Leave the hose at the side of the house permanently. Photo Credit: freddiefreud

If you’re reading this article, chances are you’re tired of moving a garden hose all over your yard every other day. Not only is it a big time waster, you also have to remember to move the sprinkler or turn it off.

It’s time to add a home irrigation system with underground sprinklers and say goodbye to your manual sprinkler and hose dragging rituals.

Whether you have all lawn or mixed lawn with flowers, shrubs, and trees your landscape investment will be enhanced greatly by adding an automatic underground sprinkler system. And, it will add significant value to your home’s worth.

Cost

If you’re the handy type and you have time on your hands, you could do the job yourself and save 30 to 40 percent of the cost of a professional installation.

Professionally installed systems can run anywhere from $1,500 to thousands depending on how big your lot is. If you have 2,500 square feet of lawn it will probably cost somewhere between $1,500 to $2,500, with labor eating up around 35%, plumbing connection, piping, and heads another 50%, and an electronic controller 15%.

To determine how large your lot is, dig up your old appraisal papers and look for the lot survey. This survey has all the dimensions you need. If you can’t locate the survey you can measure its dimensions manually. Use the numbers above to help calculate a rough estimate for cost.

Most common sprinkler heads

Spray he...

Read the full article in the CalFinder Remodeling and Home Solar Power Magazine