When we entered the landscape industry over a decade ago, we were most surprised by the lack of quality in the irrigation arena. Unfortunately, it is one of the hardest trades for people to discover flaws in because everything is buried. Most homeowners do not have the expertise to discover the difference between a quality installation and a bad installation. If they see water shooting out of the irrigation heads, they think everything is fine. The irrigation industry is very competitive. Since it can be difficult to deduce a quality system from a bad system, there is a lot of temptation on the part of contractors to take shortcuts to lower their prices and make their company more appealing to price shoppers. By taking shortcuts, performing the plumbing work illegally, and using low quality products, a contractor could easily shave over a thousand dollars of costs from a typical residential irrigation system. We estimate that up to 75% of the irrigations installed now are performed illegally or installed below industry standards. The problem has gotten so bad that in November of 2008, the state of North Carolina passed a law requiring that irrigation contractors be licensed.We began by taking classes by the irrigation manufacturers and performing irrigation repairs to learn mistakes other contractors made that caused premature failure of the irrigation systems. We figured that by learning from the irrigation manufacturers and not other contractors we would avoid being mislead and learning bad installation techniques. Since we evolved from a Civil Engineer who studied Hydraulic Engineering (study of the flow of liquids) we have a comfortable grip on designing flow rates, precipitation rates, and dynamic pressures which are all necessary for creating an irrigation system that functions efficiently. We also understand the importance of laying out the irrigation zones according to sun exposure, soil conditions, and yard gradients.
We have installed most of the major brands of irrigation products over the last ten years. During our experience with most the brands, we found that the Rainbird Corporation had the most diversified products, quality products, simple to use line of products, best customer support, and best warranties in the industry. Over the last five years we have developed a strong relationship with Rainbird. We have become a Rainbird Select Contractor and now use Rainbird products almost exclusively. Rainbird has the best warranties in the industry; combine that with our lifetime warranty on workmanship, and our customers receive an unprecedented quality irrigation installation and warranty.
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