Irrigation & Sprinkler Repair Service Create a Profitable New Service to Your Lawn Care Business Article by Jack Stone Copyright © 2003 by ProGardenBiz ProGardenBiz, an online magazine http://www.progardenbiz.comOne of
most profitable additions to your lawn care service business can be repair of irrigation and sprinkler systems. Although plumbers may do this work, it is not their area of expertise and their hourly rates are often prohibitive for this type of work. There are irrigation companies that do installation that also do repair and maintenance and this is their speciality. As a lawn care operator you have an advantage with your immediate contact with an established client base, your own customers!
Most lawn care operators include minor sprinkler repair as part of service. Parts should always be charged separately. Major problems should be handled as separate jobs and charged by hour. The repair of irrigation and sprinkler systems is not something that can be estimated prior to start of job. The problems often lie underground and cannot be seen. You may be able, from experience, to look over problem and give a rough idea of what is involved, but always charge by hour for work, plus parts.
What you charge will vary from area to area. Generally irrigation repair is charged at a slightly higher hourly rate than lawn care service, but much less than what plumbers would charge. An example would be:
Lawn Care hourly man-hour rate: $25.00 per hour Plumber hourly rate: $85.00 per hour Irrigation repair hourly rate: $40.00 per hour
Have a minimum charge of one hour's work and stick to it. Tell client minimum up front. Before you actually start working you never know if it will be a ten minute job or a whole day. I could fill pages with stories of what we've found underground once we started digging, but at same time it's been more than once that I found problem was time clock was shut off or had no power.
Buy your parts at a wholesale supplier that sells to landscape contractor market. Mark your parts up a minimum of 30%. Always check discount hardware retailers in your area, like Home Depot, as they will often have better prices. When you buy at wholesale supplier you will not get best discount unless you have a contractor's license, so sometimes places like Home Depot will have better prices.
Keep a small stock of most often used sprinkler repair parts on your truck. Running to supplier for every repair job will waste time and eat into your profits.
The first question many lawn care operators ask is do they need a landscape contractor's license to do irrigation and sprinkler system repair work? You will need to check with your State Contractor's license board to be sure, but in most cases you do not. You would need a contractor's license to do installations of new systems that exceed certain dollar values (which vary from state to state in U.S.A.).
How to Get New Repair Customers
People who need sprinkler systems repaired generally want it done NOW! They will often take first bid from first repair service to show up (as long as they like person's presentation and price). The best form of advertising I have found for this work is a local classified ad direct mailer. In my area this is called "The Pennysaver". Most towns and cities have something similar. It will be a small magazine or tabloid format publication that consists of classified and display advertising. It usually is direct mailed to all houses in city or county. You can usually advertise by zip code area which makes for very good targeted advertising. I usually combine several services to make ad more useful and cost effective. An example ad for a lawn care service might be like this:
