IRRIGATION Spring Start-Ups

"Irrigation systems are lifetime investments if they’re installed and maintained properly,” says Lynn Francis, sprinkler service manager, for Olympic Landscape & Irrigation Co., Fife, Wash. “Just like cars – you have to maintain them.”
 
It’s with that mind-set that the crews at Olympic start up irrigation systems in March. Five to six fully stocked sprinkler vans with two-men per truck perform 600-plus irrigation start-ups over the course of eight to 10 weeks.
 
To ensure accuracy and customer satisfaction, the crews use a 10-point process and also look at the big picture, making recommendations for system upgrades. 
 
“First of all, our purpose is to have each client’s system operating at its best potential,” Francis explains. “So we begin by employing our standards of observation – we always use a scanning eye.”

A surface-level screening may seem like an obvious part of the process, but it’s one thing a lot of contractors neglect to do when visiting their clients in the spring, says Kim Growcock, an irrigation foreman for Erickson Landscaping, Salt Lake City. “We start out trying to see if anything obvious happened in the area,” he explains, noting his firm primarily conducts irrigation start-ups for commercial clients. If there’s been any new construction on the property, that’s one clue that the system may have experienced some damage, like head wear and/or fence posts pounded through the pipe, he says.
 
After technicians scan the area for any potential problems, they begin the start-up process. Francis’s crews follow a strict 10-point checklist, which is printed onto the backside of each irrigation start-up work order. “When the form prints, it prints all of the residence’s information on the front and the checklist on the back,” Francis says. “They have it with them on every single job – even the veterans.” (For a sample of the checklist, see “Sample Start-up Checklist” on page 112.)
 
Although Olympic’s irrigation start-up customers are 90 percent residential, this checklist works for commercial, too, Francis says. “Commercial isn’t a whole lot different,” he says. “Just more zones, bigger pipes and maybe a little more time.”
 
The first of the 10 steps is to close any drains, hose bibs, bleeder valves and tighten solenoids on valves. “It’s almost a reversal of what we’ve done in the fall,” Francis says.
 
Next, they prepare the backflow device, closing test ports and opening ball valves. Step No. 3 is to charge the mainline – introducing water to the system slowly.
 
Steps four through six involve accessing the controller, testing the 9-volt battery (replacing if necessary) and checking fuses and programming the controller.
 
For checklist item No. 7, the technicians turn on zone one. If nothing happens, they check the rain switch or bypass switch on the controller to see if that’s the problem.
 
Step eight: Go through each zone and flag problem areas. “We flag the breaks, crooked heads, heads that need to be raised or lowered and any bad nozzles,” Francis says. Also, crews use utility knives to cut grass from around the heads and check for appropriate coverage.
 
The ninth item on the checklist is to make any necessary repairs or adjustments and recheck coverage. Finally, step 10 is to place the controller in the proper on/off position, which is dictated by the homeowner’s wants and what time of the season the process is being conducted.
 
The key to irrigation service is an attention to detail, Francis says, explaining that accuracy is the checklist’s main purpose. “I’ve told my guys that if you do something, I don’t want to get a call from a customer saying ‘This head isn’t popping up,’” he says. “The biggest thing is having attention to detail.” Assuming that all a customer wants is for the system to be turned on with “no breaks” is inadequate service, Francis says. “‘No breaks’ can be a real easy mind-set to fall into when you have a lot of customers screaming to get their systems done. Our attitude is to be very thorough. If there are problems, you bring them up to the customer.” 
 
Olympic has the opportunity to improve systems this way because it services a lot of “as built” systems, which were not necessarily installed to Olympic’s standards. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. “We make suggestions to save water and make the system more effective,” Francis says. “But I don’t like to do a whole lot without talking to the customer and making sure they approve.”
 
One helpful tip he offers is to allow customers to set “not to exceed” limits on routine irrigation services like start-ups and winterization. “A lot of our customers will say, ‘If it’s going to be more than $150, let us know,’” Francis says.
 
Between $100 and $150 is the price range for a typical residential start-up, contractors say. Kevin Ash, president of Blue Sky Landscaping, Puyallup, Wash., says a six- to eight-zone job in this price range would take one to one and a half hours to start up.
 
To maintain profitability, Blue Sky prices by groups of zones, for which the company has predetermined production rates. Accurate estimating and pricing are two of the biggest challenges when contractors begin spring start-ups, Ash says. “It can be difficult to determine production rates when it’s new,” he says.
 
Charging by the hour is one thing that can help contractors ensure profitability. Olympic, for example, charges $74 for the first hour and $66 per hour after that for a start-up. Generally, the company charges two times its cost for materials. Shutdowns, which take 15 to 20 minutes, cost $62. These rates are for customers who have a sprinkler service maintenance agreement with Olympic. This “contract” does not hold customers to any term, but ensures priority scheduling, slightly discounted pricing and no need to call in for an appointment. “They don’t have to call us in the fall or the spring,” Francis says. “We go ahead and take care of it for them because they’re on our contract list.”
 
With its 10-point program and contract format, Olympic is doing something right. It added 100 new irrigation maintenance customers in the last year and hopes to add an additional service van this spring.
 
“Servicing is important for the main purpose of keeping the system operating at its best potential,” Francis says. “It’s very important to the customers’ interest and it’s also just as important for our business. We’re out there charging for it and at the same time we’ve got sprinkler vans driving around. Customers say, ‘Oh, Olympic, I see them a lot.’”