I agree. Sometimes when I go out to clean up my heads, they are so overgrown that they are hard to find.

There are a few reasons for donuts. At the street edge, you will find cars or trucks park or run over The heads. This can be costly for a few reasons.

The people that use riding lawn equipment, run over them.

Etc.
Maintenance- Check that the donuts don’t disappear. Clean them regularly.

Here's the real reason they're required. 20 years from now your sprinkler heads are going to be 3" lower than they are now. I have no idea why, I just know it's true, because I have a 20-year-old house and I've had to add a new layer of donuts to all the sprinkler heads this year. And there are a couple places I don't care about where I am sure there must have been a sprinkler head once but I'm too lazy to dig up the yard to find it.

What the heck causes that? I'm from Houston, where everybody also has a St Augustine lawn, but I've never seen this before. If the ground is sinking, why is my house just fine? Weird!

Yes, I had to have 6 pop-up sprinkler heads raised about 5 inches in my front yard because they had sunk into the ground. The donuts had disappeared below ground. No problem in the back yard.

FIS outdoor in Wildwood sells the round concrete donuts in two sizes. They are located by Russell Stovers. We installed them ourselves by purchasing a grass remover tool specifically made for sprinkler heads from Lowe’s.

Do we really need tin foil hats?:confused:

Massey provided and installed mine for 5 dollars each. It was a good deal.

The same thing is happening to my sprinklers. So weird. I know as time goes on, most heavy stuff sinks down into the earth but why sprinklers and sprinkler piping. Makes no sense.

Exactly.... I just had mine installed and I think it was like six dollars per unit...installed. Peace of mind.
Also, for those who do it themselves, or use a lawn service having the donut gives a good spot to aim a weed killer.

Dirt
 

Been pondering the same. But, my assumption was that the ground level was somehow rising rather than sinking. Does dirt grow? Can thatch become dirt over such short periods? Tectonics would drag the sprinkler system along with it, no? Can grass roots raise the dirt level? (They'd wait a million years. . .).

A lot of sprinkler heads get broken by the grass cutter's trucks and other equipment that park or drive over them. So, people put the concrete donuts around the ones near the street to protect them.

They are for protecting nozzles, I have them for that reason.

A lot are replaced regularly

As pop up sprinklers age, 1- they don't go fully down. Damage is easy 2-they get out of alignment normally over time.

Rain would constantly be washing soil away into lower areas - like the ponds and lakes. The house area would be the last to sink because the roof is causing the rain water to stay away from the dirt level under the house.

Village property is protected from car and truck traffic by curbs and parking lots that are designed by professional landscapers. The Villagers individual yards are not protected near the street.

Incorrect. MANY, MANY homes have concrete curbs. Mine does...

Funny story I moved to Dallas from Fort Lauderdale in 2019. I went to Home Depot and Lowe’s and no one ever heard of a Sprinkler donut!!!’ They did not know what I was talking about. When I went back to a trip to Florida, I bought about 20 and put them in my suitcase! They’re great to mark where the sprinklers are and keep grass from growing over too much

I don't think the ground level is rising significantly. Most of the planet surface is gradually sinking underground that will over time be melted in the earths core and will eventually return as new surface. Probably easiest to see in an area such as the land at the end of the Mississippi River--like a giant conveyer belt going down to the earths core.

Of course we do. I mean there's aliens, ancient aliens, future aliens. Probably aliens probing our lawns. Tinfoil hats I will buy way before sprinkler donuts.