Castellina Community Irrigation Case Study

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Location: The Village of Wellington, Florida

Client: Castellina Homeowners Association, Inc

Market: Residential Community

The Background

An HOA with a strong desire to finally address their unfit-for-purpose, expensive irrigation system.

The Challenge

Restore order from chaos and deliver an irrigation project plan the HOA would have absolute confidence in.

The Plan

A complete irrigation solution, that addressed the issues but didn't involve starting from scratch.

Putting the Plan into Action

A phased approach to build a system the community needs and the support to help them manage it.

The Results

An HOA with confidence in their irrigation, supported by their irrigation partner, Hoover.

Castellina Community Irrigation Case Study - Image 1

Castellina Community Irrigation Case Study - Image 2

The Background

Castellina is a gated community in Wellington, Florida, made up of 260 single-family homes. It features three large lakes and a number of lakefront properties. The Board approached Hoover due to concerns over a number of issues with the existing irrigation system, which was installed in 2011.

Not Custom-Designed

The original installation was based on designs for other projects and not custom-built for the Community. This gave it a built-in inadequacy from the start. Hoover had carried out some upgrades to the irrigation system earlier to help mitigate a range of problems, however, it was always clear that a long-lasting solution was required.

A Slowly Deteriorating Investment

The difficulties of a constantly under-performing system were compounded over the years by service providers' lack of technical expertise, poor advice and poor understanding of the underlying problems. Hefty bills for the repair and replacement of components were commonplace and for years, the community watched their investment and their landscaping slowly deteriorate in front of their eyes with lawns dying through lack of water or, alternatively, sprinklers running for days on end.

We were going through electricians, we were going through parts. Nobody could put their finger on what was wrong.

Jim Grice, Castellina Homeowners Association, Inc.

The Challenge

The challenge presented by the Castellina Community project was to restore order from chaos and deliver a long-lasting irrigation solution the community could depend on for years to come.

Via a series of missteps, the community had found themselves coping with an irrigation system that threw up challenges beyond the capacity of most of their service providers to manage, resulting in years of on-going and expensive field-related repair work.

The non-use of the control system meant they had zero data on what was going wrong. The approach had been to throw as many replacement parts as possible at the problem as well as regularly replacing damaged turf.

Inspection Revealed Issues from Poor Management to Improper System Use

An initial Inspection commissioned by the Developer for the HOA board looked at the entire irrigation operation and reported a range of issues, some of which were a result of years of bad management, while others were caused by the lack of correct irrigation maintenance and improper use of the system. These problems included multiple wiring issues - such as missing connectors and open splices; grounding was in place but with the wrong wire connectors; the two-wire technology could only be repaired and maintained by the manufacturer’s own technicians but attempts were often made to self-diagnose problems with disastrous results; heads were facing the wrong way, directing water at screens and pavements; and there was an inconsistent and unsuitable application of head type across the system, for example, 15’ nozzles were being used for a 10’ strip of land.

The Plan

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Castellina Community Irrigation Case Study - The Plan

A Lasting Solution Costing Significantly Less

After the initial audit and report were published, Hoover carried out its own comprehensive investigations and analysis of the situation at Castellina, including more thorough mapping, a review of the available plans and assessing the general condition of equipment on-site. We then reviewed our findings and developed the solutions as a team. Our key finding was that there was no evidence to support the initial recommendation put to the HOA, to pull everything out and start again.

A Firm Foundation for the Future

The HOA was now equipped with the results of Hoover’s analysis and recommendations. Now they were empowered to take a more realistic view of their situation. The Hoover plan was a complete irrigation solution designed to solve all the issues they were facing, while putting in place firm foundations for a more efficient and easy to run irrigation set up going forward.

A Phased Approach

In summary, we recommended a phased revamp and upgrade of the existing system at a significantly lower cost than starting over. Our proposal was duly accepted by the Board. The first step in the plan was to replace the dual pumping stations with a single, Flowguard pump station. This initial step, so critical to the success of the project, was followed by several actions to address other issues, including mainline problems - adding inter-connections to the distribution and replacing incorrectly sized pipes with those of the correct size.

Hoover came in and the way they worked right from the beginning gave us confidence.

Jim Grice, Castellina Homeowners Association, Inc.

Putting the Plan into Action

The Hoover solution was as much about managing the irrigation and supporting the Community as it was about the design and installation of the system itself.

Initially the Board had been convinced the best approach would be to replace the pump station but our proposition was to analyze the entire system, from the pump station through to the zones being watered, looking at the hydraulic limitations of the site itself and the number of zones that needed to be maintained. It was as simple as going right back to the original plans.

HIRIMS - A Total Irrigation Solution

Hoover’s plan provided a total irrigation solution - from installing pipes of the correct size and assessing the correct number of zones required - to putting the Flowguard system and HIRIMS (Hoover's Intelligent Remote Irrigation Management System) in place to continually balance the irrigation in real-time. It also meant educating the Board so they knew exactly what their system should be delivering and providing them with ongoing irrigation management support.

Real-time Data Informs Decision-making

By installing the new Flowguard pump station first, we could begin collecting and analyzing data to inform the decision-making. It also meant the Community would start seeing immediate improvements while we continued to address the issues highlighted in our inspection.

The marked success of this initial activity, and our ongoing help with other issues with their irrigation convinced the Board to engage Hoover further which resulted in our plan for a phased approach of upgrades and continuing support that would have a lasting impact.

Significant Technical Changes

Some of the significant technical changes we made to the existing design included:

There were two pumping stations, each a dual 7.5 hp (total 15 hp). Prior to this, the original contractor had sought to improve the situation by increasing the hp and changing the impellers - in an attempt to deliver more water to the field. Technically, this upgrade had lifted the gallons per minute from 220 per station to 280.
We replaced both stations with one dual 20 hp Flowguard pump station delivering 600 gallons per minute. Flowguard provided vital data on how controllers and zones were functioning. This then informed decision-making going forward.
The original system controls (two Rain Bird ESP-LMXDE clocks and IQ management) were replaced with four Hoover FG3 (Flowguard) Clocks and HIRIMS, Hoover’s total irrigation solution.
Just as importantly, we carried out major modifications to optimize the mainline and improve water distribution efficiency.

The Results

Castellina Community Irrigation Case Study - The Results

Hoover’s reliable products have removed the need to constantly replace equipment - for example, decoders.
More efficient irrigation of the residents’ landscaping and real control to end issues such as over and under-watering.
Irrigation cost savings across electricity, water and landscape maintenance.
A complete solution path and continuing support for their irrigation operation is now available to the community from the Hoover team.
Landscaping that delivers genuine ‘curb appeal’ and increased resale value, engendering feelings of pride and well-being amongst residents.
The data gathered by Flowguard and HIRIMS enables the teams managing the irrigation to monitor and plan much more efficiently, saving time and money.
The constant flow of information about the system allows problems to be spotted and dealt with quickly, embedding an ethos of continuous improvement.
Irrigation that’s easy to manage without the exhaustive efforts previously required. The nature of the data provided delivers total confidence, making it easy to spot the all-important difference between the root cause of a problem and a symptom.
The system is now a smooth running part of the overall landscape management process and a tool to be utilized rather than a challenge to be fought against and struggled with.
Better relations now exist between residents, their irrigation and landscape service providers and the HOA Board.

Castellina Community Irrigation Case Study

The Background

Not Custom-Designed

A Slowly Deteriorating Investment

The Challenge

Inspection Revealed Issues from Poor Management to Improper System Use

The Plan

A Lasting Solution Costing Significantly Less

A Firm Foundation for the Future

A Phased Approach

Putting the Plan into Action

HIRIMS - A Total Irrigation Solution

Real-time Data Informs Decision-making

Significant Technical Changes

The Results

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