If the sprinklers have been on for ten minutes and the gutter is carrying water, the lawn is not getting most of that water. Clay around Cleveland, Liberty, and parts of Kingwood takes a little and then sheds the rest. The fix is a shorter cycle and a spray pattern that lands on soil. Coverage correction is the service. A longer runtime is the habit that makes the bill worse.
Watch the first few minutes
Run one turf zone and stand at the low edge. Note when shine on the soil turns into flow. That moment is the useful cycle length for that station. A second cycle after a soak gives the clay time to take the first drink. The Cleveland watering schedule note uses the same idea.
Nozzles that throw past the lawn
Water that starts in the street was never going to soak in. Heads aimed past the curb, or misting because pressure is high, look busy and do little. Head repair resets arc and nozzle. Uneven coverage explains the dry stripe that shows up next to the runoff. Both can be true on one zone.
Do not confuse runoff with a leak
Runoff during a cycle stops when the zone stops. A leak keeps a patch wet the next day and may move the meter with the system off. Use the leak signs before you only change the clock. Liberty bottomland makes this easy to mix up.
Shade and slope still matter
A flat clay front yard and a slope in Livingston do not share a cycle. Shade in Kingwood needs less than the sunny strip by the curb. Split them if the zones allow it. If they do not, say so. Forcing one number onto both is how the street stays wet.
A tune-up is the right first visit if you have not watched the zones this year. Name the city and which edge floods when you send the request.