Expert IrrigationWe work north into Boca Raton and everything in between — Hillsboro Beach, Highland Beach, Lighthouse Point and Parkland. Boca is the one place on our route where the watering rules are genuinely different, and it catches people out constantly, especially anyone who moved up from Broward.
Boca Raton is a three-day city, not two
Boca Raton is in Palm Beach County, which sits in the South Florida Water Management District's three-day group. Broward adopted a stricter countywide two-day ordinance. Palm Beach County did not. So if you moved from Fort Lauderdale to Boca and kept the same schedule, you are probably watering less than you are allowed to.
The city allows irrigation three days a week, and prohibits it between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. — the same midday ban you see everywhere in South Florida. The city ordinance also caps any single irrigation event at four hours on a parcel under five acres, which is a Boca-specific rule you will not find in Broward. Under the district's standard three-day schedule, odd-numbered addresses water Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and even-numbered addresses water Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Nobody waters Friday.
Worth confirming for your own address. Boca publishes the three-day allowance and the hours clearly, but the odd and even day assignment above comes from the district's standard schedule rather than the city's own page. Before you reprogram anything, call Boca Raton water conservation at 561-338-7306 or check myboca.us. We will confirm it on site too.
Country club and HOA communities
A large share of Boca is master-planned and HOA-governed, and plenty of those communities irrigate from lakes rather than city water. That does not exempt anyone from the day restrictions — the district rule covers private connections to lakes, ponds and canals the same way it covers wells. Properties with no individual street address, or with mixed odd and even addressing, follow the even schedule.
Coastal hardware, coastal problems
East Boca, Highland Beach and the barrier island share the same conditions as coastal Broward. Salt air shortens the life of anything metal mounted outdoors — pump housings, pressure switches, controller enclosures, backflow assemblies. We specify 316 stainless rather than 304 where it matters, keep as much of the run in PVC as possible, and get pumps and controllers shaded and up off the ground.
What does not change
The physical realities are identical to Broward. Limestone caprock a foot or two down, laterals run shallower than anyone would like, ficus and banyan roots finding those laterals, iron staining on concrete from well water, and a rain sensor requirement under Florida Statute 373.62 that most systems fail. Same soil, same grass, same failures — different calendar.