A jumped water bill is not automatically a city error, a dripping faucet, or “summer.” In Texas the irrigation isolation valve and the meter tell the story in ten minutes if you use them. People skip that and argue with the utility while a valve weeps for a month.
This guide is written for Texas systems — gulf clay with industrial-adjacent lots in Pasadena, freeze risk in Richardson, watering rules from City of Pasadena. It is not a national blog with the city name swapped in. If the hardware is already failing, skip to leak detection & repair or call 888-427-5022.
What a high water bill from a sprinkler leak actually looks like on a Texas lawn
Bill 1.5× to 3× overnight or over one cycle. Meter spinning with fixtures off. Soft ground that was not there last month. A valve box that smells like irrigation water, not sewer.
In Pasadena the same symptom often traces to pressure swings and older backflows. In Richardson we see more freeze and heave. In Pflugerville (City of Pflugerville) the program may be legal but the heads are wrong. Do not assume the YouTube fix matches City of Pasadena pressure.
Diagnose before you buy parts
Order of operations matters. Controller and rain sensor first, then the valve box, then heads with water on, then a shovel. Skipping steps is how people replace nozzles when the solenoid is open, or trench for a “root problem” when station 4 is dead at the clock.
- Shut every indoor fixture. Watch the meter. If it moves, you have a leak path somewhere.
- Shut the irrigation isolation valve and watch again. If the meter stops, the leak is irrigation. If it continues, look indoors.
- Open irrigation, leave the controller off, watch the meter. Movement now is a valve or main leak, not a program.
- Turn stations on one at a time only after the idle test. A lateral leak shows as a jump on that station.
- Map soft ground after a cycle, then treat that map as a hint, not a dig list.
Keep a notepad of zone numbers. The FAQ covers the phone questions we ask so the truck shows up with the right fittings.
Parts that actually last in this climate
You need a working isolation valve. Many Texas homes never had one labeled. Finding and exercising that valve is part of the visit. A stuck gate valve is a separate repair.
We use matched-precipitation nozzles when we change a head, and we flush grit after a pipe cut so the next screen does not pack. Brand-specific notes live in the blog as well — start with Sprinkler Valve Box Full of Water, Sprinkler Solenoid Replacement, Sprinkler Controller Blank Screen.
What it costs in Texas (ranges, not bait)
The diagnostic is the visit. The repair is whatever the isolation test points at. We will not promise the utility will reverse charges. We will promise the irrigation side is not still leaking when we leave.
A written quote before work is the rule. See Leak Detection & Repair for what a typical visit includes, and the full service list if more than one system is involved.
DIY vs calling a licensed irrigator
The meter test is yours to run today. If you cannot find the irrigation shutoff, that is worth a call on a calm day — not at midnight with a geyser.
Texas licenses landscape irrigators for a reason: backflow, buried electric, and municipal rules. If you are in Pasadena, Richardson, or Pflugerville, start on the city page — Pasadena, Richardson, Pflugerville — then book.
Mistakes that turn a one-hour job into a weekend
- Paying the high bill, assuming summer, and waiting for the next statement.
- Replacing a toilet flapper when the irrigation meter test was never done.
- Digging a “wet area” that is downstream of the real break.
How this ties to other repairs
Pair this with underground leak detection and valve-won’t-shut-off. If the program ran 40 minutes a zone all month because seasonal adjust was left at 100% through a wet June, the bill can be real without a leak.
Coverage problems after a “fix” usually mean the program was never updated. Pair mechanical work with controller programming and, on clay, cycle-and-soak — not a longer single runtime.
What a good visit looks like on our trucks
We do not start with a parts cannon. Controller and sensor, then the box, then water-on, then dirt if the lateral is the problem. That order is how you avoid replacing a clock for a cut wire, or trenching a puddle that is eight feet from the break. If you want the short phone version, the FAQ is enough. If you want the long version, you are already in it.
Texas jobs change by metro even when the part number does not. Pasadena clay hides water. Richardson actually freezes brass. Pflugerville bills you through a different utility window. A national blog that only swaps the city name is how Google ends up indexing one page. We write the local constraint in the article because it changes the repair.
Bring zone numbers, whether the problem is new or slow, whether anyone dug recently, and whether the meter moves when everything should be off. Those four answers route the call — leak truck vs simple head work vs controller power path. Book on contact or call 888-427-5022.
Frequently asked
The city says there is no leak at the meter.
They checked their side. Irrigation is yours.
Can a smart controller cause a high bill?
It can if someone enabled extra programs. It cannot spin a meter with the clock off.
Need it fixed, not diagnosed over email? Call 888-427-5022 or use the contact page. Same-day windows are for active leaks and stuck-on valves. Everything else we schedule on emergency vs standard priority.
Texas context we will not skip
Gulf clay, Blackland prairie, and Edwards rock do not share a repair script. A wet spot in Houston is not a freeze crack in Dallas, and a SAWS stage day is not a MUD watering window in Katy. We write those constraints because they change the parts on the truck and the program we leave on the clock.
If this article is about a part, still run isolation before you buy a case of that part. If it is about a city, still open the valve box before you trench the first damp patch. If it is about a clock, still measure the solenoid. That order is the whole business.
Call 888-427-5022. Use the contact page if you need a gate code on the ticket. Hub pages: services, service areas, blog.