Across Florida multiple communities are putting up with irrigation systems that are less than optimal but which are just about continuing to function. The ‘just about’ part of that sentence means the systems in question require ongoing repairs and regular replacement of worn and faulty parts while wasting multiple gallons of water which, while ineffective, still need to be paid for!
As experts in the design, installation and maintenance of irrigation systems, the team at Hoover is all too used to dealing with Boards, development teams and residents who suddenly have to face up to the fact that their irrigation system is far from ideal. Time and again, the moment at which this realization hits is when control of the system is in turnover, passing from the developer to the Board.
The Picture Becomes Clear
The fact that an irrigation system isn’t functioning as well as it should be may have been manifesting itself over several years prior to turnover - or it may be highlighted as a problem (often in the condition of the landscape) in the period prior to turnover. While these are enough of an issue in their own right, the grim details of exactly how much the irrigation system is costing to maintain on an annual or monthly basis are most likely only going to become clear to the new Board when the books are opened and examined during the turnover process.
Putting Things Right
At this stage it’s still not too late to do something about the irrigation system in question, but even the best solutions are going to take time and cost money. At Hoover we can turn to the example set by our project case study showcasing our irrigation project for the Castellina gated community in Wellington, Florida. The multiple problems which the system in question presented were rooted in two unavoidable realities.
An Irrigation System that's Custom-Designed
The original system wasn’t custom designed for this community and was instead based on existing plans for other locations. This presents us with the first and probably most obvious lesson for anyone wishing to future proof an irrigation system – it needs to be custom designed. Every feature of a particular landscape presents a particular challenge or advantage to the team installing an irrigation system, from the type and position of the vegetation to the source of the water used to feed the system. All these factors will impact on decisions such as the number of pumping stations required and the capacity of those pumping stations in terms of the gallons per minute passing through them.
In-house Expertise and Readily Available Inventory
The community at Castellina benefited from Hoover's capability to upgrade and refresh the system rather than having to start again from scratch. In addition, our wide inventory and a skilled team in-house meant we could move quickly to implement the changes - rather than waiting on the availability of equipment or expertise. This kind of upgrading at the point of turnover is far less likely to be required if the system is custom designed for the location.
Specialist Irrigation Management
An important factor to bear in mind is how the system is going to be managed once it is installed and is up and running. Without the right level of specific irrigation expertise, many developers find themselves relying on management companies who – although this isn’t always the case – may well have a vested interest in keeping the system ticking over in a state which requires pretty much constant management, repairs, and upkeep. A system that's been installed and then upgraded in a piecemeal manner over several years will inevitably become increasingly complex in nature, with parts such as controllers, pumps and sprinkler systems clashing due to being supplied by different manufacturers. The utilization of different suppliers for parts may also result in replacement parts taking weeks, if not months, to arrive on site.
Full Irrigation Audit
A proper audit of the community and the irrigation it needs now - and is likely to need in the future - has to be carried out before the initial design is completed, as this will result in a coherent plan which is future-proofed before any ground is even broken. Without a plan of this kind having been in place the turnover can easily descend into a relatively chaotic situation. In simple terms the Board may be finding out for the first time just how sub-par the irrigation system they have to take forward really is, while the developers and/or management company responsible for the system struggle to explain how best to deal with the problems. Indeed, in many cases the turnover might mark the point at which the full scale of the problems first becomes apparent as a complete picture in its own right. In other words, the various parties – the Board, the residents and the developers – might be aware of ongoing concerns and day to day issues, but don’t have the time or opportunity to take a top-down view of the system as a whole. The turnover necessitates exactly that kind of top-down, system wide analysis, and the lesson all too often learned is that it is precisely this kind of analysis that should have been carried out when planning the original installation.
Three Key Irrigation Planning Must Have's
There are certain fundamental to bear in mind if a system is to continue performing into the future, and these include:
- The pump station – will one pump station be enough, or will multiple stations be required? Just as importantly, how powerful do the pumps in question need to be? The Bellaggio case study details a community which originally had no less than 24 separate pump stations a number which, by altering the system as a whole including the size and power of each pump, we managed to reduce to just 10 stations, hugely reducing the operational and control complexity.
- The filters – the filters fitted onto any lake intake will have to be chosen to cope with levels of contamination that have inevitably increased in recent years across the board. They will also have to cope with any increase in that contamination as changes in climate alter the make-up of many lakes.
- Management – this is perhaps the most important factor of all, as the management of a system will control the schedule of watering and thus two vital aspects – the condition of the vegetation and the amount of water used. Installing a system like Hoover Flowguard and/or HIRIMS (Hoover's Intelligent Remote Irrigation Management System) will mean that the operation of the irrigation is monitored and controlled remotely in real time, so any problems which do occur are spotted and dealt with as quickly as possible.
Working to a strict and controlled plan, drawn up with a specific location in mind that not only deals with each individual issue in depth but takes into account how it dovetails and works in synch with every other part of the system, makes it possible to design and install an irrigation system that is genuinely future-proofed, and helps the turnover process to run as smoothly as possible.
