Sprinkler companies are seeing a boom in business during the dry summer of 2012.
GRANDVILLE, Mich. (WZZM) - The dry weather is making it a challenge for people to keep their lawns from dying, but it is also boosting the business for companies that offer sprinkler systems and services.
Gary Schepers is turning up the water sprinkler for many of his customers.
"Its extremely dry and it takes a lot of water right now," says Schepers, owner of Schepers Lawn Sprinkling.
Schepers' irrigation business is taking calls all day long.
"We're running about 40 to 45 service calls a day, from seven a.m. to seven p.m. trying to keep up with the demand," says Schepers.
Schepers has done everything from selling new sprinkler systems to repairing old ones, as well as resetting the time for how long they run.
"Generally people have about 30 minutes a zone, but now we're running them up to 45 minutes or an hour," says Schepers.
Schepers also recommends sprinklers be about 35 feet apart from each other. He says the water from one sprinkler should go far enough to touch the other sprinkler so that there are no dry spots.
"A project on a normal home would spend $3 a day is spending $6, because they have to run it twice as hard to keep it green," says Schepers.
"As fast as we've been getting sprinklers in, we've been selling them out," says Luke Werkhoven, manager of Ivanrest Hardware.
The Grandville hardware store is trying to keep up with demand for portable sprinklers.
"Lots of places are out of sprinklers. We're getting people from the west part of town and the Wyoming area are coming here to buy sprinklers," says Werkhoven.
"They're spending a lot of time and money on their homes and they really would like to see it green," says Schepers.
Experts say dry grass will grow back as long as it hasn't been without water for more than six to eight weeks.