Irrigation & Sprinkler Systems in Dallas-Fort Worth

A new sprinkler system in Dallas-Fort Worth runs $5,000 to $12,000 for most yards, and most average sized lots land between $7,500 and $9,000. Larger properties, or systems with drip lines run through the beds, go higher.

Pricing scales by the zone. Expect $700 to $1,500 per zone across the metroplex, with our systems at $975 per zone installed.

Zone count drives the price more than anything else. Each zone needs its own valve, wiring, and pipe run, and a yard gets split into zones because a single water line cannot supply the whole property at once with enough pressure.

A few pieces sit outside the per zone number. A weather based smart controller runs about $675 installed. A backflow preventer, which Texas requires, runs about $750. Permit fees vary by city.

Usually because the system is watering on a schedule that made sense in April and has not been touched since. A few things that quietly waste a lot of water:

• Watering daily and shallow. Short daily cycles keep roots near the surface, where they dry out fastest. Deep and less often builds drought tolerance.
• Watering in the afternoon. A large share evaporates before it reaches the roots. Early morning is the only time that makes sense here.
• Spray heads on beds. Beds want drip. Spraying them wets the leaves, feeds disease, and misses the root zone.
• No rain sensor. Texas requires one on new systems, but plenty of older systems either never had one or it has failed.
• Mixed head types in one zone. Rotors and sprays put out water at very different rates. On the same zone, one part of the lawn floods while another stays dry.

Most cities in the metroplex have permanent restrictions, commonly limiting landscape watering to two days a week, with the specific days assigned by address. Many also ban watering between about 10am and 6pm from spring through fall. Rules differ by city and get tighter in drought, so check your own city's current stage.

A well designed system makes those limits easy to live with. A poor one means your yard struggles on exactly the days you are allowed to run it.

Look for these:

• Dry patches or brown arcs between heads, which usually means poor spacing or low pressure
• Heads spraying the driveway, fence, or street
• Water pooling in one spot every cycle, which usually means a broken head or a stuck valve
• A zone that will not shut off, which is normally a valve issue
• Heads that no longer pop up above the grass line
• A meter that keeps moving with everything turned off, which means a leak underground

For beds, yes. Drip puts water at the roots instead of into the air, uses meaningfully less of it, and keeps leaves dry, which cuts down on disease. It is also the only sensible way to water plants under a heavy tree canopy.

For lawns, no. Turf needs even coverage across the whole surface, and that is what rotors and spray heads are built to do.

We install and repair irrigation across Dallas-Fort Worth, and we usually adjust or extend the system whenever we build new planting beds so the new plants are actually covered.