Drought rules exist. Builder programs ignore them. We set days that match the current restriction.
Irrigation Controller Repair in Houston is a local job: the grass, the clay, and the houses on those streets decide the repair. Inside the Loop, lawns are small and the irrigation is older than the last kitchen remodel. Heights bungalows, Montrose cottages, and River Oaks estates all run pop-ups through Houston clay. Heads sit too low in St. Augustine. Laterals snap when the soil shrinks. We repair the zone that actually failed and leave a program that waters at night, not at noon.
77007 and 77008 still have original laterals next to oaks. Memorial and River Oaks want matched heads and a quiet dusk cycle. Meyerland rebuilds got new sod and a builder system that never covered the side yard. Nearby landmarks we actually use to find the lot: Buffalo Bayou, the Heights hike-and-bike, River Oaks boulevard oaks, Memorial Park edge lots.
Irrigation Controller Repair in Houston
The controller is the clock. Houston storms fry boards. HOAs set run times that flood clay. A Rain Bird or Hunter panel that forgot the program is a repair, not a new landscape. We diagnose the panel, the transformer, and the common wire before we sell a replacement.
A sprinkler timer that looks dead is often a blown fuse, a loose common, or a transformer that cooked on a west-facing garage wall. We meter first. If the board is gone, we replace it with a panel that holds a program through a blink — battery backup or a Wi-Fi model if you want phone control.
Programming matters as much as hardware. St. Augustine in Katy clay does not want six-minute daily sprays. We set cycle-and-soak so runoff does not sheet down the driveway, and we point you at Harris County watering rules when they apply.
Smart controllers help when the rain sensor is honest and the zones are matched. They do not fix a broken head. We say that on the visit.
Grass, soil, and housing on this side of town
Grass. St. Augustine inside the Loop, Bermuda on some rebuilds, zoysia on a few River Oaks lawns St. Augustine wants a deep soak. Bermuda forgives a miss for a day. Mixing them on one valve is how one strip stays swampy and the other crunches.
Soil. Houston Black clay and Beaumont clay that shrinks in drought and swells after Gulf storms Houston-area clay heaves shallow PVC and keeps valve boxes wet. We pack repairs so the next shrink-swell cycle does not walk the coupling off.
Housing. 1920s bungalows inside the Loop, 1950s brick ranches, and post-Harvey rebuilt slabs Typical irrigation failures here: mower-clipped pop-ups, clay-heaved PVC, dry side yards, controllers fried by storms
Drought rules exist. Builder programs ignore them. We set days that match the current restriction.
What the visit looks like
- Meter Incoming power, 24-volt output, common continuity.
- Read the program Start times, run times, odd/even, seasonal adjust.
- Repair or replace Board, transformer, or a new controller of the same class.
- Program for Houston Night watering, cycle-and-soak, rain sensor enabled.
Neighborhoods we treat as the same dispatch cluster in Houston: The Heights, Montrose, River Oaks, Memorial, Energy Corridor, Midtown, Garden Oaks, Meyerland, West University, EaDo. Zips: 77002, 77004, 77006, 77007, 77008, 77019, 77024, 77027, 77056, 77098. County: Harris County.
Related work, not a clone of this page
If a head is sheared, start with sprinkler head repair. If a zone is dead, read sprinkler zone repair. A geyser or a main break is emergency sprinkler repair.
This article is paired with Irrigation Controller Repair and the city hub lawn sprinkler repair in Houston. Combined landing: Irrigation Controller Repair in Houston.
Nearby cities with different watering stories
- Sugar Land — Bernard clay and Lake Charles clay — high shrink-swell, slick when wet
- Missouri City — HOA restoration rules, Sienna mower hits, Quail Valley 1970s laterals
- Sprinkler Valve Repair in Sugar Land
- Rain Sensor Repair in Missouri City
Field notes we actually say on this job
- Blank display after a thunderstorm
- Zones running at noon in August
- Lost program every time the power blinks
- Wi-Fi controller offline
- Wrong seasonal adjust
- No 24-volt output to the valves
Questions we get on this pairing
Can you reprogram my existing timer?
Yes. A lot of “broken” systems are bad start times and a rain sensor jumper.
Do you install Wi-Fi sprinkler controllers?
Yes, when the Wi-Fi reaches the garage wall. We will not pretend a dead spot is a feature.
Will a new controller fix dry spots?
Only if the old program was the problem. Heads and pressure still have to work.
Keep reading (different streets, different repairs)
- Pearland’s Silverlake and the twelve-minute myth — Longer is not greener if the nozzles mist. Pressure and match first.
- Fulshear is still in the cheap window — Cross Creek Ranch can still get coverage right. Cinco Ranch is already paying for the same clay done late.
- Rosenberg’s Brazos bottom hides leaks — Wet in August anyway. Use the meter, then a tight trench.
- The HOA letter is usually runoff or a brown strip — They want green parkway and a dry street. Adjustment plus a clock that is not on daily mist.
- Builder systems that never covered the side yard — A grid that stops at the fence. Add a head. Do not extend run times on the front until the side is green.
Irrigation Pro repairs lawn sprinklers across Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Brazoria, Galveston, and Waller counties. Other markets come later — Houston is first. Call 713-555-1212 or schedule a visit. Email service@irrigationpro.com.
Also see how a Houston sprinkler repair visit works, FAQ, systems we repair, and all cities we serve.