Affordable Sprinkler system repair and installation in Denver. Green Valley Ranch and Stapleton Sprinkler system start up and winter blowouts.

Home Sprinkler Inspection

Buying a new home?

So you’re buying home…..congratulations! If you are a first time home buyer, fasten your seatbelt for an exciting and scary ride. Perhaps a friend, family member or wise father asks you about the sprinkler system on the potential new house. You try to play it off like you have everything under control and mention that you are paying for a home inspection done prior to purchase and you are sure they will look the sprinkler system andleaky sprinkler head let you know if it’s ok or not. The person then asks are you sure? They tell you; many times this isn’t addressed in the home inspection because the sprinkler system is “outside” of the home. The home inspectors are typically focused on the house itself and what’s inside; the furnace, the electrical system, the plumbing etc. Many home inspectors have only a rudimentary knowledge of the components inside the home and haven’t been trained on how to assess the sprinkler system. Did I mention that to thoroughly go through a home sprinkler system could easily take from one to two hours just for the sprinkler system alone? (That is the time it takes some inspectors to check the entire house!)

You start to get that sinking feeling in your gut and it hits you. I’m planning on spending some major coin ($400 – $500) on a home inspection and I just didn’t know that most of the time this home inspection doesn’t even cover the lawn sprinkler system of my potential purchase. “Big problem” you say to yourself. This one oversight could end up costing you potentially hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars in latent sprinkler repairs.

Colorado Weather

Colorado is well know (to the natives at least) to have crazy and often “Bi-polar” weather changes. Drastic temperature drops happen all the time and these mood swings wreak havoc on a home sprinkler system. If there is pipe fix at irrigation boxwater trapped in any of the components of the sprinkler system and it drops below freezing….snap! Unfortunately, many of the components on a sprinkler system are made of plastic, which we all know breaks very easily when cold and filled with water.  The weather at time of inspection will play a big role in how quickly the system can be inspected.  If freezing temperatures are projected for the evening, the system will need to be winterized again after the inspection is done.  (In rare cases when a large span of time has below freezing temperatures through out the day, compressed air can be used to check the major components of the system)

Component overview

Often times when a repair is needed in one area due to freezing components it’s needed is several other areas as well. An average replacement of a 3/4″ vacuum breaker can easily reach $475 and as much as $525 for a 1″ model. Add in some frozen/ cracked copper pipes for another $200- $300. Oh, did I mention that we haven’t even talked about the manifolds in the underground irrigation box yet. (This is where the costs really start to add up.) If a repair inside the irrigation box is needed almost always the entire box has to be unearthed just to service the broken part. If just one of the electric valves is broken due to freeze damage, costs can DSC02849easily reach $400-$600 for the one valve; if any other valves are broken plan on adding another $250 per valve to the original cost of the first valve. Duplicate this cost for each group of valves inside a new and different irrigation box on the property. Many times residential homes can have several of these irrigation boxes located around the property. The Manifold is the term used for the piping (usually pvc pipe), and sometimes pre-formed manifold tees that allow water to be delivered to the group of electric valves housed inside the irrigation box. A cracked manifold, (depending if good pre-planning was engineered into the manifold) when it was built, may be serviceable without digging up the entire box. Most of the time this is just not the case and due to the manifold being glued together with pvc cement and no room for several inches of pvc pipe in-between the tees for future repairs, the whole thing has to be reconstructed to make the repair. Costs for this kind of repair can range from $300 – $600 depending on the number of electric valves that have to be reconnected after the repair is made.

Sprinkler Lines

Let’s now move into the actual sprinkler lines themselves. If they were buried below the frost line (around 10 – 12″ below ground for Colorado) they might have survived significant damage during the freezing temperatures. But if they were buried shallow just below the surface to about 8″ down the lines could have hemorrhaged and broke during a hard freeze. A simple cross break could be $100 – $400 depending on the difficulty of the repair and if there are tree roots to navigate around, this price could be double, especially for a tree with large mature roots. If the break is a long lateral break that runs the length of the pipe the repair could go to $500 in the drop of a hat.

Sprinkler Heads & Risers

orbitz 12 zone basement timer arvada coloradoLastly, you have the risers and sprinkler heads themselves. The lowest lying heads are usually the ones that suffer the most since gravity forces the water down to the lowest heads when the zone shuts off from the sprinkler timer. The parts are plastic and not built to withstand being frozen and full of water. A simple 4″ pop up head can be $30 – $45 if the riser needs replaced as well. If the Elbow joint needs replaced make it $60. A rotor head (sometimes referred to as a gear driven head) can range from $50 – $75, add the same costs for the pop up risers and elbow joints and it just keeps growing. An Impact sprinkler head can start at $100 for a
replacement because the depth of excavation is very great to reach the bottom of the head and have enough circumferences inside the hole to spin the head off the riser.

Well there you have it. Spend as little as  $100 (for small systems) – $125 to $150 (For average size) $175 to $200(for over-sized lots) and up to $250 (for very large lots/20 plus zones) and have your sprinkler system checked out; you’ll be glad you did. Worst case scenario, the system is trashed and needs to have serious repairs made or be completely redone. Don’tDan in Valve Box you think that might be good information to have as you go through negotiation for the home purchase? You now have a big bargaining chip as you sit down at the table. If the system is fine and only minor repairs are needed you’ll  have peace of mind that your system is o.k. and you won’t be surprised when you get into the house and fire up the system.  Don’t forget to winterize before the first freeze of the season or else you will be right back in the same boat you were trying to avoid in the first place!

Good luck – Dan