Cost of do-it-yourself irrigation ?
 

I'm reading the Ortho book about irrigation.
In terms of skill, looks like no real problem...just some hard work.

I'm wondering how much I should expect to spend for all the materials?
I have 1.75 acres.

A guy from my church owns a landscape company, and he gives me
"friend" prices on stuff. For example, I used to fertilize my lawn
throughout the season. He offered to do it for $85 per application.
That's less than what I paid for Scotts and did it myself!

The nextdoor neighbor with the same size lot gets charged $200 per
application.

Anyway, this landscape guy said he could install irrigation on my
property for "about $6000." I'm going to get a firm quote from him.

The quote I got from a different company last year was $10,000, over
$3000 of that was for labor. So I'm wondering if the "friend price"
of $6000 is what I would pay for materials, and then still worry about
screwing something up.

For a DIY job, the $6K sounds high. If it is the friend price for the total
install, it is probably a little more in-line, but a lot more than I would
pay (I am admittedly cheap:-).

Just as a reference, at our previous home I installed my 3rd overall system
(Parents and Parent-in-laws were the first guinea pigs) covering about 7/8
of an acre. I put in 8 zones, with 2 controllers, a backflow valve and a
total of 37 heads at a total cost of just slightly less than $850 which
included the $175 per day cost of a rider-type Ditch-Witch Trencher. (I
don't remember the total amount of pipe used, but it was substantial because
4 of the zones ran all the way from the front of the house and around the
pool in the backyard.) I used the Rainbird products sold at Home Depot at
the time and while, yes, I agree that the ones sold at a landscaping supply
house are probably of better quality, this system is currently 7 years old
and has not had a single head, valve or controller failure yet.

Keith





wrote in message
...
I'm reading the Ortho book about irrigation.
In terms of skill, looks like no real problem...just some hard work.

I'm wondering how much I should expect to spend for all the materials?
I have 1.75 acres.

A guy from my church owns a landscape company, and he gives me
"friend" prices on stuff. For example, I used to fertilize my lawn
throughout the season. He offered to do it for $85 per application.
That's less than what I paid for Scotts and did it myself!

The nextdoor neighbor with the same size lot gets charged $200 per
application.

Anyway, this landscape guy said he could install irrigation on my
property for "about $6000." I'm going to get a firm quote from him.

The quote I got from a different company last year was $10,000, over
$3000 of that was for labor. So I'm wondering if the "friend price"
of $6000 is what I would pay for materials, and then still worry about
screwing something up.

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 10:57:07 -0400, "Keith Warren"

I put in 8 zones, with 2 controllers, a backflow valve and a
total of 37 heads at a total cost of just slightly less than $850

Holy cow!!!

Well, the quote I got last year says 90 heads. So even double that
cost is great!

I will have to pay $1600 to upgrade my well pump and tank as well.

So was it pretty easy to do?

I think getting an acurate drawing of my property will be one of the
hardest things. I have a pentagonal lot.

Also, I have a semicircular driveway out front. What will I have to
do to get the piping into that area?