Florida Irrigation Contractor Featured On ‘This Old House’

Through a close relationship with his local irrigation supplies distributor, Century Rain Aid, Fay’s company was chosen for installing a drip irrigation system at the show’s current project house, a West Palm Beach, Fla., bungalow constructed in 1925 (pictured at left and below right). Homeowner Rob Thompson, an interior designer, recently purchased the subject house for a little more than $200,000 and worked with "This Old House" producers to schedule major renovations, including creating a new landscape, installing a lap pool and converting the garage into a workshop.

RELATIONSHIPS LEAD THE WAY TO THE JOB. A variety of networking relationships fell into place resulting in Treasure Coast performing the irrigation installation, Fay explained. First, drip irrigation system manufacturer Netafim USA Precision Irrigation Inc., Fresno, Calif., contacted the producers of "This Old House," pitching the use of its product in a future project house. When producers decided on the West Palm Beach location, the opportunity for drip irrigation was immediately evident as southern Florida is currently experiencing an extreme water shortage with widespread watering restrictions in place.

Netafim then contacted its local distributor, which is Century Rain Aid, for contractor possibilities and Bill Morin, regional manager for south Florida, recommended Treasure Coast to the show producers. Following a background check by producer Bruce Irving and an agreement to donate labor for the project, Irving chose Treasure Coast for the job.

The background check was conducted to make sure Fay’s company was credible. "If they’re going to put you on the air in front of 11 million viewers and they’re going to ask you a question about this product or about irrigation in general, they want to be sure they’re getting a straight answer," Fay said.

Because Treasure Coast uses Century Rain Aid as its supplier, the distributor is familiar with the quality and volume of the company’s work. In this case that familiarity and trust led directly to national exposure, and Fay has experienced similar benefits from those types of relationships throughout Treasure Coast’s 19 years in business. "This is an example of distribution and manufacturing helping a local contractor do well," Fay said. "We’ve grown by 30 to 40 percent every single year, and it has a lot to do with relationships."

USE OF DRIP IRRIGATION. As public relations tradeoffs, Netafim and Century Rain Aid supplied the material and Treasure Coast supplied the labor for the drip irrigation installation at no cost to the homeowner or "This Old House."

The Netafim product was chosen for its water conservation capabilities as Fay said the system saves about 40 percent of water as opposed to using a typical sprayhead installation. He said Netafim’s product was developed 20 years ago in Israel under very arid conditions with the intention of reducing water usage.

"This product has been used in ornamentals for years, but in south Florida people have been leery to use it in turf," said Fay. "But if you do it right and carefully, it’s a viable way to irrigate turf areas as well."

Therefore, Treasure Coast used the Netafim system to irrigate 14 zones of turf and ornamentals on the West Palm Beach property. A three-man crew with supervision from Fay installed the drip pipe 12 inches on center and 4 inches below grade, which is slightly different than installation measures for other irrigation systems. Additionally, root growth and dirt contamination are more serious concerns with a drip irrigation system compared to regular installations.

"One of the things you have to be really careful with drip irrigation is that you don’t contaminate the system with dirt," said Fay, "so there’s a filter on every zone." Fay explained that the Netafim system uses a disc filter that keeps dirt out of the system and also puts out a small amount of root inhibitor in the water flow. Inhibiting root growth around the emitters is extremely important, as roots would otherwise have a tendency to go towards those water outlets and plug them.

Other contamination preventions with the Netafim system include a self-flushing mechanism and flush points on every zone. Fay also said the system’s controller is battery operated, so it can be installed anywhere instead of near a power source.

WORKING WITH FILM CREWS. Although being filmed for a national show was a terrific opportunity, it wasn’t necessarily the ideal work setting. "It’s been painfully slow," Fay said, "because not only were the TV crews around, but the site is extremely small, everybody is under a deadline and the crew would come in every two weeks to film. So when they come in, they’re not just filming us. They’re just lining stuff up. Everybody’s tripping over each other."

What’s most interesting about Treasure Coast’s installation is that the segment filmed for the show is not the actual installation. Because of the filming schedule, Fay’s crew staged the installation about three weeks before they did the actual installation, which started last Tuesday, March 13, and was completed on Thursday. In fact, the episode featuring the staged installation aired in some markets before the actual installation was even started.

New episodes of "This Old House," which include the current West Palm Beach project, are broadcast exclusively on PBS, while vintage, off-network episodes of the series air on Home & Garden Television Network (HGTV).

The West Palm Beach project premiered on PBS Jan. 27, 2001, and includes eight half-hour episodes (programs 2019-2026). According to a programming schedule online, the episode featuring Treasure Coast is program 2025. Fay said the segment filmed with Treasure Coast features his three-man crew doing the installation and a brief interview between himself and Richard Trethewey, the show’s plumbing and heating expert.

Fay said he would do another project like this in a heartbeat. It has generated press coverage in the Hobe Sound area and is already leading to new customers. Fay said, "I had a brand-new customer call and say, ‘If the guys at ‘This Old House’ have enough confidence in your company, I don’t have to call anybody else.’"