What we install

A pop-up sprinkler system meets none of the four conditions. It sprays into the air, runs at mains pressure, and does not deliver water directly to the soil. A proportion of what it applies lands on paving or evaporates before reaching a root.

The conversion replaces the distribution only. A filter and a pressure-reducing valve go in at the manifold, capping the line at 1.0 to 1.5 bar. The pop-up heads and risers come out. Inline-emitter drip line runs through the borders, pinned at the surface and mulched over, with emitter spacing set by the planting rather than by a grid.

Pots, troughs and specimen planting

Individual emitters on micro-tube, one or more per container. A row of pots on a terrace, a pleached hornbeam screen, olive trees and tree ferns in containers all take a measured volume at the root, which an overhead arc of spray does not provide.

Lawns

Sub-surface drip line under turf is compliant and it works. It adds about a day to the job, because the turf comes up in strips and goes back down over the line. It is worth doing on a large lawn that has to stay green through a London summer, and usually not on a small one that will brown off and recover by October.

Zoning

Zones are grouped by water requirement: established shrubs, new planting in its first two seasons, containers, lawn. Grouping by position in the garden instead means the group with the lower requirement is over-watered to keep the other alive.

Annual service

Twice a year for most gardens. In spring: filters changed, lines flushed, blocked emitters cleared or replaced, pressure checked zone by zone, controller reprogrammed for the season ahead. In autumn the same checks, plus the blow-down.

Leak & pressure diagnostics

When the meter is turning and nothing is visibly wet, the cause is usually a split line, a failed solenoid or a valve not seating. We isolate and test zone by zone to locate it before digging.

Winterising

Lines cleared with compressed air and the system drained down before the first hard frost. Water left in a drip line expands as it freezes and splits the line, which usually shows up the following May when a zone fails to run. London winters are mild enough that the blow-down often gets skipped, and cold enough to cause the damage.

Inherited systems

If you have bought a house with irrigation in it and no documentation, we map it: trace the zones, find the controller, establish what is still live, and supply a zone plan. This is a common first job and often the only one needed.