All Farmington CC crew members are now properly equipped to fix irrigation line breaks on the spot.

Nothing is more frustrating to personnel on golf course and grounds maintenance crews than discovering a problem while making their rounds of the property, but not having the right tools that are needed to properly make needed repairs on the spot.

And when the problem is an irrigation leak, the time needed to either go back to the maintenance shed to get the required tools, or to make a call and then wait to have the tools brought out to the source of the problem, can not only be an expensive waste of the crew member’s time—it can also cause costly and unnecessary waste of an increasingly precious commodity, water.

The grounds maintenance staff of Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Va., as directed by Groundskeepers Don Carver and Andrea Sensenig, felt there had to be a better way to prepare crew members for more timely response. They eventually devised a plan to do away with many of the costly delays related to minor leaks and breaks by creating repair tool kits that included:
• irrigation tubing
• a hand trowel
• hand pruners
• Netafim irrigation fitting
• metal staples
All of these components were then assembled into clear storage bags that were distributed to all of Farmington’s grounds employees. Crew members now carry the kits in their toolbags and are able to pull them out easily and find the pieces needed to fix leaks quickly as they are discovered, with little time lost. When any parts from the kit are used to make repairs, they can be replaced at the beginning or end of the crew member’s shift, once he or she is back at Farmington’s maintenance facility.
“This [repair kit system] has enhanced club operations by increasing efficiency, and it helps with water conservation as well,” says Farmington’s Assistant General Manager, Wayne Hall. “It allows staff to fix irrigation leaks without having to call upper management multiple times a day to fix minor breaks in the drip lines.” C&RB