Sprinkler head donuts, really needed?
 

I have a new house in Lake Denham. I see these concrete donuts are a big thing around here. I live in Massachusetts for my main home and I've had irrigation systems for 30 years. Never had any donuts around the sprinkler heads. I've been using a John Deere riding mower over mine forever and no issues.

Is there something different down there in FL?

Grass here is more like a vine eventually it may cover sprinkler and keep it from popping up. Your choice

For less than $2 per, it's cheap protection for your heads.

Depends if you have walk-behind mower or heavy riding mower.

Depends if you cut out your heads or not.

I’m thinking some sales / marketing guy did a really good job saying they were needed. Now everyone has them.

I as well have only seen them in FL…..yet St Augustine grass and irrigation systems are all over the south…..without those donuts.

There available at Lowe’s if you feel left out by not having any. There’s also DIY videos on how to make them on You Tube….if you’re feeling fancy and want different designs / colors.

When someone parks in front of your house and runs one over, you'll know why you need them.

It’s kind of funny that I see videos of the tool to cut the circle for the donut. The vids say you have to periodically recut the circle and remove the grass because of the st Augustine. So the donuts don’t really stop the the grass overgrowth anyhow.

A properly installed head should be flush with the ground and shouldn’t be damaged by driving over them. None of mine are close enough to the street where a vehicle will hit them. I’ll go without for a while and see if I’m right or learn the hard way. :D

Exactly!! Contractors and landscapers have a tendency to run over the sprinkler heads. The donuts protect those sprinklers. I only put them along the road. No need for them in the backyard.

To each their own, I like the donuts. They establish a perimeter around each sprinkler head that I keep free of grass by removing the donuts a couple of times per year, pulling out any intruding grass by the roots, and replacing the doughnuts. Plus, they provide cheap insurance against damage from mowers and cars/trucks along the road.

Which means the irrigation line has to be proper depth. :pepper2:

Down here the people who install sprinkler heads put them right at the edge of the lawn next to the road. Cars, trucks, golf carts are always driving over mine It’s the only way to protect the heads. Simple fix would have been to put the sprinkler heads in a few feet but I guess they get more business that way

Most of my donuts have disappeared. They sunk down into the soil.

Ex-cops started the craze for them.:icon_wink:

LOL, I suppose when Dunkin' stopped making the donuts in house, people needed to find another use for them since they are so stale now.

If you have a lawn service and do not have an irrigation contract the donuts are worth it.
These lawn jockeys will usually knock out two of your sprinklers a year.

The villages owned property must have thousands of sprinkler heads and not one donut.

Any nay sayers on donuts can be who you call upon to come out and find your sprinkler heads in about 2 months this summer. ST Augustine smothers them. Donuts get covered in time if you don't trim them but at least you increase the size of the head for location. Your lawn service will most likely NOT trim them. Mine get trimed every week. Why? I do them.

Your neighbors card playing group or whatever social events will drive on them if you live in a Villa. Will they give a crap about your sprinkler head while they park on it? Nope. A broken donut saved your head.

FL is a whole different animal.

Forget about what you did up north - in every way.

Get them at Ace Hardward as well. Keeps someone from breaking your sprinkler heads, but still need to be cleaned out or raised periodically as they sink or the grass grows over them. An ounce of prevention is more than a pound of cure.

If someone parks on the street and drives over them like we have had happen a few times you will understand why these are good.

I could not agree more.

Never had them in 13 years, I see grass grow inside my neighbor that has them, he has to cut out the grass.

They make it easy to use Roundup 3-4 times a year to keep that from happening. Use a paintbrush rather than a sprayer to avoid overspray.

Besides keeping the St. Augustine grass at bay, another benefit to the donuts is it makes it easy to find all of your sprinkler heads. Should you have an issue, such as a broken pipe, it is a cinch to walk around and see which head or heads are not popping up.

You said YOU were riding around on a John Deere up North, you could see if any sprinkler heads stayed up slightly and not cut them off with your mower.
Things are different here. The landscape companies cutting your lawn will slice off any raised heads quicker than lightning. IF you cut your own lawn, then no problem.

I use a donut cutter from online Sprinkler Warehouse around the donuts once a year to keep them from disappearing in the grass.

While your yard is new be sure and draw a diagram of where your sprinkler heads are.
The St. Augustine grass will bury them every year.
It’s easier to find a donut than a sprinkler head.

Not needed unless the yard crew rides over them and breaking them or the grass growing over preventing the heads from popping up to water the yard correctly. That then would cost money to replace or repair the heads more frequently.
St Augustine grass is like many have not had the opportunity to deal with in different areas outside of Florida. Just call them piece of mind.

If you do not have a curb to protect and separate your yard from the road it's only a matter of time before someone drives over your sprinklers and breaks them. We had a next door neighbor who routinely drove over ours. The rings saved us from costly damage. Unfortunately the sprinkler heads were placed right next to their driveway and right along the edge of our yard along the street. Terrible planning,

Maybe unnecessary if you personally mow the lawn. However, cautious and observant don't describe most lawncare guys around here.

A timely topic indeed. I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon cutting out donut holes and unearthing several which got buried by the St. Augustine.
What a PITA..

Service and Maintenance is a key factor in putting in donuts. The sprinklers have small filters on them that need cleaned periodically for them to work properly and the donuts make it way easier to clean them and fix problems. The water that goes thru sprinklers is very dirty reclaimed water down here.

Mind pieces
 

Fascinating to learn how St. Augustine grass interacts with them. Little to no experience with St. Augustine, but learning that the invasive Bermudas grass rhizomes and stolons have become the windmills in my zoysia lawn against which I've come to tilt. When those rascals come up against a barrier such as these donuts (or that metal plate next to those nice, smooth pebbles next to the house), they seem to take it personally and elect to join forces and attempt to mimic a steel cable. There are chemicals that can kill this Bermuda without killing the zoysia, but it looks to be pretty tricky to handle. It is also apparently not something that the lawn bidnesses in these parts fiddle with. The zoysia is *so* much prettier but, unfortunately, significantly slower to fill in.

I can now enjoy a new (to me) bit of trivia. There's both a "piece" of my mind that I may give *and* "peace" of mind which I may have. :-)

No Donuts in Ocala
 

My landscaper who lives in Ocala told me that nobody in Ocala uses Donuts. Only in The Villages.

Someone must use them. They have 1237 in stock at Ocala Lowes.

I use them to mark locations of sprinkler heads

Sprinkler heads needed near road
 

YES. They are definitely needed for the heads near your driveway and roadway. If a car runs over them they will be damaged and leak and you may never know that they are damaged because the connection in the ground will leak and you will spend needless money on water.
I am a home inspector and I have experience in this matter.
Feel free to call me if you have any questions. I can help you install them if need be.

Jim 607.434.2020

should have stated village owned property

Thanks for all the input. I see arguments for and against that both make sense. As I said, the location of my heads is not conducive to cars parking in them. But I am part time so the lawn guys could damage them. I will be mowing myself when I go full time and keeping the heads clear is something I don’t mind doing. But perhaps it’s better to have them for now.

Donuts can only do so much. Lawn guys with their big machines drive over them anyway. Requests for hand mowing our tiny lawn falls on deaf ears. Twice in the last few weeks, the same sprinkler head was broken. Then we have to call Massey to come out and replace it again.
Now we have painted the donuts a shiny sparkly silver to be more noticeable. We will see if that helps.
Maybe next time, we'll try neon yellow or orange. *sigh*

Do a search on how to replace a sprinkler head. The videos are very helpful and it’s not a big job to do……save a few bucks to avoid Massey.

I don't know how many times I've seen groundskeepers adjusting sprinkler heads along Morse Blvd, Buena Vista and Meggison Way. If lawn mowers didn't hit them, how did they get out of adjustment?