contract verbage

What amount of iron content? Well water?

Is this drinkable water you are talking about?

I have one client with well water having enough iron content to make it undrinkable without treatment. The sprinklers run on the untreated water, and the install had to turn handsprings to keep water away from paved areas and the house itself. The homeowner was wise enough to specify drought-tolerant plantings around the pool (no grass, just flowerbeds) so overspray was never an issue there.

Outside of the landscaping, the general idea was to minimize the staining, but to accept it where the alternative wasn't practical. Trees in the lawn have stained bark, wooden fences are stained, and heads near pavement were set back, and had minimal pressure to cut down on misting.

Thing is, I wouldn't want to place all the emphasis on contract wordage. You know there are possible issues with the water's mineral content, so you should discuss that with the homeowner ahead of time. Work as if there will be nothing in writing to cover you in the event of customer unhappiness. If you are doing the landscaping, then you can take a hand in the design, and keep sprinkler spray away from concrete. Look at using slate or flagstone for pathways and patios.

One could also design with the idea of adding an injector pump to add a rust preventative. That would mean using RPZ backflow prevention, as nothing lesser would do. If grass is growing right up to the house foundation, then you have to locate the heads far enough away to avoid drifting spray, but close enough for the soil's capillary action to spread enough water to keep all the grass alive. Low-angle heads, and adjustable-arc sprays would be used.

I have to wonder just how long an emitter will endure very-high-iron water, that precipitates rust on most of what it touches. Solutions will be site-specific. On my example, one winding pathway of slates cutting through a large lawn was given up as not being worth the expense to keep iron-free.

I got pretty fair results with low-angle rotors and judicious spacing, allowing the water to spread itself closer to the house. The one real out-of-the-box wrinkle was to plug one side port of a PGP nozzle (this was before the current rectangular-hole nozzles) that was next to a patio, to eliminate drifting mist.

What do you charge to winterize the dual-water-source system?