Irrigation Repair FAQ: Ocala and Marion County

The diagnostic visit is $75 to $150, covering travel and the first real look at the valve box, controller, and affected zone. Full job ranges for every common repair are published on the pricing page.

Most of Marion County, including Ocala, is currently under a St. Johns River Water Management District Phase III order: odd-numbered addresses (or no address) water Saturday only, even-numbered addresses water Sunday only, nonresidential properties water Tuesday only, and irrigation is prohibited between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. every day. Dunnellon and The Villages are the exceptions; see the next question.

Dunnellon and The Villages fall under Southwest Florida Water Management District's territory instead of St. Johns River Water Management District, which covers the rest of Marion County. SWFWMD's current order assigns watering days by the last digit of your street address (0 or 1 Monday, 2 or 3 Tuesday, 4 or 5 Wednesday, 6 or 7 Thursday, 8 or 9 Friday), with permitted hours of midnight to 4 a.m. or 8 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. If you're in Dunnellon and going by the Saturday/Sunday rule, you're on the wrong schedule.

Required. Florida Statute 373.62 requires every automatic landscape irrigation system to have a working rain sensor or soil moisture shutoff device that interrupts the cycle when there's been enough rain. There's no exception for older systems; the requirement applies no matter when the system was installed.

Almost always a stuck or debris-jammed solenoid valve holding the zone open, occasionally a controller sending a continuous signal. It's typically a $150 to $350 repair. Shut the water off manually at the valve while you wait rather than letting it run.

Usually the same part, a failed solenoid or valve diaphragm, just failing the opposite direction. Same $150 to $350 range in most cases, sometimes cheaper if it's just a bad wire connection at the valve rather than the valve itself.

A lost program after a power blip is usually a quick reprogram, often under $100 once the tech is out for another reason, or a $100 to $250 controller repair if a backup battery or wiring fault is involved. A blank screen more often means the controller has actually failed and needs a $200 to $600 replacement.

Coverage, not power. A head that's drifted out of alignment, sunk below grade, or has the wrong nozzle for its throw distance leaves gaps even on a system that turns on and off correctly. It's a $100 to $275 zone coverage fix in most cases, cheaper than replacing heads that don't actually need replacing.

Yes, and it's one of the most common causes of an unexplained spike. A cracked lateral line underground can run for days without a visible wet spot showing up, especially in sandy soil that drains fast. A leak-focused diagnostic visit checks each zone's flow against what it should be using.

Usually a bad program, most often a controller that was never reset after the watering-restriction order changed, or one that's still running on the schedule for the wrong water management district (see the Dunnellon question above). We'll confirm the correct schedule for your exact address and reprogram the controller to match it.

The sprinkler side (heads, valves, controller, lines) is the same repair regardless of water source. What's different is the pump and well side: pressure tanks, well pumps, and yield are not something a sprinkler technician repairs. If a diagnostic visit points that direction, we'll tell you plainly and point you to a well contractor.

If individual zones misbehave (one won't shut off, one won't turn on, one has dry patches) that's almost always sprinkler-side. If the whole system loses pressure at once, the pump short-cycles, or nothing runs anywhere, that points toward the pump or well, and we'll say so rather than replacing valves that were never broken.

Both. Bed and landscape zones convert to drip line for $250 to $800 per zone, and we also repair existing drip systems: clogged emitters, chewed or kinked tubing, and pressure-regulator issues.

Rain Bird, Hunter, Orbit (including B-hyve smart controllers), and Toro, which cover the large majority of residential systems in Marion County. See the brands section for what typically fails first on each.

Once a year at minimum, and right after any major storm. A $90 to $200 inspection covers every zone and catches a drifting head or a failing rain sensor before it becomes an emergency call; if it turns up real coverage problems, that becomes a $100 to $275 coverage fix. Either way it confirms the system is actually complying with the current watering-day schedule.

Sometimes. Zones stuck fully open (wasting water and violating the day/time restrictions) and active leaks get priority when the schedule has room. Most calls book within a few days, and you'll have the diagnostic visit price and a scheduling window the same day you contact us.

The diagnostic visit may run slightly higher for properties farther from Ocala, priced by distance and quoted before we come out. Repair pricing itself is the same across the service area.

Your address (so we can confirm the correct watering-district schedule), what the system is doing and which zones are affected, whether it runs on city water or a well, and how long the problem has been happening.