Hi,

We had an unexpectedly hard freeze this year that popped the bonnet from my PVB *and* cracked one of the ball valves.

I bought new components and used a saw to take off the PVB. I assembled new piping to mate with the old and re-installed with the new ball valve and bonnet. The new pipe is not leaking.

However, my first three zones (not coincidentally the three zones controlled by valves closest to the PVB!) are stuck on slightly - by that I mean they work just fine but when the timer switches them off water continues to weep from one or more sprinklers in those zones.

I had a look at one of the valves yesterday - there were 4 screws on the corners so I took them off and of course I found a piece of pipe debris from when I sawed off the old pipes. I cleared it out as best I could but the valve was in the dirt so it was tough to be certain a piece of dirt didn't get in there when I was putting it back together.

When I switched the water back on I still had the weeping sprinklers.

What's the correct approach here?

Should I dig around the valves so I have a clean area and then disassemble again? Is there more to it than visually inspecting the parts you can see for debris?

I've heard about flushing the heads - is that as simple as unscrewing the top of the heads and running water through? Will that help?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm sick of losing water down the storm drain!

UKMatt