lawn sprinkler system

I’ve had two estimates in the last week or so. I have a property that’s 0.36 acres in a west suburb. Both estimates were about $5 grand for a Hunter system. Does this sound reasonable?

That doesn’t seem out of line to me. How many zones are they designing for?

I would also love to have this done but can’t justify the cost.

We have a nice system in our new house, but the damn north branch water is so high I can’t justify running it.

Bearcat89 wrote:

We have a nice system in our new house, but the damn north branch water is so high I can’t justify running it.

Does your community offer a 2nd meter for sprinkling purposes, since there’s no sewage treatment necessary?

HRG

We have 8 zones with 40 heads total and it run me 4k. It also included a wireless rain sensor. Just remember- cash is king when your working the #’s.

I would say yes. My late husband installed our Hunter system himself back in 2018 and I want to say it was about $3000. That’s for .24 acre lot but I do have 11 zones running.
I use the Rachio App on my phone to control the zones and it works pretty slick! 😁👍🏻

Hot Runr Guy wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
We have a nice system in our new house, but the damn north branch water is so high I can’t justify running it.

Does your community offer a 2nd meter for sprinkling purposes, since there’s no sewage treatment necessary?

HRG

No they do not. There is some law suit happening against the nb water company now. On a regular month our bill is 230ish and when I ran our sprinklers it was over 400

Wow, for that kind of money it wouldn’t take long for a dedicated new well for irrigation to pay for itself!

I can’t speak to cost of install as our house we bought already had them, but the cost to run is so high I don’t run them if I don’t need to. We have a separate meter even and our bill will go up $80-100 a month running it only 2 or 3 days a week on less then .25 acre with 6 zones….

Jason wrote:

It also included a wireless rain sensor.

IMO the new wifi timers are better then the rain sensor. No need to run any extra wires, the timer just looks at the forecast and creates a rain delay according to the amount of rain coming.

I have an older system that was already installed when we purchased the house. Also located in the west metro (Plymouth) and run ours 3 times a week. Very pleased with the results. Watering alone makes the lawn look nice imo!

Bearcat89 wrote:

No they do not. There is some law suit happening against the nb water company now. On a regular month our bill is 230ish and when I ran our sprinklers it was over 400

OUCH! OK, I won’t mention that I pay $33/month for water & sewer,,,,,

HRG

Did my own, 7 zones, Sprinkler Warehouse.com for all my heads and back flow, Menards for all my 1″ and 1/2″ tubing. cost me $900. That in todays cost guessing would cost you $1200. Rented the trencher for the day, took me about 3 days to do it myself. I did the 1″ water line from my main.

On a side note.
I have 5 zones, about 30 heads, 1/2 acre
Its only run 5 or 6 times all year and my lawn is beautiful. NEVER use the rain sensor.
I watch the weather and set the sprinklers “on” time accordingly. Takes me 30 seconds to go to the garage, set the system for “on”
for a specific day and I’m done. Mother nature can be helpful if you know she is going to rain. I water my different zones differently but I water them long so the roots go deep and mow long to help keep weed growth down and provide shade for the bottom part of the grass.
Almost all of my neighbors water every day, some only every other but their zones run literally 5 minutes and then shut off. That’s a waste of effort in my mind. I run my boulevard zones 45 mins as these dry out the fastest and my main yard zones 40 minutes. They get a good soaking and, combine that with what mother nature provides, they are healthy, have deep roots, are able to fight off weeds better and withstand high temps/drought conditions much better.
If it loads, this is just a part of my yard but you can see how it looks.

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Forgot to say, Mine come on at 2:30 am and are off before 6:30 am
Typically less wind then to blow the water around and not evaporating in the heat of the day. I never water in the evening .

I paid $4000 last summer. I water slightly more than an acre. 8 zones were put in with a pump and a clock. I water from the lake.

Glad I live in the country where nobody gives a crap about their lawn.

In years past (last year being the exception) we would get enough rain every 10 days or so that that was enough to keep mine green, not green like a suburban lawn, but green enough. Last year was the first since we’ve been here (7 years) that I’ve actually had to pull the sprinklers out just to keep it from dying. But even the spots I didn’t water all last summer that I thought fully died off came back in the fall when we got a bunch of rain.

All good responses here. Thanks for the replies and information. It is a wi-fi Hunter system with a 5 year warranty. We have watering restrictions in place and are only able to do it on odd/even days based on the address. Additionally, there is no watering between noon-5pm on any day (which I would never do anyways).

I’m just sick of manually watering when it gets to be hot and dry out. Last summer really burned me out on manually watering and I’m going to be in this house until I retire so I feel like its a good long term investment.

After reading those water numbers…I am not sure any sum of money could ever get me to move to suburbia. The thought of throwing in $5k+ for a system, then getting billed for the water used, and possibly even being told when I can and cannot use it is absurd.

We leave our lawn longer and it handles dry stretches much better. If it gets real dry, I run 4 hoses to 2 sprinklers each (8 sprinklers) and run them for 25-30 minutes in the morning before work and at night while having a beer on the porch. This covers the 1/3 acre closest to the house fairly well. The stuff further away can shrivel a bit and not hurt my feelings.

I have the same thoughts Gimruis, last year I was over burned out on manually moving sprinklers every 40 minutes. I’ve got a guy coming Monday to give me a quote, I’ll let you know what mine comes out to when I get it. Installer told me on the phone his parts/pieces have gone up in price like 60% since beginning of the year.
I’ve been told it will be roughly $2,500-$3,000 for a 5 zone system on my lot, .33 of an acre but waiting for that to be on paper.

buckybadger wrote:

After reading those water numbers…I am not sure any sum of money could ever get me to move to suburbia. The thought of throwing in $5k+ for a system, then getting billed for the water used, and possibly even being told when I can and cannot use it is absurd.

Throw in the $$ to have someone blow out the lines in the fall and having to fix a broken sprinkler head or two every other spring.