Sprinkler System Winterization & Spring Activation

We schedule our services by neighborhood and also by date payment was received. So the sooner you call to schedule this service, the we will be able to get your service done. We try to get all of our winterizations done by Dec. 1st. But if you wait until November 25th to call us for this service, you’re sort of pressing your luck to get it done by that time. Still, we make every effort to get all of our winterizations done within a few weeks of your call and usually not later than Dec. 1st.

Similarly with Spring Activation – the sooner you get on our schedule, the sooner we’ll be able to get you in. But we also schedule these by neighborhood. So don’t expect us to come out in the first day or two. It may be a week or two before we get enough in your area to create a route for that area of town. Regardless, we do try to get all of our spring activations done by May 1st.

We will note that on your check-list if your system is in need of service, along with an accurate price quote to fix the issue. Then you can call and have us return to fix the issue, if that is your desire.

If you’re system was installed by our company in the last 5 years, yes. This protection is part of the warranty you received when you purchased your system from us. For everyone else however, unfortunately there is no way for us to extend the same guarantee. First, we don’t do a zone-by-zone inspection prior to winterization. So we don’t always know what condition the system is in when we arrive to winterize it. There may be issues at that time, but we won’t know until the spring activation. Second, many issues that arise with sprinkler systems can be just due to poor installation or normal wear and tear. Third, despite our best efforts to drain your system in the winter, there could be a head that isn’t draining properly, a pipe that is being squeezed by a tree root, or any number of other issues inside the system that lead to a break during the winter. We can’t be held responsible for every possibility. We do guarantee you that we will do the best possible job to drain out as much water as we can from every part of your irrigation system. We do this with trained technicians and every year we do this for over 650 customers with a very high success rate.

Both the drain-out and the blow-out option are great for protecting your irrigation system for the winter. It really just depends on your budget, level of risk you’re willing to accept, and preference. The drain-out option only requires one technician, so there is a good cost savings with that option. We’ve been doing winterizations that way for over 20 years and it seems to work very well in terms of protection the vast majority of the time. If you’re willing to accept a minor amount of risk and budget is a concern, we recommend this method. If you want to mitigate all risk and be 100% sure no water is left in the system and are willing to spend a little more, the blow-out option is definitely the best option to avoid all risk.

If you choose the drain-out option, we will not need access to the controller during winterization nor spring activation. We can access all of the valves from outside the house. If you choose the blow-out option we will need access to the controller for the winterization phase only. Our office will contact you to make arrangements for our technicians to get access to your controller on the set day.

If you happen to be home at the time of service, we will ask you if the repair is something you want us to do at that time. This way, you can save the cost of a separate service call. But if you are not home during the time of service (which is most often the case), we will leave a note regarding the repair needed and you will have to call us back to schedule a time to make that repair.

This isn’t something we generally offer as part of the start-up procedure. First, because most homeowners are not home when we come by to do the service. Second, because we haven’t allotted enough time for this. And third, because your programming doesn’t generally need to be changed from year to year. But if you happen to be home and it is something that doesn’t take us more than 5 minutes, we’ll typically go ahead and do this.

We do ask that you take a look over your sprinkler system within 30 days of our service. If we have missed something, we would like to know sooner rather than later. Also, keep in mind that if you find a valve or head that isn’t functioning properly in June, that it may have been working just fine when we did your spring activation in April. Irrigation components can break at any time. So again, please check your system after we are done and if you think we’ve missed something, we want to know about it sooner, rather than later. If necessary, we’ll send our technician out to fix whatever we missed.

No. Backflow testing is a totally separate service and needs to be done by a certified backflow tester. See our page about backflow testing for more information on who we recommend. We do work with your backflow device during spring activation. That is, we pressurize it and make sure it’s opening and closing like it’s supposed to so we can use the irrigation system. But that’s different than the pressure testing that is needed to make sure the backflow device is functioning properly. Here’s a good analogy: you take your car to a mechanic to get it serviced or tuned up. But you take it to the DEQ to make sure it’s passing emissions requirements. Consider our irrigation technicians the mechanic and our certified backflow tester is the DEQ. The certified backflow tester is just testing the system to make sure it’s preventing backflow like it’s supposed to. We’re just making sure the device is running.