Sprinkler/Irrigation System Installation | GTAMotorcycle.com

Sprinkler/Irrigation System Installation

GateKeeper

GateKeeper

Well-known member
Looking to get a sprinkler system installed

anyone here that does this?

anyone have a good lead on who does?

I am interested in Hunter products possibly Rainbird

if you are interested or know someone who is, PM me and I will give you my contact info

must be reputable and know what they are doing, if I want it done wrong I can do that myself. LOL

Thanks
 
GateKeeper said:
Looking to get a sprinkler system installed

anyone here that does this?

anyone have a good lead on who does?

I am interested in Hunter products possibly Rainbird

if you are interested or know someone who is, PM me and I will give you my contact info

must be reputable and know what they are doing, if I want it done wrong I can do that myself. LOL

Thanks
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No idea on contacts, I can tell you what I like and don't like about what our house came with to help you ask questions that may improve things.

We have multiple zones with mostly hunter PGP, a few rainbird 5000, one zone of Hunter MP800 and a drip line. For rotors, I prefer the PGP's although the rainbirds are ok. Imo, the MP800's do a much better job distributing water but you need a lot more heads to cover the same area.

More zones would be better both for pressure and tuning watering on different sections of lawn. One part of our lawn is full sun, the rest is partial shade and I played with nozzles as much as possible to get all the grass happy but if you go up too much on the area that needs more water, the coverage drops on the rest. It would have been much better with zones to easily adjust water across the lawn without screwing up coverage. 3/4" line feeding house, stays as 3/4 all the way to sprinklers. Water pressure 70 to 90 psi and imo, they put too many heads per zone.

I would be putting in a smart controller. I normally manually trigger sprinkler cycles and the dumb controllers are really really dumb and whoever setup the control system needs to be fired (to run one zone, you turn to one-zone, then pick zone, then turn dial to on but that leaves the system armed so it will run any scheduled cycles). Smart control lets you setup/trigger from phone and can use weather forecast to cancel watering if rain threshold exceeded.

I don't know what they normally provide, but I would want the company to leave me with a site plan showing information (pipe routing, head location, nozzles, inches/hour/zone etc). I've walked around with an IR gun to find heads that were covered and hadn't popped up for years. Maybe the old owners got a drawing. I suspect most installation companies are hit and run. I haven't yet put out cups to figure out if our zone timing is remotely reasonable. Make sure they leave you with an adjustment key and spare nozzles in case you want to make changes to the system. Amazon sells them but they are 20x the price they should be.
 
GreyGhost appreciate your feed back, I agree with all you have stated

I just had a company out, gave me a quote, but lacked a lot of detail that I was hoping for, like a drawing of the install and how things were going to look and where things will be placed, would be nice to know what they are actually doing.

what I got was

system includes
11 - large rotor gear driven pop-up sprinklers - Hunter Ultra
9 - small pop-up sprinklers - Hunter
5 - Automatic control valves - Rainbird
1 - Automatic timer - Hunter
Water safe nozzles - included
Rain Sensor included

Water pressure 60psi, 4.5 G/M - measured

and the price....not going to disclose it.

What bothered me the most was it does not tell me what the specific model of all the parts being used are, so I can't tell if it's just run of the mill stuff, better stuff, or great stuff, no drawing of the layout, or discussion after the tech looked over the property, just kinda asked what I want watered and did his walkabout and left, emailed the quote an hour later

so I don't know really what I am getting, a breakdown of the cost for parts and what they are, and labour cost would be a good start, a drawing would be great, and what options do I have, not a good feeling on this company, they seem to not want the business, I even have my neighbour wanting to put in a system, even that did not show much more interest in doing the work...

I really hope all are not like this...

.
 
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GateKeeper said:
GreyGhost appreciate your feed back, I agree with all you have stated

I just had a company out, gave me a quote, but lacked a lot of detail that I was hoping for, like a drawing of the install and how things were going to look and where things will be placed, would be nice to know what they are actually doing.

what I got was

system includes
11 - large rotor gear driven pop-up sprinklers - Hunter Ultra
9 - small pop-up sprinklers - Hunter
5 - Automatic control valves - Rainbird
1 - Automatic timer - Hunter
Water safe nozzles - included
Rain Sensor included

Water pressure 60psi, 4.5 G/M

and the price....not going to disclose it.

What bothered me the most was it does not tell me what the specific model of all the parts being used are, so I can't tell if it's just run of the mill stuff, better stuff, or great stuff, no drawing of the layout, or discussion after the tech looked over the property, just kinda asked what I want watered and did his walkabout and left, emailed the quote an hour later

so I don't know really what I am getting, a breakdown of the cost for parts and what they are, and labour cost would be a good start, a drawing would be great, and what options do I have, not a good feeling on this company, they seem to not want the business, I even have my neighbour wanting to put in a system, even that did not show much more interest in doing the work...

I really hope all are not like this...

.
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Not surprised, that's the crap I expected. Did they measure water pressure and flow rate or just guess? If they measured, I assume they used an existing hosebib plumbed with 1/2"? Do you have 3/4" into your house? If so, are you planning on running 3/4" to the system?

The water flow math seems questionable. PGP ultra are 0.5 to 15 gpm per head. I'm guessing that small pop-up sprinklers are something like the MP's at 0.5 to 1 gpm. With all going you would need 10 to 174 gpm. You have 4.5 gpm available and 5 zones. One or two zones would probably be MP's (unless they mix heads in a zone which would suck). That leaves three or four zones for 11 rotors. I think mine has up to five rotors on a zone and that is too many. Obviously you are supply flow limited well before you reach the capacity of the heads (even with one head per zone you can only use 30% of rotor capacity). I haven't done the research yet to figure out how many gpm/sq ft you want.

I don't know if you left it out or they did but there should be some other pieces in their like a backflow preventer, probably a drain in the basement, ideally an expansion tank (although the valves will likely lift off their seats if pressure rises too high), etc.

Edit:
It would also be nice if they measured pressure while flowing water. I doubt your faucet maintains 60 psi while flowing 4.5 gpm (but maybe it does and that's why the flow rate is so low).
 
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GreyGhost..

The water pressure and flow was measured, he hooked up a gizmo that gave him the numbers.

I do have 3/4 but not to the tap he was using, it went form 3/4 to 1/2 inch, however I can tap off the 3/4 line and go to the back or side of the house and have a new hose-bib just for the irrigation system, fortunately the 3/4 pipe is in the furnace room which has the pipe exposed.

nothing left out in my list, and no mention of back flow preventer, I am sure this can be installed, most of the current hose-bibs have these screwed on to them already, but most homeowners remove them anyways.

it did not include in their list the lines themselves (piping) but I am sure it's included

I would imagine uisng the sprinkler system will be early in the morning, when we are asleep, and or the use of other water sources would be minimal or non existent, no one will be washing dishes at 5-7 a.m. for the most part.

I like to know what I am getting for the money I am spending, well as mush as possible, at least in this instance give me the model numbers of the main items you will be installing. if this is not provided it makes me wonder what is it that I am getting....

.
 
GateKeeper said:
GreyGhost..

The water pressure and flow was measured, he hooked up a gizmo that gave him the numbers.

I do have 3/4 but not to the tap he was using, it went form 3/4 to 1/2 inch, however I can tap off the 3/4 line and go to the back or side of the house and have a new hose-bib just for the irrigation system, fortunately the 3/4 pipe is in the furnace room which has the pipe exposed.

nothing left out in my list, and no mention of back flow preventer, I am sure this can be installed, most of the current hose-bibs have these screwed on to them already, but most homeowners remove them anyways.

it did not include in their list the lines themselves (piping) but I am sure it's included

I would imagine uisng the sprinkler system will be early in the morning, when we are asleep, and or the use of other water sources would be minimal or non existent, no one will be washing dishes at 5-7 a.m. for the most part.

I like to know what I am getting for the money I am spending, well as mush as possible, at least in this instance give me the model numbers of the main items you will be installing. if this is not provided it makes me wonder what is it that I am getting....

.
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Most places aren't going to give you much until you commit why spend hours when chances are it was a waste of time. Maybe you can pay them to do a detailed quote.

Sent using a thumb maybe 2
 
GateKeeper said:
GreyGhost..

The water pressure and flow was measured, he hooked up a gizmo that gave him the numbers.

I do have 3/4 but not to the tap he was using, it went form 3/4 to 1/2 inch, however I can tap off the 3/4 line and go to the back or side of the house and have a new hose-bib just for the irrigation system, fortunately the 3/4 pipe is in the furnace room which has the pipe exposed.

nothing left out in my list, and no mention of back flow preventer, I am sure this can be installed, most of the current hose-bibs have these screwed on to them already, but most homeowners remove them anyways.

it did not include in their list the lines themselves (piping) but I am sure it's included

I would imagine uisng the sprinkler system will be early in the morning, when we are asleep, and or the use of other water sources would be minimal or non existent, no one will be washing dishes at 5-7 a.m. for the most part.

I like to know what I am getting for the money I am spending, well as mush as possible, at least in this instance give me the model numbers of the main items you will be installing. if this is not provided it makes me wonder what is it that I am getting....

.
Click to expand...
BPV is probably included but I have an intense distrust of most trades. I wouldn't be surprised if many skipped it and/or put it in as an extra even though it is required (I'm 90% sure it's required but not 100%). Unlike a hose bib, this will constantly have a large volume of water connected to the house that changes temperature and flows back and forth. I have no idea if typical zone valves behave as a BPV.

I wouldn't mind paying $100 for a detailed quote from a few providers that made the short list. Shows you are serious and may show which contractors are willing to do work up to your standard. For a quote, they should all have at least series numbers (eg PGP) and ideally a rough sketch showing heads and zones. Maybe they don't like providing it as people either shop the details around for better price or do it themselves from the design. I am ok if quote doesn't go all the way to nozzle size as that takes some calculations (or it should anyway) but I want that before install. If they can't show the math works before it is installed, the math probably wont work after install.
 
So this is the quote

https://imgur.com/a/ZZdEw85

I just don’t find enough info here to commit to this

I emailed them back with questions and what I needed answered

My questions

Hello,

Thank you for the quote.

I have a few questions…

Is this based on just my property being done, we did speak to the neighbour and they were looking at possibly doing this as well, is there a reduced cost if both are done at once, and if not I will assume it’s then 2 lines in the front yard.

I see most parts are Hunter, why is the control valve Rainbird?

Can you be specific on the items being used specific model or number of items, especially the Timer, is it something that is wifi enabled, or can it be controlled by phone and so on.

Can you breakdown the cost, parts and labour possibly.

Is there a drawing or map of how the system will look or what is where when installed?

And finally is this the best and final price? Is there room for negotiations, or a cash price?

I might have some more questions, if I come up with them, I will send out another email.

Thanks

The reply………………….

Good afternoon Dan!

Here is information from Alex :

1. It is price to do just your house. If we will do both houses, it will be 5% discount for both of you.
2. It because we had some problems with the Hunter valves last year, after which we switched to the Rain Bird valves.
3. The system is Hunter, wi-fi (to operate the system from your phone) is extra $220
4. I can give you cheaper price, but I have to use cheaper materials, please let me know if it’s Ok.
5. You can take a picture during the installation to see where the pipes going. We do not provide line drawings
5. If you pay cash- tax is included and you will get the warranty contract anyway

Please let us know if you have any other questions .

Have a nice evening !
 
Go to Rainbird.com it lets you design your system and lets you print everything out for free, it includes everything…..

so a company wanting my business could easily do it, and if they are doing this as a living it should not take them hours to put something together….

if Rainbird can give me all the parts by model number, length of pipe, where things go and so on, I would more or less expect the same

i don’t have the time for digging, nor do I want to even if I did, so I will pay for the service, but put some effort into your proposal to gain my business.

I had every window replaced in my house, I knew everything I wanted to know, it was detailed and thorough, why cant this be the same.

I was asked what the cost was, I won’t post that, it’s not fair to the company or to keep me competitive, I am not cheap, but I won’t just throw my money around…

.
 
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Damn.
This has been on my mind as well...figured if it was going to be more than 7-8k, next year would be a no-go as well.
 
GateKeeper said:
So this is the quote

https://imgur.com/a/ZZdEw85
Click to expand...
You left your name in the reply in case you care.

Rotors are PGP Ultra as expected.

I have no idea wtf "water safe nozzles (save up to 50% water)" are. That makes no sense. You are intentionally spreading ~1" of water over your lawn. Save half and now you only have 0.5" of water on your lawn. Maybe they have less mist/evaporation? That would be nowhere near 50%. Wank wank wank.
 
Sent a request for quote just few minutes ago, seems this place has an auto reply in place or at least a canned reply,,,,,really……

”Generally speaking, a typical "subdivision" lot with dimensions in the range of 40-60 foot frontages and 100 - 150 foot depths is in the ballpark of $3,900 - $4,900. This price can vary on either side of this ballpark estimate depending on the landscaping, garden detail, water supply and actual layout of your property. For larger sized properties a site visit may be needed in order to determine an accurate estimate. At Pro Green, we’re also proud to offer professional landscape lighting design and installation. If you are interested in a custom landscape lighting system for your property we’ll do a comprehensive walk-through with you to determine your lighting needs.”



Powerman, as you can see they include a guesstimate, maybe this is in your price range, it is in mine, but again, no detail , just a canned reply…..…

.
 
GateKeeper said:
Sent a request for quote just few minutes ago, seems this place has an auto reply in place or at least a canned reply,,,,,really……

”Generally speaking, a typical "subdivision" lot with dimensions in the range of 40-60 foot frontages and 100 - 150 foot depths is in the ballpark of $3,900 - $4,900. This price can vary on either side of this ballpark estimate depending on the landscaping, garden detail, water supply and actual layout of your property. For larger sized properties a site visit may be needed in order to determine an accurate estimate. At Pro Green, we’re also proud to offer professional landscape lighting design and installation. If you are interested in a custom landscape lighting system for your property we’ll do a comprehensive walk-through with you to determine your lighting needs.”



Powerman, as you can see they include a guesstimate, maybe this is in your price range, it is in mine, but again, no detail , just a canned reply…..…

.
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I like it as a first cut. If someone is hoping for $1000 that avoids wasting time. Hopefully they follow up and give you a detailed quote if you ask for one. I would not be signing up a company based on "typical" prices. I would be worried they would tailor the system to hit the price instead of the performance.
 
$5k? How long do they spend on a job for that? I’d like my front and back yard done at some point. Wasn’t sure of the cost and was wondering if I could just rent a trenching tool and do it all myself.
 
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