Sprinkler Etiquette?

[Jims5543]

Is there such a thing? Maybe an unwritten rule that you respect your neighbors and make sure your not watering the road at 5:30 in the afternoon or 7:30 in the morning so their nice clean cars are covered with hard well water that leaves nasty spots. You know the kind of spots that almost need to be compounded out.

First, in case anyon wonders the optimum time to water is between 1 and 5 in the morning. This way the lawn is soaked at the time when dew normally sets, it also soaks the lawn good getting down to the roots before the sun evaporates it.

Watering at 5PM is a waste of water and 7AM is negligable at best.

I am tired ofr Autocrossing out of or into my neighborhood avaioding all the mis adjusted sprinklers.

Or am I over reacting?

[masraum]

THere probably was years ago, but these days, not so much. You should take up "sprinkler golf".

[livi]

Wonder if this predicament was one of the reasons Rolling Stones wrote that song about neighbors.

You need to buy your self a dozen sprinklers and start a retaliation campaign.

[wcc]

No, there is no etiquette. But what you could do is talk to your neighbors that are doing it. No I don't mean to go ask them nicely to change their ways. You gotta be smoother than that. I had this exact problem with one of my neighbors and I talked to them and it worked.

When I saw them out in the yard I went over and asked them about lawn care stuff, fertilizer, seed, etc. Personally, I could care less but I listened to them. Then tell them you think you have grubs eating your grass and you did some research on them on the internet. They'll give you their input. Then you say during my research that you found out that watering your yard between 1-5am is the ABSOLUTE best time to water and you are thinking about putting in a underground sprinkler for that reason. Ask them if they ever tried it. If not they should cause what you found on-line is it makes your yard greener and healthier, blah, blah. During your conversation just keep mentioning that 1-5am is the prime time to water. Doing this changed the ways of my neighbor with no hard feelings. Give it a try. It might work....

[928ram]

As a former SoFla resident, I know exactly what you're dealing with.

No over-reacting at all, sprinkler heads can be adjusted/replace to only water each Homeowner's lawn; most are too stinking lazy to do it.

Seems to me that there were a couple cases in PB County where the offender had to pay for detailing the neighbor's car.

I like the idea of a 1 AM commando with a golf club though..

[TerryBPP]

My gated community requires that we water between 5 am and 8 am Tuesday and Sunday. Doesn't make alotta sense but those are the "rules".

[RickM]

Originally posted by TerryBPP
My gated community requires that we water between 5 am and 8 am Tuesday and Sunday. Doesn't make alotta sense but those are the "rules".

FWII, the best time to water is early in the morning. If done during the day then evaporation and burn will take place. At night the chance of molds and other growths detrimental to the grasses health is increased.


MY philosophy is simple. If my grass is going dormant due to lack of rainfall then there is likely a drought type condition. If rain fall is fine then nothing to worry about.
Cutting the grass high is a good defense to lack of water.

[bigchillcar]

You should take up "sprinkler golf".

oooops..

[vash]

watering in the evening leaves the lawn vunerable to fungus.

talk to the neighbor. i have to do the same thing. we just built a nice wood fence, and my neighbor has his sprinklers soaking it regularly. i need to tell him to aim them better to extend fence life.

[Jims5543]

Rick M - Different parts of the country probably require different actions. Wher eI live the ground percolates VERY fast. We have a very sandy soil base and we are on a hill of srts well above the water table. I water my lawn every day. I can run my hose for 15 minutes in one spot, go back to that spot one hour later and the ground is bone dry.

Talking to the offending neighbors will take time. I would estimate there are over a dozen homes watering the street during these times.

I did have a problem with my neighbor watering my cars, I talked to her and she adjusted her sprinklers.

My problem is driving through the place. Too many people water during really weird times and then they are watering the street.

[mschuep]

IMO, Worse than the sprinklers are the people in front of you that blast their windows with cleaner when the weather is perfect. They are too lazy too clean the crap off from the last time it rained or snowed.

When they can't see anything because of morning sun glare+dirty winshield combo, they spray away. As we all have experienced, this only spreads the crap around and only makes matters worse, so they spray again and again.

Clean your widshield so you don't have to spray blue crap all over my spotless p-car, a-hole!!!

[Jims5543]

My RX-7 doesnt even have a windshield sprayor. I had them shaved when I put on a new hood. I prefer to just clean my windshield.

[Dixie]

Being an ex-So. Fla. resident I can tell you this. Get used to it. There will be water on the road from sprinklers everywhere.

[Porschephile944]

Originally posted by mschuep
IMO, Worse than the sprinklers are the people in front of you that blast their windows with cleaner when the weather is perfect. They are too lazy too clean the crap off from the last time it rained or snowed.

If you do this with me behind you and I can get in front of you, say on the highway, you will be cleaning your windshield again if you don’t like the little blue drops on it, if your lucky you’ll only have to do it once.

About the sprinkler problem. Go to a local hardware store and try to find the adjustment tool for the heads. Make all the heads spray with about a 5 degree swath towards the yard. Should be fairly interesting if the people don’t notice until they get brown and green lines in there yard.

[COLDBASS]

My neighbor's sprinkler got my tires wet. He sent the wife over to tell me to have the car detailed and he will pay...

WTF? I wiped the tires, adjusted his sprinkler and laughed...

Life is too damn short to sweat the small stuff

YMMV

[campbellcj]

7:30 am-ish for me as I don't want to wake up MYSELF (eff the neighbors) and it is still plenty cool and damp at that hour here on most days.

My in-laws have a psycho neighbor (or at least used to) who deliberately turns on the mis-aimed curbside sprinklers if anyone parks in front of their house. Here we almost never even see cars parked on the street (unless someone is having a big party) so it's not an issue.