Dribbling Sprinklers Led Raleigh Man to 5 on Your Side

Miscommunication between a Raleigh resident and the man who installed his irrigation system led him to call 5 on Your Side.

Posted 11:28 p.m. Dec 12, 2007 — Updated 2:19 a.m. Dec 13, 2007

RALEIGH, N.C. — The sprinklers in Jim Meehan’s yard were a problem. The reason: Many of them dribbled water, even when the system was off.

Water ran in the planter area of his yard and also in the side yard.

Meehan had the system installed in August 2006. He paid Shane Fowler, owner of Beautiful Lawns Irrigation in Franklinton, about $3,400 to install it, and it came with a five-year warranty.

Meehan said Fowler promised to take care of the problems, but had not. Then, a home inspector Meehan hired found a water-related problem with his house's foundation.

“Down on the bottom of the wall, the foundation wall, you can see the white coming through and where the water was actually seeping through the foundation,” Meehan said as showed the problem to 5 on Your Side.

After dealing with the problems for more than a year, he sent Fowler a certified letter.

“What else can you do?" he asked. "If I work myself up into a frenzy, what good is it? You take it, and you try to fix it. And if it doesn't work, than you'll always have other options."

That's when he called 5 on Your Side.

When 5 on Your Side called Fowler, he said he had been to Meehan's home "at least five times," replaced a couple of sprinkler heads and had not been able to find anything wrong.

Fowler later called 5 on Your Side back, saying he would fix everything and claimed he was not aware of how extensive the leaks were until "recently."

“I'd just like to see him come through and do the right thing," Meehan said prior to Fowler fixing the leaks. "And that's the bottom line. If he fixes it, then I'll be happy.”

Fowler fixed the leaks and has a few things he expects to finish up on Friday.

After assessing the situation, he said the problems were caused by sand from Meehan's well getting into the system, which caused the heads to leak.

Meehan is paying Fowler to install a filter on the well that should keep that from happening again.

Fowler called the whole thing a miscommunication. There’s no doubt about that, because regardless of what caused the leak, had he communicated with Meehan face-to-face when the problems first started, the situation probably never would have gotten to the point that it did.

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