Sprinkler System FAQs in Spring, TX

Our office is open Monday- Saturday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.; if you call our office outside of office hours, you will reach our voicemail where you can leave a message. We encourage you to text for faster response times or you can also email us at carlosjoe@hotmail.com to schedule an appointment.

We can no longer guarantee exact appointment times. Our technicians’ routes are optimized for travel efficiency. We will not know where you fall on the route until the morning of your visit when routes are optimized. Office policy is that the technician reaches out to you in the morning to let you know what number stop you are on their schedule, and again when they are on the way to your location.

Yes. Office policy requires all, decision-making, customers/ homeowners to be on location when the technician arrives and to remain on location until the technician departs.

If the homeowner must leave, the technician is required to stop what they are doing and collect payment for the work that has been completed and reschedule the customer/ homeowner for a time when they can be present for the complete duration of the job.

This is important for many reasons:

• We need to be able to speak with the homeowner if anything unexpected occurs or to gain access to areas that only the customer/ homeowner can provide
• We need to be able to demonstrate to the homeowner the work that has been completed as well as run through the system with them and explain normal and abnormal operating conditions of their unique system
• We also need to go over our warranty, exclusions, and callback procedures with the customer.
• In short, whether landscaping, lighting, irrigation, etc., we must always be able to review with the customer the work that has been completed.

All these things are necessary to ensure the customer/ homeowner remains fully informed and is satisfied upon completion of the job.

We do our best to screen all calls or emails to get a clear picture of what is going on with a caller’s sprinkler system, but it is still difficult to predict exactly how much time each repair will take. The average repair takes between 1-2 hours to complete, including the time it takes to perform a General System Check (GSC) on a sprinkler system with 1-12 zones. Each repair takes, on average, 2-hours to complete with a 30-minute max drive time. The max window for a repair is 3 hours per technician. If the technician expects that the repair is going to take longer than 3 hours, this means that the job is bigger than the average minor sprinkler repair. Office policy requires the technician to reschedule the repair to return with extra workers. For some, this is inconvenient, but it is the most “cost-effective” approach for our customers and saves time for other customers on the technician’s schedule, yet to be seen.

This is a very important question, and the short answer is NO; this is why:

Irrigation in Texas is regulated by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, (TCEQ) (MC-178), P.O. Box 13087, Austin, Texas 78711-3087. For more information, please visit TCEQ’s web site is www.tceq.state.tx.us

You MUST be a LICENSED irrigator.

The long answer is anyone can work on certain parts of the sprinkler systems. Customers often confuse irrigators with regular low-cost lawn crews, and this is a HUGE error. The average lawn crew and landscaper may be able to repair a broken head they mowed over or a small lateral line pipe break for lower costs to the customer, but they (usually) are in NO WAY qualified, trained, and educated licensed professionals and there is no guarantee that what they are doing is correct. Furthermore, in Texas, you MUST be a licensed irrigator or plumber to legally make repairs at the point of cross connection at the main water line up to and including the backflow. This is for safety concerns to the customer’s main water supply.

The previous does not disqualify legitimate licensed and insured landscaping and outdoor design companies. Many landscaping companies perform irrigation and carry the licensing to do so. Landscaping companies often do so because of the nature of their work (providing irrigation to their landscaping and/ or making modifications to an existing system to accommodate landscaping). The important thing for a homeowner to remember is to ask the question, “Are you a licensed and insured irrigator”? At Planet Green we are, both, licensed and insured.

Lastly, your home is the MOST expensive investment you will make. Do you really want someone performing work on your home that is not qualified to do so, cannot guarantee his or her workmanship, and can end up costing YOU much more money if the repair is not correct?

This is really a loaded question because there is no “one size fits all answer”. Many people think that it is a “per zone cost” and that is inaccurate as well because the cost to build each zone is different with several variables to consider.

The only way to get an accurate quote is to visit the property in question. There are web resources out there that compare local and national averages, and in my opinion, they are, relatively, accurate. Many people call us asking for quotes expecting or hoping a new system will cost them less than $1000 which ultimately results in sticker shock; even if it is a front yard only, Planet Green has a $3000 minimum, excluding zone additions.

New “Residential” installs can go anywhere from $2,700-$36,000 and depends on many things such as the size of your lot/ number of zones required for head-to-head coverage, water pressure, terrain issues, boring beneath sidewalks or driveways, cost of QUALITY materials and the number of workers required to complete the job in a timely manner. Above I mentioned “water pressure”, regardless of who is installing your system if they have not taken appropriate measurements and tested your water pressure, I am confident that you will not be receiving the best-performing system.

You can call our office to schedule a free estimate.

Note: Our goal is to ensure the health and well-being of our team. Due to the strenuous nature of new installs during the extreme Texas summer heat and the poor conditions of the soil, we do NOT install sprinkler systems between the months of June-August.

This helps us to keep our technicians safe as well as keep costs lower for our customers. For the best results, we recommend installing an irrigation system through the months of September – May. This gives grass ample time to develop a healthy root system for hot summers as well as look out for the best interest of our neighbors.

Planet Green only offers free estimates on new installations. Through the months of May-August, Planet Green does NOT offer free estimates for repairs, unless the repair is substantial in size. Further, an estimate is an estimate and is not a fixed cost. The price is not a guarantee and can possibly change to be more or less. This is because, during repairs, there is a lot to be discovered once we start digging things up. These estimates, also, do not take into consideration any changes a customer/ homeowner may make to their outdoor project that could extend or shorten the project time or materials.

For sprinkler repair questions, in our office, there is usually someone available that can do some degree of troubleshooting over the phone and prepare the customer for an idea of the costs for those repairs. Call our office to find out more information.

In fact, YES, we sure do! Our warranty guarantees parts and workmanship but varies depending on the project. We do guarantee repairs for a limited period. However, for obvious reasons, we do NOT guarantee the parts of a sprinkler system installed or repaired by any company or person other than Planet Green. We ONLY guarantee our work. For more information, give us a call.

Parts are expensive. To save on costs, we usually buy our parts and materials in bulk. However, due to inflation, as gas prices fluctuate, so do the costs of parts, overhead costs, and cost of living wages. Unfortunately, the costs of parts usually go up and rarely go down in price. Sometimes a year or two can pass without the cost of a part changing much if any. Sometimes they go up every few weeks. When the price of materials goes up we have to adjust our prices to cover our expenses. Most likely, if you paid a certain price for something 5 years ago, it will not be the same price today.

Not currently, but we are working on it in the future.

For most jobs, our payment terms are “point of sale”. We take cash, check, or credit card payments in the field. Online invoicing options are not typically offered. Unfortunately, this is because there have been too many individuals who do not pay or severely delay payment. If online invoicing is offered, it is made on a case-by-case basis and will usually require a deposit or credit card on file with a signed credit card authorization form.

Absolutely!!! We are ALWAYS looking for opportunities to educate our customers and would gladly take the time to show you how to make minor repairs to your system that does not require a licensed irrigator and could save you hundreds!

We would rather you call us for the difficult stuff that requires certain equipment and technical expertise. Your sprinkler system, like your car, wears down over time and will need repair. You may know how to change your tire and oil, but if you need a new transmission or engine repair most people take their car to the auto shop.
We look at your sprinklers the same way. Also, regular maintenance on your car can prolong its longevity, so can regular maintenance on your sprinklers! If you are interested in our membership program, just give us a call to find out more details. Also, check out our Facebook or YouTube page for great DIY videos!

Our company is operated with a certain standard in mind and carries with it firm morals and values. Among those are honesty, integrity, and following the Golden Rule, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. Planet Green expects all its employees to strictly follow its policies regarding pricing, honesty, transparency, integrity, and treating all customers respectfully and courteously.

Likewise, we expect our customers to do the same by making all payments owed to Planet Green in full upon completion of our duties, being honest and understanding that all our employees work very hard in unfavorable conditions, and we expect our customers will always treat them respectfully and courteously. Planet Green will not tolerate rude, hostile, discourteous, or demanding behavior from any person doing business with our company and has the right to disqualify and refuse services to any person who threatens our employees, our personal values, and our standards.

All, ingoing and outgoing calls, texts, or voicemails, made or received by Planet Green Employees, are documented and recorded for training and quality assurance purposes. Furthermore, we keep thorough records of all jobs completed. All incidents are recorded on the Technicians job form. If a customer has a grievance, it is our request that you call or text and request to speak with management to resolve any issues quickly and satisfactorily.