Also planning new irrigation - Completed

The place to discuss irrigation systems, sprinkers and watering
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GeorgeH
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Also planning new irrigation - Completed

Post by GeorgeH » August 14th, 2016, 1:48 pm

I just got a bid for a sprinkler system yesterday. It has taken me 22 years. My excuse has been my wife and her ever expanding garden beds.

I didn’t want to hijack his thread but it brought up some questions on the wide discrepancy.

http://aroundtheyard.com/irrigation/pla ... 20963.html

My area is similar to Bentleyvt with about 12K of lawn and probably a little less than ¾ of an acre. His quotes are less than half the one I received. The number of heads and zones are a clear reason why but curious why my design is so different. Possibly due to the winding gardens, wrap around lawn, terraces, etc. I included a google earth snip that offers a bird’s eye view. Much of the garden area and the lawn in the backyard are obscured by trees.

My bid on the other hand is about $14,000. It includes a
Hunter i-Core Controller
35 ea. Hunter ProSpray 4” Pop Up,
76 ea. Hunter Pro Spray 12” Pop Up,
14 ea. Hunter Gear Drive Pop Up, 16 ea. Rainbird DVF Electric Valve (Zones),
5 ea. Valve boxes,
1 ea. 1” Double check valve.

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Last edited by GeorgeH on September 13th, 2016, 7:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.

tlinden
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by tlinden » August 14th, 2016, 3:54 pm

You're in a different part of the country so it could be that. It could also be the look of your landscape. Contractors will bid different for houses that look like they can afford a higher price. And it could be the reasons you stated.

Just get a couple quotes and see if they are in the ballpark or not. I paid $2700 for 36 heads, so your quote is higher than I paid per head but not by a ton. I also got all 4inch popups and have fairly simple shaped yard..

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HoosierLawnGnome
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » August 14th, 2016, 4:40 pm

you're getting charged more because you have a nice property imo

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Michael Wise
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Also planning new irrigation

Post by Michael Wise » August 14th, 2016, 5:16 pm

That looks like a fairly complicated layout if we are talking about irrigating all that grass on the other side of that hedgerow and beds by the road.

Lotta curves.

The right side of the house has lots of little nooks and cranny's too.

I also wonder where your water service is. Looks like it could be quite a ways from your house.

I don't see in your post where you specified pipe size, or whether the installer would be looping the mainline around the house.

A lot of factors here.

Personally, I would probably charge more for a pristine finished landscape such as yours, too. It's going to take a lot more work and attention to detail to get it back in shape after the install. Trencher or puller.

But I'm not a professional irrigation installer, so I don't know how to bid a job.

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GeorgeH
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by GeorgeH » August 14th, 2016, 10:08 pm

Mainline is 1" PVL Sch 40 (sp?)

1" Poly Pipe, 100 psi for lateral lines. NSF approved, rain sensor and blowout connection included.

Connection is on the right side of the house towards the rear where the water main enters the house.

Watering the garden beds is more of a challenge than the grass.

Thank you Mr. Wise

Michael Wise wrote:That looks like a fairly complicated layout if we are talking about irrigating all that grass on the other side of that hedgerow and beds by the road.

Lotta curves.

The right side of the house has lots of little nooks and cranny's too.

I also wonder where your water service is. Looks like it could be quite a ways from your house.

I don't see in your post where you specified pipe size, or whether the installer would be looping the mainline around the house.

A lot of factors here.

Personally, I would probably charge more for a pristine finished landscape such as yours, too. It's going to take a lot more work and attention to detail to get it back in shape after the install. Trencher or puller.

But I'm not a professional irrigation installer, so I don't know how to bid a job.


LoneRanger
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by LoneRanger » August 15th, 2016, 1:40 am

Those planting beds are what's pulling the price up.

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Michael Wise
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Also planning new irrigation

Post by Michael Wise » August 15th, 2016, 10:15 am

LoneRanger wrote:Those planting beds are what's pulling the price up.
I can't help but think that going to drip vs. spray heads throughout would drop the price.

If nothing else, the installer could install the valve and leave the stubs so George could then build the above ground portion of the drip himself.

George, definitely look into LoneRanger's suspicion and see if the beds are indeed the reason for a high price. I think he's right.

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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by bentleyvt » August 15th, 2016, 3:52 pm

Wow. Gorgeous property. I have to agree, you are probably paying a premium because your property looks like you can afford it :) I also am just worried about covering the lawn areas.

When the irrigation comes out for final plans tomorrow, I'm going to ask how much it would cost for drip irrigation in the beds, but given that many of the plants are pretty hardy so I dont think I 'need' it.

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GeorgeH
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by GeorgeH » August 15th, 2016, 6:28 pm

Thanks all for the replies.

Curious how deep most irrigation contractors bury the pipe. My quote is for a depth of 8” which seems a little shallow. Freezing at that depth is highly unlikely and the system will be flushed anyway but I had expected a deeper trench.

While I am not so cynical to believe the contractor would charge more because I have a nicer yard than average, I do feel he takes in to consideration the fact I have high standards and would not be satisfied if the work did not do justice to the yard.

The garden beds are probably more important than the lawn. Those tall evergreens seem to drink every bit of moisture in the ground. The hydrangeas’ are the first to wilt and let us know the beds need water before the rest of the plants get stressed. An irrigation system is needed and I want it done right.

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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by LoneRanger » August 15th, 2016, 6:57 pm

GeorgeH wrote:An irrigation system is needed and I want it done right.
I absolutely agree. If you're going to make that type of investment, make sure it's done right.

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Michael Wise
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by Michael Wise » August 15th, 2016, 9:35 pm

LoneRanger wrote:
GeorgeH wrote:An irrigation system is needed and I want it done right.
I absolutely agree. If you're going to make that type of investment, make sure it's done right.
+1 to both.

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ken-n-nancy
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by ken-n-nancy » August 16th, 2016, 7:50 am

GeorgeH wrote:Curious how deep most irrigation contractors bury the pipe. My quote is for a depth of 8” which seems a little shallow. Freezing at that depth is highly unlikely and the system will be flushed anyway but I had expected a deeper trench.
8" seems pretty typical. It seems to me that the pipe is usually buried to about the depth of the bottoms of the rotor cans. That seems to be the depth of most of the pipe to which our irrigation system was buried. There's a few places that it's more shallow than that (as little as 4") due to the pipe going over boulders in our lawn. (I encountered one of those two years ago when re-grading the back lawn; managed to fix it a bit by shifting the (flexible) pipe around the edge of the boulder instead of over the top of it.)

However, with you having a lot of 12" heads, I guess I'd expect the pipe to be deeper, so that the flexible lines don't have to go down to the heads.

However, in all honesty, I speculate the depth to which the pipe is buried is probably mostly dictated by the depth of the pipe-pulling knife on the ditch witch! ;)

In our area, there's no way the irrigation system gets buried below the average freeze depth, which is about 36" for Southern NH. Blowing out the irrigation system before winter is an absolute necessity here.

LoneRanger
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by LoneRanger » August 16th, 2016, 8:43 am

ken-n-nancy wrote:However, with you having a lot of 12" heads, I guess I'd expect the pipe to be deeper, so that the flexible lines don't have to go down to the heads.
They're most likely using side inlet bodies.

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GeorgeH
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by GeorgeH » September 2nd, 2016, 3:13 pm

Ouch, writing that 50% down check today hurt!

At least I was able to observe and get to know the crew that just completed a system for my neighbor.

They hope to start September 8th. Now I need to figure out what to do with all my timers, hoses, sprinklers and other miscellaneous devices.

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GeorgeH
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by GeorgeH » September 9th, 2016, 8:19 pm

Day two of installation still in process. A really good group of hard working guys; they start arriving around 6:30 AM and work until 8:00 or so.

4 trucks/men on day one, two most of today with a third showing up around 3:30. Hard to know but two or three more days at least.

It is causing some damage since my grass is so young but it is not too late to over seed in the PNW and they are putting things back just the way they found it. The design only has one head in the lawn itself, the rest are around the perimeter in the garden beds.

Overall very happy so far.

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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by LoneRanger » September 9th, 2016, 10:17 pm

Are there separate zones and heads for the turf, along with zones and heads for the beds?

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GeorgeH
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Re: Also planning new irrigation

Post by GeorgeH » September 9th, 2016, 10:38 pm

LoneRanger wrote:Are there separate zones and heads for the turf, along with zones and heads for the beds?
Yes, they think there will be 16 zones with separate heads for the beds and lawn.

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GeorgeH
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Re: Also planning new irrigation - Completed

Post by GeorgeH » September 13th, 2016, 7:46 pm

My system is done and my bank account is empty but it was well past time after over 22 years in my house. One of the hardest working crews I have witnessed. Gentlemen all that took pride in their work and made every effort to leave everything just the way they found it and for the most part succeeded.

Final judgement will be how reliably it runs and how quickly they resolve the inevitable issues but for now my wife and I are thrilled.

Final configuration was 20 zones, 9 zones for lawn and 11 zones for the garden beds. 148 total heads and two soakers for the front terrace. My original quote was honored with no charge for the upgraded controller and additional heads and zones.

33 spray heads and 15 gear heads for the lawn. 100 spray heads for the garden beds.

Hunter I-Core Controller with Wireless rain/Freeze-Clik system.

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Re: Also planning new irrigation - Completed

Post by LoneRanger » September 14th, 2016, 9:53 am

Sounds like a professional job you'll be happy with, for many years to come.

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Michael Wise
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Re: Also planning new irrigation - Completed

Post by Michael Wise » September 14th, 2016, 9:58 am

Awesome, George! Enjoy the new system.

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