An irrigation audit is a zone-by-zone inspection of a property's watering system — controller, spray heads, drip, valves, backflow, and meter — that quantifies where water and money are running out. On most Arizona commercial properties, the biggest unaddressed efficiency gap sits right here — industry audits routinely put it at 20 to 40 percent of the water bill. These are the six points our technicians work through on every audit.

Point 1 — Controller schedule vs. real ET data

Evapotranspiration in the Phoenix Metro runs from about 0.1 inches a day in January to over 0.3 in July. Tucson and Oro Valley sit a little lower at peak because of elevation, but the seasonal swing is the same shape. Most properties run a static schedule set the day the system was installed and never revisited — or a seasonal percentage that got adjusted once and forgotten. We pull current ET for the property's location and compare it to what the controller is actually putting down. Across the industry, that gap routinely lands between 20 and 40 percent of water volume.

Point 2 — Head-to-head coverage on spray zones

Rotary and fixed spray heads lose their overlap when they get tilted, chipped, or grown over. We walk every zone while it runs and flag heads throwing water onto sidewalk, missing turf edges, or spraying a wall. Coverage gaps leave dry spots that stress the turf and let weeds in, and fixing that cycle costs more than the audit that would have caught it.

Point 3 — Drip emitter flow rates

Drip emitters clog slowly, so a zone can look fine from the surface while a fifth of its emitters deliver a third of their rated flow. We pull spot-check emitters and measure actual output against spec. On an established drip zone, swapping the clogged ones out recovers real volume on every cycle.

Point 4 — Valve boxes and valve function

Valve boxes fill with debris and take on water through monsoon season — we see it across the Valley and Tucson both. Solenoids corrode, diaphragms crack, bleed screws seize. We open every box, inspect the valve, run it by hand, and note any that are slow to close or seeping.

Point 5 — Backflow certification status

Many water providers across the service area require annual backflow-preventer testing — the mandate and its cadence vary by municipality, so it pays to know your provider's rules. Plenty of properties are quietly out of compliance without knowing it. We record certification status and flag anything expired before it turns into a notice.

Point 6 — Water meter baseline read

With every zone off and no demand on the system, any movement at the meter means a leak in the mainline or a lateral. On a large property — HOA common areas, a commercial campus, a retail center with a lot of drip — a steady 1 to 2 GPM leak is thousands of gallons a month before a single scheduled cycle runs.

What you get at the end

The deliverable is a prioritized repair-and-adjustment list with an estimated water saving next to each item, worst offenders first. On many properties, the highest-priority corrections pay back the cost of the audit quickly. We include audits in maintenance-agreement renewals and run them as a stand-alone service for any commercial or HOA property from Buckeye to Apache Junction to Oro Valley. Call 480-237-2522 or email Office@nexgenlandscaping.com to schedule one.