Bid irrigation jobs by the zone. Work out how many zones the property needs from its square footage and water pressure, price each zone's heads, valve, pipe, wire, and trenching, add the controller and backflow, then layer labor and profit on top. A typical six-to-eight-zone residential system lands around $3,000–$6,000 for the homeowner — but that number only holds if you built it zone by zone, not from a per-square-foot guess.
Below is the per-zone method, what drives a bid up, and where bidding stops being the thing limiting the business.
Water pressure and flow set how many heads run per zone, which sets the number of zones. Low pressure means more zones — a cost driver you find before quoting.
Per zone: spray or rotor heads, a valve, lateral pipe, and wire. Price these with markup, then multiply by the zone count.
The biggest labor line. Linear feet of trench, soil difficulty, and any boring under hardscape all move the hours.
Their own lines. Smart-controller tiers and a code-required backflow preventer and test vary the price and are upsell points.
If your per-zone numbers are solid but the season's quiet, the estimate isn't the issue. You're set as-is when:
Irrigation is seasonal and repair calls are urgent — a broken head floods a lawn fast. If those calls aren't reaching you, the fix is being found and answering quickly, not re-pricing a zone.
A tight per-zone bid only pays off if you're asked to bid. We build irrigation sites that bring install and repair requests and capture the urgent broken-head calls.
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By the zone — count zones from square footage and pressure, price each zone's materials and trenching, add controller, backflow, labor, and profit.
For the homeowner, a few hundred dollars per installed zone, so a six-to-eight-zone system commonly lands $3,000–$6,000.
Rocky soil, low pressure forcing more zones, boring under hardscape, and a permitted backflow preventer. Note them as assumptions or change orders.
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