A buried sprinkler leak rarely starts as a fountain. Around Crosby, clay holds water near the surface, so the first clue is often a patch that never quite dries. These seven checks keep the search smaller than a trench across the yard. If the clues add up, sprinkler leak detection is the repair to request, not a new controller.

1. A soft patch that never dries

Walk the lawn on a day the system did not run. Persistent moisture between watering days can be a cracked fitting, a lateral, or a valve that seeps. Mark the spot. Compare it again the next dry afternoon. Ordinary rain on Harris County clay should fade. A leak will not.

2. One zone suddenly loses pressure

When every head on one station becomes weak at once, water is leaving the pipe before it reaches them. A damaged valve can look the same. That is why valve repair and leak detection share the first tests. Do not add minutes to hide it. Extra time just feeds the leak.

3. Water shows up at the curb

Runoff far from an active head may follow a trench, a root, or the slope. Watch where it begins. In Sheldon, a long lateral can wet ground well away from the house. In Highlands, ground that falls toward the San Jacinto River carries leak water downhill, so the puddle is not always the break.

4. The meter moves with the system off

Turn irrigation off and make sure no toilet or softener is filling. If the meter still creeps, something is using water. It might be indoors. It might be a seep at a valve. Write down what you saw and mention it on the request form.

5. A valve box that refills itself

Rain fills boxes. A weeping valve refills them after you bail them out, with the schedule off. That pattern belongs with valve service, and it is also described in the note on a wet valve box.

6. A stripe of wet soil along a straight line

Newer yards in Huffman sometimes leak along the original trench. The grass stays greener, then soggy, in a line. That line is a better map than the nearest head.

7. The bill changed and nothing else in the house did

A higher water bill with the same showers and laundry is not proof, but it is a reason to do the meter test. Pair it with a zone that looks weak and you have a useful request.

Turn the affected zone off when you can do that safely. Photograph the patch. Name the city, whether that is Crosby, Atascocita, or another town on the service list. Those details are what system repair uses to start in the right place.