On May 13, 5:41*pm, SMS wrote:
"trailer" wrote in message
Would a sprinkler system save me money and use less water? *The quoted
cost for installed system is well above $2K from a respected company.

$2000?!

Some PVC pipe, tees, and sprinkler heads and valves wouldn't cost more
than a couple of hundred dollars.

You left out the backflow preventer, electro valve distribution
manifolds, underground boxes to put the valves in, electronic
controller, rain sensor, wiring, copper plumbing as required to
connect to the home water supply, possible permit fees....

Plus we don't have any idea of how large an area he's doing, how
accessible it is to get to the water supply in the house, etc. so
there isn't much basis to say that $2000 is too high a price. He
should definitely get more quotes though.



Rent a trencher to dig the trenches.

How much is that going to cost, delivered to the site? Plus, the
pros around here don't trench, they have eqpt that pulls it, without
ripping up the existing turf nearly as much. And it assumes the OP
has the necessary skills to run the thing. How about if he has a
paved driveway that has to be crossed a couple times? The pros have
the gear to do that in 10 mins.



Don't skimp on the number of sprinklers. You'll get better coverage with
a lot of sprinklers at lower volume than a lot of sprinklers at higher
volume.

Which assumes the guy has the skills to figure all this out
successfully. Don;t get me wrong. Some people could do this and
save money. But I do a lot of my own work and 15 years ago, when I
put in one, I contracted it out. The going rate back then in NJ I
think was around $1600 for a 7 zone system and I think it was money
well spent to avoid a lot of work.




Dig deep enough that you can have longer pop-ups.