Company: Weisburg Landscape Maintenance
Location: Colorado Springs, Colo.
The client was a small Catholic high school. The irrigation heads on the property were old and malfunctioning, spraying water everywhere and creating puddles in the turf. Weisburg Landscape Maintenance got a referral for the project from another irrigation company. Eric Moroski, vice president and co-owner, surveyed the irrigation system and found it was installed in 1968. The system had wiring issues, all the valves were directly buried in dirt with no valve boxes and some valves were failing.
Moroski worked with 15 student and parent volunteers from the school to dig up the 143 pop-up sprayheads, three quarters of which were original Rain Bird and Weathermatic metal heads with custom-welded copper risers. He and another tech-savvy volunteer installed new heads.
Now, the site runs a Wi-Fi controller to irrigate nine zones. The Weisburg team took advantage of rebates from Colorado Springs Utilities, which provides money back for changing outdated irrigation to smart, water-conserving technology. The rebates covered $2,717, and Moroski says the company repaired the system for 5 to 10 percent of the cost of a new one.
“It was a neat partnership,” Moroski says. “I volunteered a lot of my time, the rebates are going to pay for the equipment and the volunteers who go to the school or whose kids go to the school feel empowered and more tied to the school.”
Sprinkler heads were installed every 15 feet along this walkway.
Weisburg Landscape Maintenance uncovered a leaky drain and exposed the copper mainline, which has remained intact despite its age.
Fifteen student and parent volunteers dig up the 143 original irrigation
sprinkler heads on the property.
This red mulched bed had malfunctioning sprinklers. In spring 2021, the Weisburg team plans to renovate the bed and run drip irrigation.
An original Weathermatic sprinkler head from 1968, with custom welding.
Fairy ring damage was present on the site’s turf due to the faulty irrigation system.
