Question
Hope you can give me some ideas.  We just bought a house that has an irrigation system installed but the owner was not using it (said he preferred to hand water since it is a small yard).  I replaced the solenoids on the valves since they were all split and corroded.  When I activate the system I can hear the solenoids clicking so I think that is all in order.  However - there is no water.

I opened up one of the valves and there is no water coming through it.  I dug around the base of the valve assembly and found the water feed line - which seems intact and moves off underneath the sidewalk towards the street.  

But still no water.

I saw one post about backflow preventers causing problems - with a long inactive system might this be the case?

Help - thank you!

Aaron

Answer
Thanks for your question.
My guess, the water is shut off at the source. You probably do have a backflow preventer, but where. I'd tell you where to look, but there are so many variations of water supplies and backflow preventers I'd only be guessing.
Try looking up "Watt" on the Internet. They manufacturer a wide range of backflows. This will at least give a picture of what to look for. Once you find it if you have problems getting it on, reply back and I'll help.

Matt