interior home water supply (sinks, showers,etc). This change in water pressure inside the house is most common when a home’s water supply is coming from a well system on the property.

 It is possible, that it may be a coincidence in timing, that an unrelated interior issue is occurring at the same time, but more often there will be a connection.

 Options on Solutions : If this is the situation you face, where you have just had new landscape work installed or irrigation repairs done and you wake up the next morning and there is a noticeable drop in water pressure in the shower for instance.

 This does not happen often, but there are a few possible solutions to this problem.

 The options to solve the water supply problem depend on your water supply set up. Answer depends on which of the below water supply systems you have :

• Well Water System for your home : This is when you’re home is running off of one supply to the home for water. If the yard is using water at the same time as you wish to run the dishwasher, or laundry or take a shower most noticeably, the water supply is being strained.

VERY EASY FIX : The Resolution is to lower the water usage with well system at that time of day. Simply Change the time you are irrigating (using the sprinklers in the yard). To use the sprinklers during the day and warmer hours, is less productive than during the cooler hours at end of day, at night, or early morning. Simply change the time your system turns on to finish before you normally would shower or do laundry, etc.  

Changing the time the sprinklers go on requires adjusting this within the sprinkler timer / control box. Usually located outside by the pump or sometimes they are installed inside of a garage. A few examples of what these irrigation timers / controllers look like.

• City Water : Lower shower pressure same time irrigation comes on. Very rare situation and could simply be a coincidence as they both work off of separate water supply lines. There is an independent water supply that goes directly into the home & a separate supply line that has separate and independent piping that goes to supply the irrigation system.

Solutions : The first 2 options will usually be the one’s to discover the source of the issue.

1. a) In most cases you might call your home’s builder if the home is under warranty
2. Call a plumber
3. If there was a completely brand new irrigation system just installed at your home or property – OR – if a new backflow preventer was installed (very rare) to your existing irrigation system, the water pressure to the house may have not been turned completely back to full pressure. In this case, inside the ground meter box which is usually by the front of the house by the sidewalk and street, there is a dial which can be turned to shut off or turn on.                               

• Regular renovations or re-connects even after new additions, new pools, decks, driveway expansions never need to deal with a backflow preventer that is installed on the city water supply line that leads to your irrigation.

For more information on this problem for better understanding when dealing with this, we have included more detailed info here.

“The water pressure is lower inside the house when the irrigation comes on, and I am on city water. How could the 2 not be linked ?

With City Water the internal water supply of the house is separate from the external water.

HOW ?

The water supply lines (the plumbing for the interior of the house, building) has completely separate lines that tap into the city water supply for the house. The irrigation (external) water supply lines are fed through a different set of piping from the supply line.

This is why if a sprinkler in the yard or an irrigation pipe is broken and there is a gush of water shooting straight up in the air outside, there is no effect on your pressure in the shower.

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“ I don’t know how my landscape gets its water. I don’t know if I’m on city or well water, how can I tell?” Answer : If you pay a water bill each month, you are on city water most likely.

 Note : After a new landscape is installed, the first 3 months the landscape will require more water than any other time normally during its life. These first few months you will likely experience higher watering bills to supply the irrigation system if the sprinklers are supplied by city water.

The irrigation water may come in from a number of ways :

• City Water
• Well Water – no water bill for irrigation or home usage.
• HOA or independent re-cycled water system for irrigation (and usually the HOA will have a company in charge of maintenance for this situation).

NOTE : With this 3^rd set up, your home may have its own time clock / controller for the irrigation on a wall (exterior or in garage) that you use to  control your sprinklers.  Also, this set up can be seen where many homes sprinklers (usually at least 3 to 5 or so houses, where the irrigation works as one system and each homes irrigation always comes on together at the same time. We will describe both the well and the city water system more, with HOA shared irrigation, your quickest results will involve coordinating any help through your HOA as they control the system.

Renovations of Landscaping, Renovations of Irrigation & Sprinkler Systems.

The internal water supply for the house is not touched during a landscape installation or even a renovation of the sprinkler system with either the City or Well Water system your home or property may have.

The ONLY situations where the water supply to the interior of the house or building would be affected :

1) A well water system :

Which there is a well drilled on the property and there is a dedicated pump that connects to the well to supply both the home's internal water system as well as the exterior. In this situation the home's (or building’s) interior supply could be affected when the exterior irrigation is being used.

Simply put, the irrigation is taking away water that also supplies the home (or building) and while the sprinklers are on, there is less water being supplied internally to the home (or building).

Sometimes as a remedy homeowner's might choose to drill a second well so there is a pump dedicated to each internal & external use respectively. When having 2 wells installed, there should never be a change in water pressure inside the house as both the inside of the house & the outside have their own independent well supplies of water. If there is a difference in pressure with this set up, there would be a problem with the well(s).

2) City water connection :

The only time the interior supply of water would be disturbed is when a new or replacement backflow preventer is being installed.

A back-flow preventer is installed on the intake flow from the city water system as it goes to the irrigation supply lines. There is also one for the interior supply of the home as well.

The point of disruption is when the water to supply the home has to be turned off manually (on site, by in ground meter usually in front area of property by sidewalk or street) so the backflow preventer can be installed.

This is the only time that a renovation or new sprinkler system should ever have an effect on the interior water supply to a home, when the backflow preventer is being installed or replaced.

Photo of an irrigation valve supply . In the photo, the piping exposed shows the different irrigation zone lines. The green cover that is currently above ground in the photo, is set in the ground over this space, so a lid can be lifted for reaching in for simple adjustments. The timer / controller moves directs the valves to which zone to turn on and for how long.

Many problems with an irrigation supply problem can be found either here with the valve or with the timer if a sprinkler system fails to turn on – or change zones, if there are no breaks in the irrigation lines. This is a separate water system from the internal water supply of the home (or building) but brought up for any having irrigation trouble.

Other situations where landscape work could interfere with the home's interior water supply : MAIN HOME WATER SUPPLY LINE BREAKS.  As above, the water meter is mentioned, there is a supply line, usually 2" to 3" supply line to a home. Some very large homes or commercial properties may have more than one or larger piping.

Photo of a typical water supply line to a home :

How to shut off the house water to stop water gushing from a broken pipe …

This piping can be broken during a landscape installation dig, usually because of their thickness, only by machine. They can crack and have an opening by a hand dig of any trade and if so, will usually be readily noticeable as there is water pressure in that line and the water will immediately start to come out of that break in the pipe.

At that point, the in ground meter box is the next stop to shut off and stop the gushing water. There is a lid that is opened, usually 4" x 8" in the center of a green, black or concrete box. Concrete in ground will usually have a metal lid. There is a dial to turn to shut off right by the counter clock that measures the water usage.

Photos of an in-ground water meter box & the interior dial that turns water on & off by turning :

NOTE : In the photo that shows a meter with the lid open, in this case soil has filled in over the controls that the other photos show. The soil would have to be removed to find the controls that turn the water on and off for the house water supply.

If water is gushing from a pipe that supplies water to the home, you will not only see this water gush, but will have little to no water pressure inside the home or building. Before any repair can be done, this water has to be turned off and the water meter (as in the photo above for a home) is the source to locate and turn off first.

A Slow leak that isn’t very noticeable.

Beyond a very visible excavation plumbing line break that supplies water to the home, it is possible, but very unusual and not common at all, that a break or a problem with the piping could occur below ground, unseen, from faulty plumbing installation.

All lines check out by a plumber or builder internally, no noticeable ones outside, but rare, but possible a leak is occurring underground. If so, over a period of time washout will occur. Some properties because of soil conditions or the strength of the leak, this will be visible more rapidly than other properties. A washout of the soil / yard will occur and a hole will develop in the ground. This would again most likely be in the front yard as most houses have their city water supply connecting to the front of the house because it is the shortest distance from the street where the city water supply lines are.

Surface machine work, from exceptionally large heavy machines, large cranes, loaders (not typical landscape use bobcats or grading machines or tractors) putting weight and pressure on the ground could in a rare instance cause a poor pipe connection to open. Time alone with poorly installed plumbing could be a cause.  (Note : In dealing with thousands upon thousands of homes, we personally have not come across this, but it is possible.) The installation of these plumbing lines do have to pass inspection by local building departments.

Much older homes may still have copper or steel piping, newer homes typically PVC Plumbing Piping. 3” lines normally.

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In conclusion, if you are experiencing a problem with the internal water supply at the same time as a drop in pressure internally; and you have a city water system :

City water system – call your builder or plumber first. This will help to determine the problem more readily than any other method.

Unless the main water supply line was shut off temporarily and not turned fully back on, this could be an instance where the irrigation work could have an effect on the interior home's water supply.  The situation usually would only occur, possibly when a new backflow preventer is being installed as the irrigation that is on a home that has an independent timer and control, has the ability to shut off the water by the power - on / off switch at the timer.

Another scenario where the main water supply could have been turned off is if during an excavation, in the front yard almost always, and a plumbing supply line for the house was broken or cracked during excavation and the water had to be shut off so a repair could be done.

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I hope that any who are experiencing this problem find this information helpful, and if you are a customer of ours, if there is this problem, even if outside of our area of involvement, we would like to be kept in the loop. We treat these situations with priority and will do whatever falls into our scope to help. We ask that you would contact us @ (561) 722 – 0252  or by email at   [email protected]