Ask the Awkward Questions Before Anybody Digs
How do you tell a real irrigation installer from somebody with a trencher and a truck? And which questions actually get you a useful answer instead of a sales pitch?
In this post, you’ll learn the four areas worth pressing on before you sign anything, what a good answer sounds like in each one, and where our own answers are published so you can check them.
What Questions Should You Ask Before Hiring an Irrigation Installer
Ask an irrigation installer about four things before you hire them:
- Design and zoning, meaning how they decide what waters separately from what.
- Permits and backflow, meaning who files the compliance paperwork with your city, and who actually holds the license to test the device.
- Workmanship, meaning what happens when something needs adjusting after they leave.
- The on-site assessment and pricing, meaning what they charge to look and how they arrive at a number.
Every one of those four is a place where a corner can be cut invisibly.
You will not spot it. It’s under your lawn.
Questions About Design and Zoning That Reveal How They Plan a System
Ask what will share a valve with what, and why, because that single answer tells you whether a design happened at all.
A zone is a group of heads that run together on one valve.
Grass and planting beds want water delivered differently, and a slope behaves nothing like a flat stretch of lawn, so grouping the wrong things together locks in a compromise you cannot program your way out of later.
Every system we install comes with an automatic timer that controls each section of the lawn separately, so each area gets the amount of water it actually needs as the seasons change.
Ask about the future too.
On a new-build lakeside home in Ottawa County, we ran turf, drip, spray, and raised-garden-bed irrigation across the property, and we ran extra piping for flower beds the homeowners had not yet built.
That last part costs almost nothing on the day and saves reopening the ground later.
The whole job is on our Smart Irrigation Installation in Ottawa County, OH page.
Also, ask where the water is coming from and whether they have considered any sources other than the obvious one.
On that same lakeside property, the original plan was to draw from the lake, but rough water made that a poor long-term bet, so we tapped into city water instead.
Questions About Permits and Backflow That a Casual Installer Skips
Ask who at the city files your backflow paperwork, and ask to see the license of the person testing the device.
Every irrigation system connects your drinking water to water that has been sitting in soil, so a backflow prevention device is the part that keeps the two separate.
Ohio requires annual backflow testing on irrigation systems.
Most communities we serve never check.
That city runs a separate water meter for irrigation, and if the paperwork is not filed on time, it comes through and pulls that meter out of the ground.
Only two companies were licensed to test irrigation backflows down there, which is why you cannot simply hop in a truck and run to Findlay.
At Simmons Landscape & Irrigation, we are adding that certification ourselves right now, which means an exam at the state capitol, a written test, and a hands-on test, then paperwork filed with the city.
An installer who has never had to think about any of this is not necessarily a bad installer.
They are just an installer whose work has never been checked by anybody.
Questions About Workmanship and Standing Behind the System
Ask what happens in week two, when a head is spraying the driveway, and the crew is three towns away.
The answer you want is a specific mechanism, not a reassurance.
Ours is the seasonal service package: a spring inspection and startup, a check in late June or early July, and winterizing in the fall.
The mid-season visit is the one that matters here, because most systems run at four or five in the morning, before showers and coffee, so nobody is awake to watch them.
A sheared head or a dead zone stays invisible until somebody checks, or until a nasty surprise water bill arrives first.
For repairs, an easy fix gets handled on the spot, and a major one puts your lawn back in shape within a week.
We are certified as landscape and irrigation professionals, and over the decades, we have made more than 4,000 irrigation systems work properly.
One reviewer has used us for 20 years and writes that whenever something needs re-adjusting, we have always been responsive.
Questions About the On-Site Assessment and How They Price the Job
Ask what the assessment costs, what you physically receive at the end of it, and what the number is based on.
A quote produced without anybody walking the property is a guess dressed as a price.
We walk it.
Our residential on-site assessment and report costs $350 and covers a health inspection of the entire system: first, the obvious problems on the lawn, then the less obvious indicators that an untrained eye might miss.
You end up with a detailed written report of everything found, our recommendations for the necessary repairs, and a plan for what comes next.
New installations are priced based on yard footage, materials, labor, scope complexity, and any upgrades you want.
A basic front lawn system covering around 4,000 square feet starts at $6.9k and takes about 3 days.
Front and back, at roughly 12,000 square feet, run $12k to $14k across four to seven days.
Larger yards past 12,000 square feet land between $16k and $25k across one to two weeks, and that tier is where wi-fi timers, flow control, and weather sensors come in.
Repairs work differently: minor work is around $300, mid-range is $800 to $2k, major is $2k to $5k, with labor billed hourly.
Each of those figures will move once we have seen your property, and the exact quote will follow the assessment.
How the Answers Tell You Who to Trust With Your Lawn
The answers sort people by whether they were specific or vague, and vagueness is almost always about compliance or capacity.
An installer who cannot tell you who files your backflow paperwork has not filed any.
An installer who will not provide a number for the assessment is deliberately keeping the pricing conversation soft.
Then check the volume question, because it is the one nobody volunteers for.
We cap our seasonal service list at 100 properties, and we have never filled it because at 150, we would be scrambling through mid-season with the regular repair calls.
Overscheduling is what turns a careful crew into a rushed one.
Look at the reviews last, and look at how many there are rather than only the average.
We crossed 100 five-star reviews in early 2025 and were closing on 150 a year later, and roughly one customer in six or seven leaves one at all.
We are also not the cheapest, and one of our reviewers says exactly that on our site before adding that the quality of workmanship is worth it to them.
We would rather answer them now than dig up your driveway later.
Bring Your Hardest Questions to Simmons Landscape and Irrigation
If you remember one thing, make it this: press on compliance and capacity, because those are the two places a vague answer is hiding something specific. Everything else is easier to verify.
When you are ready to put those questions to us, fill out our contact form or give us a call, and we will come to walk your property.
