Jack of all trades....even when we don't want to

The last week was very trying for us here at the green department.  We had noticed the buildings water use was steadily increasing and never had any idea why.  One day last week we noticed water starting to show itself at the end of our driveway to the shop.

After several attempts to find the source of the water, we decided it was time to dig.  At the same time, the building toilets and sinks all started to clog up from sand and sediment.  All at once we had a full scale leak on our hands.

The only problem was we had no idea exactly where the problem was, only that it was coming from under the concrete surrounding the building.   Normally this is where you call in the plumbers and let them at it.  Unfortunately, their answer was, well, we will have to dig up everything and here is the charge; $2500/day to look for the leak.

Well, being the industrious types we are, and the understanding that we are as good as anyone exploring water systems, we undertook the job.  Boy was this an adventure.  We first had to start cutting 7" thick contrite slabs out to find the piping.  No as built drawings accurately labeled where the water was, in addition we knew the main power to the buildings was in the same location.  Maybe we should do some archeological digs when the time is right.

After locating the pipes, we then had to find the leak, which in this case turned out to be about 12 feet from our starting point and about 4 feet in the ground.  A small hole in a plastic fitting had worn itself into a nice sized hole.  Of course the fix was not as simple, since all the pipes did not line up, nor did they want to go back into the same location.

 After a lot of head banging, we came up with the solution to repair the issue and get things back together.  Needless to say, a large undertaking , with the staff being very patient with no water service for a week.  Because of the hard labor of Johnny Niccola and Trevor Garbow we were able to get this problem corrected with far less outlay than any service would have charged.  

Johnny cutting concrete, slab in background removed for inspection

Digging to locate piping

Finally locating the faulty connection

The hole that caused it all, notice the ladder and supports to keep the hole from caving in!

The tide has turned

As we rapidly approach the wintertime, we have been busy working on several fronts.  The leaf season is winding down, but the nature of our trees means that this process lingers on more than most.  The poplars fall first, then the maples, ashes, with the oaks last.  Any some, like the willow oaks never seem to finish.  Piles like those seen below are the norm for us here.

In addition we have been busy sodding areas that needed attention, like drive ons and off and some bunker surrounds.   Many wonder why we wait until now to do the work.  Normally this time of year the leaves and care of the day to day turf slows down enough for us to complete these type of projects.

Without a large turf nursery, we need to maximize the costs of trucking so we wait for weather and time to prepare several areas.  Sometimes cold freezing conditions at the turf farms prohibits timely  trucking as well as a backlog of other customers orders.  We must schedule deliveries well in advance then adjust for weather.  When it comes to fairways, only a few farms deal with bent grass turf and even those only grow small plots.  Thus they can easily be out of stock or not cutting due to tender conditions.  We do not like to have large areas open without sod on site to replace, so we wait for conditions that allow for rapid replacement.

Irrigation Work

In the past season we have been learning our new irrigation system.  The system is a marvel of new technology and advancements.  Gone are all the old control boxes littered throughout the course,  now control is done through a central computer that receives input from a weather station and feedback from both pump houses.  You may have seen us running the system through our iPhones and tablets.

This Rainbird IC decoder system allows a lot of flexibility and control not previously possible.  As we exercised the system through the season we started to notice some issues with the sprinkler heads themselves.  Most notably that the heads would not turn on or delayed when commanded,  isolated cases but issues none the less.  After the Rainbird technical engineers evaluated our problems they have instigated a complete changeout of a part in the sprinkler head.

The pictures below shows the assembly and part that needs replacement.  This process will affect all 1500 sprinkler heads on the course.  The company wants to make sure that all sprinklers have received the newest part available.  This process, labor and parts are completely covered under warranty and of no cost to the club.

A small crew will be doing minor digging around each head to expose the decoder, remove the part and replace the plunger,  test the repair and repack the soil and sod in the disturbed section.  Now just
repeat this process 1500 times!  Not something we are excited about, but better to take care of the issue now than wait until spring when play is ramping up.  Rainbird has been very aggressive in resolving the issue band is committed to solving any and all issues.

This work will not affect play and there are no plans to close any portion of the course during this work.

Sprinkler head with the decoder installed 

Decoder detached and plunger removed

Plunger that is to be replaced