Sprinkler and irrigation are the same trade under two words, and which one gets used says a lot about who is speaking. Homeowners say sprinkler, almost without exception. The licence, the regulations, the supply houses and the people doing the work say irrigation. This page exists because both words are correct and because the places they diverge are the places worth knowing about.
Sprinkler system. Sprinkler head. The timer. The box in the ground. The thing on the wall by the house. Those are perfectly serviceable names and nobody needs to learn different ones to describe a fault over the phone.
Irrigation system. Emission device or head. Controller. Valve box or manifold. Backflow prevention assembly. The Texas occupational licence is a landscape irrigator licence — not a sprinkler licence — and the state rules that govern the work are written in that vocabulary throughout.
The practical consequence is small but real: searching for a licence, a regulation or a technical answer using the word “sprinkler” will find you less than searching for “irrigation” will. Everything official is filed under the other word.
Mainline runs from the point of connection to the valves and holds pressure permanently. Laterals run from each valve to that zone’s heads and are pressurized only while the zone runs. Which one has failed decides whether something is urgent.
One valve serves one zone, and the controller calls that zone a station. Three words for the same circuit, used interchangeably by everyone, which is why “zone three is dead” and “station three” mean the same thing.
The above-ground brass unit protecting the drinking water supply from the lawn system. On residential property here most often a pressure vacuum breaker; larger and commercial systems may use a double check or a reduced pressure zone assembly.
How fast a zone applies water, and how evenly. Almost every scheduling problem in this metro is one of these two rather than a broken part, and both are measured rather than estimated.
The flexible assembly between a lateral and a head that lets the head move without loading the fitting. On expansive clay it is the difference between a repair that lasts and one that repeats.
Where the irrigation system taps off the property’s water supply. It is where the isolation valve, the backflow assembly and usually any pressure regulation live, and it is the first place anyone looks.
Texas regulates this work through a landscape irrigator licence issued by the state environmental agency. The scope of that licence reaches selling, designing, installing, maintaining, altering, repairing, servicing and inspecting irrigation systems — and the advertising requirements attached to it extend to electronic advertising, not only to vehicles and printed material.
That is why this site is written the way it is. It does not offer to perform irrigation work, it carries no licence number, and it does not describe itself as an irrigation company. It connects a property owner with a licensed irrigator, and the work — and the licence number that has to appear on the estimate and the invoice — belongs to that person. The about page sets that out in full.
For a homeowner the useful version is short: the licence exists, it is individual, its number is meant to be on the paperwork, and asking for it costs nothing.
Twelve faults, organized by symptom rather than by component.
The one seasonal failure that dominates everything else on cost.
Repair by repair, with what moves each figure.
The metro, zone by zone.
Same call either way. Describe what the system is doing and roughly where in the metro the property is.
Call (346) 605-8787 Describe the Problem
Houston