De-Winterizing a Hunter Sprinkler System - LawnSite.com™

boxoffire · #1 04-03-2005, 12:37 PM

Folks, I must be a scrub according to Bobby, LOL... I have a new customer with a very nice landscaped property that he's gonna let a "scrub" take care of on a regular basis. Well at least he's hired me on. Anywho, he has a Hunter irrigation system and needs to have it "dewinterized" and activated for use now that spring is here. He fired his regular landscape company because he was tired of their lack of communication with him amongst other things. He called me today and asked if I could spray his mulched pine straw areas with chemicals for weeds before they come up but I'm not licensed and told him so. I'm sure he was kinda bummed about it but said he would see if somebody else could do that for him. Maybe I'll get licensed down the road. I also know nothing about a sprinkler system and he may look into this as well if I can't help him out. Just thought I'd see if anyone out here could give me any advice or instructions on how to do this or where I could find out. Maybe I'm in over my head??? Just trying to help him out in any way I can if he keeps me on.

Thank much.

Adam

Fishin LCO · #2 04-03-2005, 02:03 PM

There are alot of variables here. What is his water supply(city, well, etc)? If it is a well is it a submersible or above ground pump? It could be as simple as turning it on by the control box and then checking each zone. Or you could have to prime the pump. I like to call irrigation "Irritation" there is always something that can go wrong and lot of times you will not know it untill you dig a little deeper into the problem. You could be in over your head or it could be fairly easy thing to do. Sorry I could not be more helpfull. CC

sailinstud420 · #3 04-03-2005, 02:18 PM

I was thinking this the other day too. I am very familar with all the brands of heads, and the outside work is not that hard to do. My problem is you get these houses that have multiple shut off valves and stuff inside and out that you cannot figure out how to get the water flowing again. What do you do to figure all this out?

Mdirrigation · #4 04-03-2005, 02:29 PM

Call an irrigation contractor , pay the fee , and add 20 % to your customer. Every season I have to do repairs due to the customer or a unqualified LCO who blows a valve , burns out a pump just to name a few. It can be costly to you if you do something wrong. The learning curve can be costly .

Mark McC · #5 04-03-2005, 02:51 PM

I wouldn't mess with it either. Any service I don't plan to go into full-scale is liable to be contracted out.

Runner · #6 04-03-2005, 02:58 PM

I agree...if you know nothing about these systems, get someone that does...it just makes more sense. Not only that, but they can come out and have it all up and running properly in a short time. For someone that is inexperienced, it can take you a few hours to go through all the heads and make sure their aim and spray is right on. It is would be well worth the time just to have it done. As far as the sprying under the trees, don't even tough it. Have someone come out and put a pre-emergent for beds down. Do NOT spray anything under there that is going to keep weeds down for a period of time.

precisioncut · #7 04-03-2005, 03:45 PM

I'm glad we don't even have to winterize our systems around here, just another hassel.

boxoffire · #8 04-03-2005, 04:21 PM

Thanks much people. I feel it's too much for me to learn that kind of stuff overnite and spend mucho time trying to "wing it". I could mess something up. Same goes for the chemicals. He can hire somebody else to do that. If he doesn't want me because of that, I'll understand and move on. But he seems to like me otherwise so we'll see.

ECS · #9 04-03-2005, 04:28 PM

boxoffire, offer to make the calls for him. That way he knows that all he has to do is ask you and it will be taken care of. You either do it or have it done for him. When the person comes to turn the sytem on, be there to see how it is done and learn from it.

Itsgottobegreen · #10 04-03-2005, 09:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mdirrigation

Call an irrigation contractor , pay the fee , and add 20 % to your customer. Every season I have to do repairs due to the customer or a unqualified LCO who blows a valve , burns out a pump just to name a few. It can be costly to you if you do something wrong. The learning curve can be costly .

I was just going to say that you need to talk to Mdirrigation. But it looks like he already got here. He knows what he is doing.