Lawn customers ask about their sprinklers constantly. A head is spraying the driveway, a zone will not shut off, the controller lost its program after a power outage. Lawn companies that say "we don't do irrigation" send that customer to someone else, and sometimes the someone else also mows. Adding sprinkler service is a natural fit, but it runs on a different calendar from mowing and fertilizer. It has two short, intense rushes (spring startups and fall winterizations) with repair work in between, and every system is a little different. Here is how the year actually runs, and what you need in place before you take it on.
Why lawn companies add irrigation
The overlap is obvious once you look at it. Your crews already see every system you mow around. They notice the broken head, the soggy spot that never dries, the brown strip where a zone is not reaching. A tech who can fix those on the spot, or write a repair estimate before leaving, turns a complaint into a paid job and protects the lawn you are being paid to keep green.
It also smooths your calendar. Startups land in early spring before mowing ramps up fully, and winterizations land in fall as mowing slows down. Repairs fill gaps through the summer. For a lawn company, irrigation work tends to fill the shoulders of the season rather than compete with peak mowing weeks. The catch is that it needs its own setup: its own services, its own notes on every system, and techs who know what they are doing.
Spring startups
A startup brings a system back from winter. The tech closes any drain valves left open, opens the main shutoff slowly so water does not slam into the pipes, checks the backflow device for leaks, then runs each zone. While each zone runs, they walk it, looking for broken or tilted heads, clogged nozzles, spray hitting pavement, and leaks at valves. Finally, they set or check the controller program and replace the backup battery if it has one.
Startups pile up in a few weeks once freezing nights are over. Customers all want theirs done the same week. That rush is the hardest scheduling problem in the business, and how you handle it decides whether you finish startups in two weeks or six. Scheduling spring startups goes into it.
Repairs and the summer season
Most irrigation revenue between the rushes comes from repairs: broken heads from mowers and cars, failed solenoids, wire breaks, leaking valves, and controllers that need replacing. Many startups turn into repairs, because the tech finds problems while running zones. Price repairs consistently, with a service call or trip charge plus parts and labor, or with flat rates for common jobs. Pricing sprinkler repairs has the details.
Summer also brings coverage complaints during dry spells, when a zone that was "fine" suddenly shows brown spots. A midseason check, where a tech runs each zone, adjusts heads and arcs, and tunes the controller for summer weather, can catch these before the customer calls.
Fall winterizations
In freezing climates, water left in the lines can crack pipes, fittings and valves. A winterization shuts off the water, puts the controller into its off or rain mode, and clears water from the system. Many systems are blown out with compressed air, zone by zone, until each zone runs only mist. Some systems drain manually or automatically instead. The backflow device needs its own attention so it is not damaged by freezing or by compressed air.
Like startups, winterizations crowd into a short window, but this one has a hard deadline: the first hard freeze. Plan the route and the compressor capacity before the first customer calls. Routing fall blowouts covers it.
Know every system before you arrive
Every system is different. One has the controller in the garage and the backflow behind a shrub on the north side. Another has a main shutoff in a meter box at the street and a manual drain at the low point of zone four. Techs lose a lot of time hunting for these things on every visit.
Record the system once and keep it on the property. In IndustryBossPro, property notes and custom fields hold the controller brand and location, the number of zones, the backflow type and location, the main shutoff location, the head types, and any quirks ("zone 3 valve box under the mulch by the mailbox"). The crew app shows those notes at the stop. After one season of startups and blowouts, your techs walk onto every property knowing where everything is, and a new tech can work the route without the old one riding along.
Pricing the core services
Startups and winterizations are usually flat fees, often tiered by zone count, because a 6-zone system and a 20-zone system are very different amounts of work. An illustrative structure: a base price that covers up to a certain number of zones, plus a few dollars for each zone above it, with an extra charge for drip zones, pumps or commercial systems. Midseason checks are priced the same way.
Repairs are priced as a service call plus parts and labor, or with flat rates for common fixes. Bundling the three seasonal visits into a maintenance plan gives customers a reason to commit to the whole year. Whatever structure you use, put it in the service catalog so the office and the techs quote the same numbers, and check it against real clock times after the first season. Job costing on each visit type shows whether your prices hold up.
Licensing and what you need first
Irrigation licensing varies widely. Some states license irrigation contractors directly. Many local water authorities require backflow devices to be tested on a schedule by a certified tester, and that certification is often separate from any irrigation license. Check your state and your local water provider before you advertise, and keep backflow testing as its own decision, since it carries its own certification and paperwork.
Beyond licensing, you need a stocked truck (heads, nozzles, fittings, pipe, valves, wire connectors, a few common controllers), a compressor big enough for the systems you blow out, and a way to keep track of which properties need what, and when. If irrigation is the only service you run, IrrigationBossPro (https://irrigationbosspro.com) is the version built just for it. If it sits next to lawn care, the irrigation software page shows how both run from one schedule.
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