I was lucky to get a house where the previous owner had installed an underground sprinkler system. Not so lucky when there's a problem, though.
There's three zones with sprinkler heads on them. One is along the lot line next to my neighbor. I noticed last year that the two sprinkler heads on that zone were just dribbling, and vowed to take care of the problem this spring.
I found the valve box on the side of the house easily enough, and there's two valves. One is for the center of the yard, and the other for the two heads along the lot line. I dug up the first head, hoping it might be the problem, but it wasn't. I tested the valve and the water to the sprinkler head, and both worked. I couldn't find the head nearest the street, as grass had grown over it. Even using a rake I was unable to find it.
I let it run for half an hour, and water started to pool in a 3' x 4' section of grass along the lot line halfway toward the street from the valve box. I started digging where the water was deepest, but couldn't find a pipe. I then noticed that the section was a low-lying part of the lawn. That may have cause the problem, as water pooling in the area would make the soil heavier, and could crack the pipe.
Anyway, with that being a low-lying area, the water could be coming from uphill somewhere. It's not directly under the lowest spot.
I thought that I could just look at the PVC pipe at the first head, and figure it would be running straight out to the street parallel to the lot line, but it's coming to the sprinkler head at an angle.
Any suggestions on how to find the pipe without doing a lot of digging? I finally have my front lawn looking really good, and don't want it to look gopher-ridden.