# Burned by Irrigation Installers



## FrancisV (Apr 17, 2021)

Hi All,

Just wanted to get some thoughts as I'm incredibly stressed out about this.

Just had a new irrigation system installed along with new shallow well points (they upsold me the well points as I had 2 older ones installed, which they said is not enough for how big the system is).

After the install they told me there is a problem, the pump cycles constantly, apparently too much waterflow from the well.

Their solution was to install 4 spray heads in the back yard (which had only rotors per the design) to increase output, and told me that is the only solution (add more sprinkler heads). Unfortunately they failed to mention that part of their solution was to tie the front and back zones together, I found that out after everything was said and done. So now I have zone 1 watering the front and back yard rotors, and zone 2 watering the back and front yard sprays. I am incapable of selectively watering either the front or the back, which is a big deal to us.

I paid for 4 zones per the quote, and I now have 2 because of their 'fix'. They're wanting to charge me extra now to split them up via a relay system (I don't know how that works).

Is this acceptable? I feel like I need some advice.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

That is absolutely not acceptable.

It also doesn't make sense from a technical perspective; the pressure and flow coming out of the well should be regulated. And regardless of that, the individual rotors are going to be regulated as well, so they're telling you BS and they don't know what they are doing.

I want to be the bearer of good news. Objectively, I can tell you that what I would do is fire them, and pay someone else to do it right, and then sue to get as much back from them as I could. Hopefully, you only paid half and not fully upfront.

I would never have confidence that they would fix it correctly based on what you are describing.

Whatever BS they're telling you, you paid for 4 zones and do not have 4 zones, period. They can return your money, they can get sued, or they can fix it to what they quoted (but they're not going to fix it or give you any money back).

I had a much smaller set of issues with my system, mainly I was like "Hey, you need more heads in these areas" and he kept telling me "I've been doing this for 11 years I know what Im doing!"

The relay system they are describing is another valve, buried "somewhere out in your yard", that will go in the middle of the pipe they laid that connects the two zones. It's another point of failure for leaks and other issues, and it will require more gerry rigging to get that relay to open up when its supposed to etc. - its something you do to split a zone on an existing system, not as a way to fix a brand new install you botched.


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## FrancisV (Apr 17, 2021)

Thank you very much for the response.

Your reply pretty much sums up how I feel, just didn't have any data to back it up.

And sadly I already paid in full at this point, it was via a home improvement credit. This may mean that a charge back is an option, so I'll look into that before I dig into legal avenues.

I'll reach out to them again and ask to deliver what I was quoted and see how they respond, and then I can move onto the next step from there.

As a by the by, as part of the 'fix', when they installed the sprays in the back, they trenched through one of the two areas I asked them to avoid, and severed a 10" anchoring root of the 50ft+ Eucalyptus in the back yard, less than 3 feet from the trunk. Waiting on a visit from an arborist to inspect the damage, but per the description I gave him via email he suspects this compromised the structural stability of the tree (and may possibly bring about death of the tree). Even if I had said nothing, it blows my mind that they would trench that close to the tree rather than manually dig, when it is easily visible that a massive root extends in that direction. They ran all initial trenches intentionally avoiding the roots, so why they trenched straight through the second time for the fix is quite honestly beyond me.

Anyway, I'll update here once something happens (or doesn't for that matter).

Thank you again for the reply, it really makes a big difference to hear a second opinion and know I'm not just crazy.


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## SCGrassMan (Dec 17, 2017)

You know, I ignored my gut and thought "hey maybe this guy is right and I'm just being uptight like my Dad". But I will tell you that your gut will never lie to you; but it will definitely tell you what you don't wanna hear sometimes.

And I would yank that payment back NOW, and then let them decide what they want to do about it.


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