Heads Up Sprinkler Co.

"Want the flip side of this incident? December 21, 2016 [Member Name Removed] called Heads Up Sprinkler Co and scheduled an appointment for services. Both Heads Up and [Member Name Removed] agreed upon an appointment for the following day, December 22, 2016. [Member Name Removed] met our Heads Up licensed irrigation team and instructed our team to move and change some heads - all services delivered were per his directives. When Heads Up invoiced [Member Name Removed], he claimed he was not responsible for the invoice - that we should invoice the previous homeowner. To be clear, finding good contractors is hard. Angie's List helps. There are 2 sides to the contractor/customer relationship. [Member Name Removed] engaged our services, directed our services and accepted our services but refused to pay for our services. In any state, verbal contracts have an implicit agreement and acceptance with ultimately, a conclusion and payment. The fact that [Member Name Removed] refused to pay for the services he engaged, no matter whether he had taken possession of the home or not, in our view was troublesome. Heads Up invoices the customer who engages us - not a previous homeowner who has moved from the house where our services were delivered. Imagine if you were the previous homeowner, how would you like to receive invoice(s) from contractor(s) engaged by the individual to whom you had sold your home, closed on your home and subsequently believed the deal to be completed? Heads Up submitted multiple invoice reminders (30, 60 & 90 days past due) only to receive responses that [Member Name Removed] had no intention of paying for those services, ever. [Member Name Removed] insisted we invoice the previous owner. We didn't. We continued to invoice him. After 120 days past due, Heads Up exercised our state sanctioned method of declaring a conclusion to the said contract - the filing of a mechanic's lien against the property where services were rendered. It is not a pleasant alternative and one Heads Up has had to implement only 2 previous times in the past 20 years. Eventually, 5 days after the letter of notification of intent to file the lien, we received payment. [Member Name Removed] is on a one-man crusade to present his point of view on every forum at his disposal. The individual who believes themselves entitled to free goods & services and furthermore elects to disparage the contractor months afterward may be indicative of other issues causing disruption in that person's life. In the case of [Member Name Removed], Heads Up was professional every step of the way. We sincerely hope whatever is bothering [Member Name Removed] rights itself, as sprinklers should never be a life or death situation causing such apparent angst. We wish you well [Member Name Removed]."

"This member has been a customer of Heads Up for a long while. She even enlisted family members to become customers. Heads Up does always check your entire system because, well, that's what we do. It's important to look at a system holistically, because a leak or damage somewhere can adversely impact operations and water pressure elsewhere. For clarifications purpose, Heads Up does install drip and additional stations to existing systems. We do NOT install brand new sprinkler systems. Installing a new sprinkler system takes different equipment, more civic paperwork & registrations and the workers have different skill sets. Heads Up specializes in repairs, retro-fits and rehabilitating existing sprinklers to meet today’s landscape needs. We are resolute about saving water through leak repairs, improved head layouts, new water saving components and helping homeowners keep their sprinklers in good working order. Happy as always to help [removed name member], her sister, her extended family, her friends and her fellow Angie’s List members."

"Another satisfied Angie’s List customer. Heads Up applauds our customers who believe strongly in rating our service. Every service call we make is made with the same objectives in mind, fix what’s broken, help the homeowner recognize what the issues were/are, educate, educate, educate. With droughts, limited supplies of water and desires for healthy landscapes, Heads Up tries to fit all the pieces together for each customer. Our company is small, just 6 people, a very close-knit family of co-workers. We’ve been together for years, almost 12. Each person on our team is passionate about doing a good job, not just a job, a good job. That differentiates us from other companies. Our customers trust us to take care of their sprinklers, help them to have healthy lawns and gardens and to help them save water. Perhaps a tall order for some companies, but an everyday occurrence for ours. We take pride in delivery the best to all of our customers."

"Simple repairs for this member. With an aging system, it’s inevitable that electronic components will fail at some point in their lifetime. A couple of valves had failed. Heads Up rebuilt them, tested them and got the system back up and running. When a valve fails, sometimes it needs to be completely dug up and replaced, sometimes it can be rebuilt. The difference lies in what is wrong with the valve. In simplest terms, every valve is made of a top and a bottom. The bottom is molded plastic that slips in-line with the pipe. The top is the working guts of the device. A valve is just like what we all use to turn on a tap at the sink, except a sprinkler valve operates that “tap” by a communication it receives through the wire attached to the controller or timer in the garage. So for this member, we didn’t have to take a great deal of extra time cutting out the valve, rerouting the pipes and inserting a new valve. What we did instead was leaving the bottom of the valve intact and replaced all the guts. As licensed professionals, we carry all manufacturer brands and models of valves. This rebuild service only works when mating exact model to exact model. Heads Up tries to be efficient in this faculty. It means carrying a lot of parts, but it ends up shortening the service call by providing a tactical response to a problem others might just want to take more time to cut out and replace. We don’t have to stretch our service calls to meet revenue goals. We meet revenue goals by doing repairs properly and efficiently. That means we can service more customers in a day. Angie’s List members get the same professional and efficient service every one of our customers receive. Heads Up wants to get your sprinklers back in good working order just as qu"

"Since automatic sprinkler systems run via underground pipes, Heads Up is not unaccustomed to digging. Not unlike a surgeon, we prefer to perform minimally invasive digging. Recognizing that water leaks act on gravity based principles, finding leaks can be tricky. This member had a leak caused by a common pipe enemy, ground stress. The drought causes soil to dry out. Watering causes expansion to the soil. Constant dry/wet conditions can stress the cement compound at original pipe fittings. Water will leak out at the opening where the fitting and pipe separate, then travel on the outside of the pipe (it’s the path of least resistance). The water will travel “downhill” along the pipe and frequently settle in a low spot, far from the actual break. Understanding these principles, coupled with understanding irrigation pipe design helps us to figure out the precise location of a leak. Repairing one under a sidewalk sometimes means getting at it from both sides of the sidewalk. Besides minimizing where digging has to be done, cover-up is the key. Putting the grass back, green-side-up, seems intuitive, but does take a bit more carefulness and time. Standard operating procedure for us! Fix the problem, leave a clean worksite and another happy member. Glad to have helped."

"More frequently than not, we discover issues created by contractors who have been on a property before us. Most often, homeowners believe that if the sprinkler heads spray, they are working. We beg to differ. Sometimes the best meaning contractors inadvertently cover a sprinkler head or try to make a pipe repair for you but their work fails after a time. It happens all the time. We check your entire system and specifically look for what we are professionally trained to find. If we find a problem in your yard, whether it is related to your sprinklers or otherwise, chances are you’d like to know about it. Knowing empowers you to understand the issue, perhaps, like this member, see the light bulb go off as to why something seemed amiss in your yard. Our customers ask us to check their sprinklers, we do that thoroughly and make repairs accordingly. Most of our customers are too busy to notice the things we point out. That’s why they hire us, to do what we do. Glad to have helped this member, mysteries are our specialty to resolve, not ignore."

"Heads Up is pleased to help homeowners just like this member. Sprinkler issues sometimes don’t get noticed until there are so many things wrong with them that the yard begins to suffer. When deferred maintenance finally gets addressed, it can be challenging to make sure everything gets corrected in a timely and efficient manner. It would be nice if sprinkler systems were more accessible, but they are underground. This member’s sprinkler system hadn’t been working in quite some time. They had multiple broken wires, (3) failed valves, multiple leaks and (7) heads that were broken. Despite the breaks in the wires being buried, we traced the wires with wire locators, located the 1st break, spliced the break, traced the wire & located the next break, spliced it, the next and so on until all wiring circuits were complete; dug up (3) valves, replacing each of them, insuring the new valve replacement to be leak-proof, repacking each valve in a protective valve box & lid and testing each valve multiple times to simulate several sprinkler cycles and that each station/zone worked from the controller; then while checking each station’s heads we flagged, dug up and replaced (7) broken heads and insured proper nozzling for best coverage; finally we run the system through 2 more test runs to make certain nothing else failed after reestablishing the corrected water pressure throughout --- all that was completed in 2 hours. Although they believed the expense to be a bit high, we think it was a bargain. We sent 3 very experienced licensed professionals to their house that Monday in September. We charge an hourly rate plus parts. Some sprinkler companies prefer to send 1 or 2 people per service call which invariably extends the on-site time needed to make repairs. Perhaps it may have taken a team of 2 people 4 hours, or a single irrigator possibly 6 hours to accomplish all our team did in just 2 hours. Bottom line, we work quickly, efficiently and professionally. The rates we charge are competitive especially considering the number of workers on the teams we dispatch. Our team takes the extra effort to test each system completely so we find anything that may have failed as a result of the newer components being repaired, not our customer. We don’t want to come back because of something we could have resolved just by more testing. As always, we recommend that whomever you chose to work on your sprinklers, insist that they be licensed – it is the law in Texas."

"We helped [member name removed] on March 12th and found 2 lateral line leaks, 1 in 2 different stations. We repaired both leaks and tested them for hold-tight or leak-proof conditions. After all the repairs, we checked every station multiple times to simulate multiple watering cycles. This is our standard practice. This testing process helps to force lose debris in the pipes to heads so we can remove nozzles & filters in order to flush the debris out of the lines then reconnect the nozzles and do it as many times as needed to get the pipes as clear as possible. There were 7 heads that we identified as having failed – debris had compromised the wiper seals or gear teeth on them. We prefer this testing methodology to be performed on the same visit rather than have our customers discover debris in the line weeks after we’ve gone. The time it took our team to get everything repaired was less than 2 hours, actually it took 1¾ hours. And that’s exactly what we billed, 1¾ hours plus parts. We do advise you that when roots complicate leak repairs, just beware, cutting through those roots can add to the time needed for the repair. Heads Up sends more licensed professionals than most sprinkler companies, because we want to minimize how long it takes for repairs. Obviously it takes fewer people longer to accomplish the same amount of repairs and at comparable hourly rates, it can cost more. When sourcing service companies, ask how many people they send. Compare hourly rates based on team sizes and ask how much experience the team members have and what licenses they have. An informed consumer is better able to register value if they know what to compare it against."

"Heads Up Sprinkler Co truly appreciates the patience of our customers. We are a small company, and we don’t have 6 or 7 trucks to dispatch every morning. Consequently, our weekly schedule can get booked full in 30-40 phone calls. We get 30-40 phone calls a day, granted not every caller needs our help. Taking the time to discuss issues over the phone helps to better schedule our team and helps our customers recognize emergencies versus general maintenance. Our objective is to help homeowners manage their own sprinklers and to only call us when issues exceed their comfort levels. At times, waiting 2 or 3 weeks is simply missing a couple of watering days, other times it may be more significant and new plantings may be in jeopardy or the severity of leaks may require immediate attention. Thank you for waiting and please let us know what issues you may have, we try to accommodate scheduling based on emergency vs. maintenance."

"Although we are very pleased to have helped this member, she was mistaken in that we fixed everything on a Saturday. It was on the following Monday when we made the repairs. She called with an emergency on a Saturday, she couldn’t get her sprinklers to shut off. She happened to live near one of the owner’s parents’ home (Caryn’s) and Caryn just happened to be visiting her folks. It was a quick monitoring of emergency calls on Saturday and an even quicker dispatch to Caryn for her to swing by and shut off the water. We then juggled the Monday schedule to get her sprinkler system repaired promptly. Our company was responsive to a sprinkler emergency and a customer who was at a loss on how to remedy the situation. Our team sorted out her problems and got her system working again, minimizing the time her sprinklers were wasting water from not shutting off. During the early spring, we can respond quicker than we can in the middle of summer when we are 2 or 3 weeks booked out."

"Another nice comment from a loyal customer. This member recognizes the value of having a professional check their system annually. Whether Heads Up checks your system or any other licensed irrigator checks it, annual check-ups are an absolute must. The sprinkler system is not a small investment and it requires inspections to help it perform at its best. If you change the layout of your flower beds, add new sod, remove tree, plant new shrubs, have a lawn service maintain the mowing or have any traffic at all on your yard, chances are the sprinklers are impacted. Heads can be damaged by mowing equipment, blocked by new stone borders, pipes can be damaged during landscape changes – without checking your system, these sort of damages not only jeopardize the security of your foundation and the health of your lawn & landscape, but they can be enormous water wasters. Remember to check your system often and have a professional in annually – better to spot things early than to get the shock from excess water bills or dead landscaping."