The front door
Buy the answer
before the repair.
A System Check is one visit that ends with you knowing what your irrigation system is doing, what is wrong with it, and what each fix costs. The first small fix is done while we are there — and if a larger repair is agreed on the visit, the check is credited against it.
15% off through December 31: Zone A $185 $155 · Zone B $235 $200 · Zone C $285 $240. Booked by the date, done any time after.
What happens
Every zone runs while somebody watches it.
That sentence sounds obvious. It is also the step that gets skipped on nearly every irrigation call, because running a twelve-zone system properly takes longer than swapping the head somebody pointed at.
Coverage
Where water lands and where it does not. Heads watering fences, driveways and each other.
Pressure
Misting at the nozzle and starving at the end of the run are the same problem with two symptoms.
Valves
Whether each one opens on command and — the one people miss — whether it fully closes afterward.
Controller
What it is actually programmed to do, versus what you believe it does, versus what your city permits.
Ground evidence
Soft spots, algae, sunken turf and stressed plants tell us where the system has been failing longest.
What you leave with
A written account of the condition of your system.
What is broken, what is working badly, what is fine, and what each item costs to address.
The document is yours regardless of what you decide. If you want to take it to somebody else, take it.
It is not a free estimate dressed up with a price tag. A free estimate tells you what somebody wants to sell you. This tells you what your system is doing.
It is not a leak search. Locating a buried leak or tracing a broken valve wire is separate skilled work, quoted on its own and not discounted — see diagnostics.
Price by zone
Three prices, and the difference is the drive.
- Zone A · within about ten miles of baseSacramento, West Sacramento, Rancho Cordova$185
- Zone B · ten to twenty miles outRoseville, Folsom, Elk Grove, Davis, Rocklin$235
- Zone C · twenty miles and moreGranite Bay, Woodland, Rancho Murieta, El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park, Shingle Springs, Lincoln, Loomis$285
The zone changes the drive charge and nothing else; the work is the same in all three. Your ZIP decides your zone — the tile on the service areas page will tell you. Neighbours who book the same day share one trip.
Fixed by zone and it does not change on arrival. The first small fix — a stuck head, a nozzle, a solenoid — is done on the visit if the part is on the truck. If a larger repair is agreed the same day, the check is credited against it in full.
Straight answer
This is priced at what it costs to do properly. Not less.
A free estimate is free because somebody intends to make it back on the repair. This is not that. The check is a piece of work with a price, and the price covers the drive, the setup, and the time it takes to run every zone and write it down — which is why it can be honest about what it finds.
If you take the report and fix things yourself, that is a fair outcome and we are not going to be strange about it. The document is yours.
Old valves and wiring inside a box that had not been lifted in years. Almost everything that decides an irrigation bill lives somewhere like this.
Plain words
What the terms on this page mean.
- System Check
- One visit. Every zone runs while we watch it, you get the written report, and the first small fix is done on the spot. Fixed price by zone. Credited in full against a larger repair agreed on the visit.
- The first small fix
- A stuck head, a nozzle, a solenoid — done on the check visit if the part is on the truck. Anything larger is priced in writing and is your call.
- Credited
- If a larger repair is agreed on the same visit, the price of the check comes off it in full. You do not pay for the check and then pay for the repair on top.
- Zone A, B, C
- The three price bands, by drive from base. A is close, B is a route day, C is the far ring. The zone changes the trip and nothing else; the work is the same in all three.
- Diagnostic
- Work whose product is an answer rather than a repair: finding a buried leak, tracing a broken valve wire. Priced on its own and not credited, because the answer is the thing you bought. The repair, once the answer is known, is a separate decision in writing.
- Deferred
- Found, written down and priced, but not done today. It is on the report so you can decide later with the facts in hand.
- In writing
- The price is on paper before work starts, and it does not change on arrival other than the site conditions named on that paper.
Every term we use, in one place: the glossary.