Golf community · Scottsdale

Troon North leak detection and repair

A golf community in the high Sonoran desert around Pinnacle Peak, developed from about 1990, where what is under the ground is as much rock as it is soil — and that decides where the pipe runs.

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Troon North is a golf community in far north Scottsdale, developed from about 1990 onward across boulder-strewn high desert, which means modern supply material laid along whatever route the granite allowed rather than in neat straight trenches.

Troon North grew up around golf in the high Sonoran desert near Pinnacle Peak. The first course opened in March 1990 and the second in 1996, and the community developed alongside them, with custom lots still being completed long afterwards. The area became part of Scottsdale when the city annexed a large tract of far-north desert in 1984.

Everything about leak work here is shaped by what the ground is made of. This is granite country: boulders, outcrop and shallow rock. Pipes were laid where they could be laid, not where a drawing would put them, and that single fact changes the order in which a search makes sense.

High Sonoran desert ground with granite boulders and desert plants — Where the ground is granite, a buried line takes the route the rock permits, which is rarely the route anyone would draw.

What is under a Troon North property?

Modern supply material, and a good deal of rock: because the community developed from about 1990 onward, houses have CPVC, PEX or newer copper depending on their year, and nothing here is old enough to corrode through.

The material is the easy part. What makes a locate here different is the route. On a lot with granite close to the surface, a trench goes around the obstruction rather than through it, so a buried line can take a path with several bends in it for reasons that are invisible from above. Assuming a straight run between two points is the quickest way to dig in the wrong place.

Troon North at a glance, for leak work.
What we go on	In Troon North
Build window	from about 1990 onward
City or jurisdiction	Scottsdale, Arizona
Likely supply material	CPVC, PEX and newer copper according to the year of the house
What tends to fail first	buried lines where they bear on rock, and irrigation laterals routed around boulders
What we check first	the actual route of the line, traced, before anyone assumes it runs straight

How does Troon North compare with Scottsdale’s housing age?

It is newer than the city median by a handful of years at its start, and a good deal newer than that in the parts completed since.

Scottsdale’s Census profile covers a much wider range than this corner of it. The American Community Survey gives the city a median year of construction of 1990, the same year the first course opened here, while a quarter of the city’s homes have been built since 2000.

Housing across Scottsdale city, Arizona	Share
Median year built	1990
Built before 1980	29 percent
Built since 2000	26 percent

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2023). Geography: Census place.

Why does rock make a buried leak harder to find?

Because rock controls where the water goes once it escapes, and it does so in ways that have nothing to do with where the pipe is. Water that meets an impermeable surface underground runs along it until it finds an opening.

There is also a mechanical effect worth knowing about. A line resting on rock has a hard point under it, and hard points concentrate load. Ground movement, settlement and traffic above all press the pipe against that one spot over the years, which is why a failure on a rock lot is so often exactly where the line crosses something solid. Tracing the route first, and locating the crossings, is a far better use of the first hour than looking at the surface.

Asked and answered

What do people in Troon North ask us?

What plumbing is in a Troon North home?

CPVC, PEX or newer copper, depending on the year the house was finished. The community developed from about 1990 onward with custom building continuing long afterwards, so neighbouring properties can be fifteen years apart. Nothing here is old enough to corrode through.

The water is coming up at the driveway edge. Is the leak there?

Probably not. On a granite lot an escape runs along the rock face until it finds an opening, so it commonly appears at a cut, a crack or the base of a wall well away from the fault. On this kind of ground the surfacing point is a fact about the geology rather than about the pipe.

Why do buried lines fail where they cross rock?

Because rock is a hard point under an otherwise supported pipe, and hard points concentrate load. Settlement, ground movement and weight from above all press the line against that one spot over the years. Tracing the route and finding the crossings is usually a better first step than looking at the surface.

Which other far-north communities do we cover?

DC Ranch1997 onward, mountain-front lots Terravita1993 to 1999, one build generation throughout Desert Mountain1986 to the present, every pipe era at once Scottsdale leak detectionthe wider Scottsdale page, with the full Census profile All service areasevery part of the valley we cover

Water appearing somewhere on a Troon North lot?

Tell us where it is surfacing and what you know about the line's route, and we will say how we would trace it.