Lump in the lawn

Over the last few weeks the lawn on the west side of the house has been very damp, even soggy. I turned down the timer on that circuit but it didn't help any. Two days ago I noticed a large lump in the lawn and realized I had a leak in the sprinkler system.

I went in the garage and manually turned on that circuit, which made the sod in that area rise up about six inches but the sprinkler never popped up. I dug it out and it had come disconnected from the riser pipe. I reconnected it but it still didn't work, it was physically stuck in its housing. After messing around with it for 10 minutes I was able to break it loose and cycle it in a bucket of water. It was full of dirt and sand that had caused it to stick. I reconnected it again and it started working but the lawn still bulged up around it.

I dug down and found the saddle clamp had twisted on the pipe because the riser pipe between the saddle clamp and the sprinkler head was way too short. This made the sprinkler head sit too high and when the mower ran over it or someone stepped on it, it would twist the saddle clamp on the main line elongating the hole.

I got rid of the saddle clamp and spliced in a t-fitting with a longer riser pipe. Half a day wasted because the guy that put the system in cut the riser line six inches too short.