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The number a homeowner wants is a published “$400 a zone installed” special, or a “$2,400 for 6 zones” coupon. That number is not a takeoff. A 6-zone front-yard spray system with a 3/4-inch PVB in dirt is not the same job as a 10-zone backyard with extra heads, a 1.5-inch RPZ, rock trench, a drip conversion, a rain sensor, and a master valve. The trip is the same. The hours are not.
Open the free bid calculatorIrrigation-winterization calculators price a blowout, a backflow drain, and a seasonal service call. Lawn-care calculators price mowing. A new sprinkler-system install is a different job: the zones, the heads, the trench, the backflow, and the extras that are not in the coupon. Quoting all of that from a published per-zone special is how the first extra valve and the first extra hundred feet of trench eat the field margin.
Each extra head past six per zone is time that never appears on the coupon. Rock, a 1.5-inch RPZ, drip conversion, a rain sensor, and a master valve are billed as their own hours. On the sample rates a 10-zone Wi-Fi system with 10 heads per zone, a 1.5-inch RPZ, 420 feet of rock trench, drip, rain sensor, and a master valve prices about $11,568.81 (71.1 crew-hours, $1,156.88 per zone). The same shop’s 6-zone spray system prices about $3,855.96 (22.6 hours, walk-away $2,699.17, $642.66 per zone). Matching the brochure job’s $400/zone special ($2,400 on 6 zones, $4,000 on 10 zones) on the rock drip yard is how that job becomes a loss — the walk-away on the heavy job is already $8,098.17, and the $4,000 special loses about $4,098 there. The $2,400 special loses $299.17 even on the brochure system.
An 8-zone spray system with 8 heads per zone, a 12-station controller, a 1-inch RPZ, a rain sensor, and 280 feet of trench is not the 6-zone brochure system plus 15%. On the sample rates that mid job prices about $6,218.16 (34.2 crew-hours). A 6-zone drip conversion in clay with a 1-inch RPZ, rain sensor, and 240 feet of trench prices about $5,888.00 (34.4 hours). A 3/4-inch PVB drops RPZ hours; trench and soil do not disappear with the smaller backflow. Treating either as a blended add-on is how the special that looked fine turns into a loss after the first extra hundred feet of trench.
A $38/h tech loaded at 32% payroll burden is $50.16. Margin is a share of the price you send, not a markup on cost. The walk-away price is total cost — below that the job makes nothing before you take a dollar home. Replace every rate with your invoices before you send either number.
This is not an irrigation design, a plumbing-code determination, a permit, an engineering stamp, or a recommended market price. It is arithmetic on the numbers you type. The zones, heads, trench, soil, backflow, and controller are yours to confirm. It does not price a winterization / blowout or a lawn-care mow.
Charge from the trip, the zones (valve plus included heads), extra heads past six per zone, trench footage times soil, the controller, the backflow (3/4-inch PVB versus 1-inch versus 1.5-inch RPZ), drip conversion, rain sensor, master valve, loaded labor, overhead, and a margin that is a share of price. A default 6-zone spray system with a 3/4-inch PVB in dirt and 180 feet of trench, at the sample rates in this calculator, prices around $3,856 — about 22.6 crew-hours, $642.66 per zone.
Homeowners count zones. Extra heads, trench footage, backflow size, and soil do not scale with that number. Matching a cheaper special written for a 6-zone spray system is how a 10-zone rock drip backyard becomes a two-day loss. On the sample rates the $400/zone special already loses about $299 on the brochure system (walk-away $2,699) and loses about $4,098 on the rock drip yard whose walk-away is already $8,098.
A 10-zone system with 10 heads per zone, a Wi-Fi controller, a 1.5-inch RPZ, rock trench, drip conversion, a rain sensor, a master valve, and 420 feet of trench is not a 6-zone spray special. On the sample rates that job prices around $11,569 (71.1 crew-hours, $1,156.88 per zone), while a 6-zone spray system prices around $3,856 (22.6 hours).