Can I install Turf Without Retic?

Posted on 8th May 2012 in General, Installations, Sir Walter Turf

The short answer is ‘yes of course’.

The longer answer is ‘why would you?…’

Obviously budget is a consideration, but if you are going to spend a lot of money on earthworks and turf then it only makes sense that in a climate like ours you make watering your turf as easy as possible.

If you lay turf in Perth then you can ring 131039 to get a watering exemption and that will allow you water 3 times a day for around 30 days. In summer this is essential. Obviously its less of a consideration in the cooler months, but I often tell people that the only thing that will kill a new lawn is insufficient water. (Not strictly true – but let’s assume it is pest free)

I have laid a couple of lawns without retic only to be called back in a month or so and asked to install sprinklers. If the lawn hasn’t taken it is actually a much harder (and more expensive) job because it involves lifting the new rolls of turf, digging where they were and then trying to get the ground level again. Its much easier just to pull a trencher thru a fully established lawn, so if you have to go this route then wait around 3 months to be safe.

So if you are considering laying a new lawn then please please please… make sure you have reticulation!

There is no ‘warranty’ with new lawn as it is a living organism and will only respond to whatever nourishment it receives from the owner. We do guarantee to lay it correctly and provide it in excellent weed free condition, but after that it’s up to you to make sure it is kept healthy.

So if you’re considering just wacking down some lawn to make things look better then think again unless you have functional sprinklers…

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Reticulation in Two Rocks

Posted on 20th April 2012 in General, Installations

 

If you live in Two Rocks then you’d know that it didn’t get its name for no good reason. There are plenty of rocks around up there and it makes digging trenches a hell of a challenge.

If you are planning on some DIY retic then I’d suggest you consider hiring a Groundhog Trench Digger like the one in the picture above to give you a hand in getting through the worst of it.

I’ve done a few jobs in the area and if it wasn’t for the trencher I’d probably still be digging today.

You can hire them for around $170/day. Alternatively call us and we can do the work for you and save you both time and physio bills!

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Reticulation & Turf in Perth

Posted on 30th March 2012 in General, Installations

I regularly get calls from all over the city – often south of the river.

As a rule we will not work south of the river as it gets too difficult to honour our warranties when a job is too far away. Recently I have returned to several jobs where the problem was apparently my worksmanship, but in reality it has been user error or another issue altogether. When its a local job I’m happy to come back and make sure all is well, but that becomes problematic and costly with greater distance.

At Brighton Retic and Turf we take our warranties seriously and know that service once the job is completed is as important as doing a good job the first time round. For that reason we prefer to work in the far northern suburbs of Perth, but we will work as far south as Trigg/Scarborough.

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Why Can’t I Turn My Retic Off?

Posted on 14th March 2012 in General, solenoids

I went to a house today with this problem. Fortunately they were able to locate the ball valve to isolate the retic and didn’t have to keep turning their water meter on and off as some people have had to.

If your retic keeps running even when the control box is off then its as simple as a faulty solenoid. If you have a master solenoid and you still have this problem then its as simple as two faulty solenoids!

At the place I went to today station one was stuck on and there as a master valve to supposedly prevent this occurring. It turned out that the master valve had been left ‘on’ manually, so a simple turn of the coil solved that issue. Then I located the station valve and discovered a piece of gluey limestone stuck in it holding the diaprhagm open.

Once this was resolved everything was back to normal.

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Everything is off But My Solenoid is On

Posted on 12th January 2012 in Controllers, General, Never Seen That One Before, What's Going on There?

So what’s the deal when your retic box if switched to off and a solenoid is still receiving an electrical signal and is stuck open?

Honestly I have no idea…

But its happened to me 3 times now and today I was able to resolve it.

The first two times were with Hunter EC 2 station control boxes and I couldn’t find a solution and ended up changing the box over. It was a faulty box, but this time I had another 3 terminals to test before doing a swap. On terminals 4 & 5 the solenoid stuck open (there was negilible voltage coming from the terminals (4V) but when I switched the wires to terminal 6 the problem went away.

I have no idea what was going on but on each occasion it has been a Hunter control box that has been the problem. Today was a brand new X Core.

So if you find a solenoid stuck open despite there being no voltage going to it maybe you’re not crazy. Maybe its the control box doing some crazy stuff

 

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Christmas Reticulation

Posted on 24th December 2011 in General

Hope you enjoy a great Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Christ and the change he brought to this world.

We will be working over the Christmas to New Year period so if you hit some problems give us a call and chances are we will be able to get there and sort it out for you.

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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None of My Retic Works

Posted on 16th December 2011 in General, Repairs

If nothing comes on whatsoever then chances are you may have a broken common wire.

We were at a job today where the back came on, but the front didn’t. The fact that the back came on eliminated the possibility of it being the master solenoid.

It had to be a common wire (or all 3 solenoids had died at the same time).

As is often the case a brief search revealed a wire sticking out of the ground that shouldn’t have been there. A dig in the area revealed its other half and when they were re-joined ‘voila’ the whole system kicked into gear.

Sometimes its a simple solution, but you need to know where to look.

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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We Won!

Posted on 12th December 2011 in General, Just For Fun

 

Well… we were planning a break from Christmas to New year and then we won this competition so its now the first week of January as well.

If you are chasing some retic repairs then we still have one car on the road, but I’ll be in Sydney chilling at the cricket thanks to the nice people at Total Eden.

Feel free to call or email and we will do our best to fit you in.

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Control Box Problems

Posted on 1st December 2011 in General, Local Knowledge

Every now and then you hit puzzling jobs. Today was one of those.

Yesterday I tested the retic, set the control and box and left with everything working well. Then just as I had got home the phone rang and it was the person who I had just worked for.

Their retic no longer worked…

What had happened in the 2 hours in between?…

Well… a bobcat had come thu and made a mess of one solenoid, but now the station that did work no longer worked. Strange…

I got there today to test things. The most obvious check is to test for power at the solenoids. I did that and we had it, then we didn’t, then we did again… and so on.

I suspected a broken wire because the only solenoid that would work was the master. However it too stopped working… So we went to the control  box and tested each terminal for power. One registered voltage and the others were dead.

After looking everywhere for the obvious broken wire (a bobcat had been thru so anything could have happened) we ended up coming back to testing the control box and discovering that it was the issue. We replaced the control nox and everything worked.

Bizarre… nothing very logical about it, but by a process of deduction we got there. So if you have similar problems it may be your control box.

 

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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Reticulation Warranties

Posted on 18th November 2011 in General, Installations

So what’s a reasonable warranty on a reticulation installation. With some operators the minute they leave the retic is your problem and that is not what you want.

We believe our warranties are the best you will find.

  • On control boxes we give 5 years. If the box fails in that time just give us a call and we will replace it at no cost to you whatsoever. Some people will charge a labour fee as they believe that if just the box is faulty they should not be responsible. We have chosen to use Rainmaster control boxes and we will not charge you if our decision proves faulty.
  • On solenoids the normal is 1 year but we give a 5 year warranty on solenoids. If your solenoid fails at any time in that period then just call us and we will be there to fix it up or change it over.
  • Sprinklers are subject to wear and tear and require some level of owner maintenance, but we believe that even with complete neglect, the quality Toro sprinklers we use will last 12 months so that is the warranty we give on them. This covers them failing to pop-up or retract or the seals to break.
  • Nozzles are the trickier one. While we flush all lines while onsite we cannot control what is in your water supply. If you have sand/grit or dirt in your water and your nozzles get blocked then we cannot cover that one. We do give 3 months coverage on nozzles but beyond that we cannot promise what will happen.

Obviously we do not warrant equipment against physical damage by a third party and warranties on controllers will not apply if the door to the control box is left open and it gets water damaged.

At the end of the day we will do our best to make sure you are looked after with the highest level of service possible.

 

 

 

This is the Brighton Reticulation Blog and our main site can be found here For service or advice with the issues in this post call Andrew on 0400044236, or email us here
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