Irrigation System Installation Houston, TX

Hand watering works for a small patch of grass. It stops working when the lawn wraps around the house, when beds are spread across the yard, or when you travel in summer. If you have just invested in new sod, a new planting plan, or trees, an automatic system is what keeps that investment alive through a Houston heat wave.

It also makes sense to replace a system rather than repair it when the original was never laid out properly. Common signs are dry strips between heads, sprays hitting the fence or the driveway, pipes that break every season, or a controller from two decades ago that cannot be programmed for seasonal changes.

A sprinkler system is split into zones. Each zone is a valve feeding a group of heads that apply water at a similar rate. Lawn spray heads, rotors, and drip linesDrip irrigationLow-flow tubing or emitters that deliver water directly to plant roots, reducing waste and keeping foliage dry. should never share a zone, because they apply water at very different speeds. Mixing them is how you end up with a soggy bed next to a crispy lawn.

Houston clayExpansive clayClay soil that swells when wet and shrinks when dry. Much of the Houston area sits on it, and it affects foundations, paving and drainage design. In practice: Keeping soil moisture around a slab foundation steady, without ponding or bone-dry spells, is part of good drainage design here. absorbs water slowly. A spray head can put down water faster than clay soaks it up, so the extra runs off onto the sidewalk. We counter this with efficient nozzles such as Hunter MP Rotators, which apply water slowly, and with cycle and soak scheduling that waters in shorter runs with a pause between. Beds and foundation plantings get drip irrigation, which puts water at the roots instead of on leaves, walls, and the slab.

Texas rules require a backflow preventionBackflow preventerA device that keeps irrigation water from flowing back into the drinking water supply. device to protect drinking water and a rain or moisture shut-off on new systems, and some cities also require a permit and backflow test. Those are part of a licensed installation, not optional upgrades.

We plan the system on paper before a trench is dug, so every zone has a purpose and every head has a reason to be where it is.

1. 1Site visit to check water pressure and flow, sun exposure, soil, slopes, and existing plantings
2. 2Zone layout grouping areas by plant type, sun, and head type, with head-to-head coverage on lawns
3. 3Utility locates through 811 before any trenching
4. 4Trenching and pipe installation, with sleeves under walks and drives where needed
5. 5Valve manifolds set in boxes that stay accessible, with wiring run back to the controller
6. 6Backflow device installed to code, with testing where the city requires it
7. 7Heads, rotors, and drip installed, flushed, and adjusted for arc and distance
8. 8Controller programmed with seasonal schedules and a rain or moisture sensor connected

We install Hunter components across the system: Pro-Spray bodies for lawn areas, MP Rotator nozzles where slow, even application matters, PGP rotors for larger open turf, and Hunter drip and point-source emitters for beds. Pressure-regulated heads keep spray from misting off in the wind when your line pressure runs high.

On the control side, a smart controller such as Hunter Hydrawise adjusts run times based on local weather data and lets you manage zones from your phone. Combined with a rain sensor, it stops the system from running during or right after a storm, which is one of the easiest ways to cut your water bill. Drip zones can include a filter and pressure regulator to protect the emitters.

Cost depends mainly on the number of zones, the total area covered, and the mix of spray, rotor, and drip. Lot shape matters: a long narrow yard with beds on three sides takes more zones than an open rectangle. Boring or sleeving under existing driveways and walkways adds labor.

Other factors include the type of controller, whether a new backflow device is needed, permit requirements in your city, and how much finished landscape must be worked around. Installing before new sod or beds is simpler than trenching through them. The ballpark price tool gives you a starting range before the site visit.

We regularly replace systems where heads were spaced too far apart, leaving dry rings between them, and where a single zone mixes beds and lawn. We find spray heads aimed straight at foundations, which keeps the soil next to the slab wet and contributes to the swell and shrink cycle that stresses foundations. We also see controllers set to water every day for twenty minutes all year.

Another common problem is buried valve boxes. When valves get covered by mulchMulchA layer of organic or mineral material spread over soil to hold moisture, moderate soil temperature and suppress weeds. In practice: In heavy rain, light mulch can float and wash onto paving. Placement and edging should account for water flow. or sod, a simple repair becomes a search. If your current system has some of these issues but is basically sound, irrigation repair may be the better path than a full replacement.

The best time to install irrigation is alongside the planting it serves. New sod installation and drip-fed beds go in together on most of our landscape installation projects. If you want to use less water overall, xeriscaping pairs well with a mostly drip system and a smaller lawn zone.

Irrigation is one part of our broader landscaping service in Houston, so the people who lay out your zones also know what is being planted in them.

Our irrigation work is TDLR licensed and built with Hunter products. A Home Scout visits your property before writing an itemized proposal, and our price-what-we-quote guarantee means no surprise charges once work starts. Because one team handles grading, planting, and irrigation, sprinkler lines are not cut by a different crew planting beds the following week.

We wrap up with a 72-hour post-completion walkthrough where we run each zone with you, show you how to use the controller, and fine-tune anything that is not covering correctly.