What to look for in a reputable irrigation contractor

Winter is finally upon us and it has come with a vengeance!  The hottest driest summer on record has been followed by the wettest December on record.  Hopefully the winter snowpack increases so another hot summer will not bring the same drought conditions back to the mountains.  All of the exceptional heat and lack of water last summer brought a huge demand for the services of irrigation repair and installation technicians.

When looking for the services of a proficient irrigation contractor the first thing that you should check is if they are licensed, insured and carry a current bond.  All of these are required to protect you, the customer.  If an unlicensed, uninsured contractor hurts themselves on your property or installs a faulty system that fails and damages your house it may come down to your own insurance to coverage the liability.  Current licenses, insurance and bonding can be checked with the sate landscape contractors board at:  

http://www.oregonlcb.com/contractorsearch.aspx

When interviewing potential irrigation contractors they should at a minimum, take pressure and flow measurements, take dimensions of the areas to be irrigated and do a preliminary head layout with flags or a layout using on-line map resources.  Any contractor worth their salt will be able to tell you available flow and pressure as this will determine irrigation zone sizing and even which irrigation options may be available.  If a sprinkler zone is oversized it will attempt to draw more water than is available resulting in too-low pressure, poor spray patterns and a lack of head to head coverage.  The end result will be a sprinkler system with burned areas in the lawn and zones that have to be run much longer too cover up in-efficient spray patterns.

A new properly designed system built using quality parts is not inexpensive but hiring a contractor that is not properly trained tends to cost more in the long run due to in-efficient coverage, areas not getting sufficient water, repairs due to poor installation techniques and cheap parts.

Asking your potential irrigation contractor a few questions regarding what they know about your water supply,  how they will lay out & design your system and how they will maintain it will benefit you greatly.  This benefit will extend past your systems completion but will be reflected in how healthy your landscape is in the long run!