Cost of Adding a Sprinkler Head to an Existing Zone

[creant]

What is a fair price to pay (including parts and labor) for adding an extra sprinkler head to an existing zone? Assume the existing zone has already 6 rotary sprinkler heads in the shape of a dice #6 and that the additional sprinkler head will be between the bottom 2 dots. Thank you.

[Globalviewer58]

In the Midwest it costS about $100 per hour labor plus parts which may add another $20. My experience is the task is about $120.

[Globalviewer58]

In the Midwest it cost about $100 per hour labor plus parts which may add another $20. My experience is the task is about $120.

[bloom2708]

Are you handy? You could DIY for this job.

T connector from the nearest head. Some additional pipe and the new sprinkler head.

My father in law and I added 2 heads like this. It required some digging and took a few hours. Not difficult for some with a handy gene.

The hard part will be finding a company that will bother with a small job. You could contact the installer/person that closes and opens it up each season.

[bikesandbeers]

I paid $20 a head to replace 16 heads, parts and labor, including new flexible risers.
$100-$200 seems reasonable depending on how much digging is required.
If you have a regular lawn guy maybe he'd do it for under $100

[livesoft]

This could be a little more involved since a new trench has to be opened up if there is no pipe at that location between the triplets. Don't forget to call 811 to get potential underground utilities marked in that case.

[GMCZ71]

Will your water system handle 7 heads? Low pressure and more rotor heads may cause problems.

[Teague]

Will your water system handle 7 heads? Low pressure and more rotor heads may cause problems.

Exactly my thinking. Sprinklers are grouped into "zones" largely because the water supply line can only supply so much water at one time. Otherwise you could have all your sprinklers go on at once and get watering over with very quickly.

So there's the water supply. Municipal or well? Well is generally less tolerant of trying to add heads to a properly designed system because most domestic wells supply less than municipal supply lines and there is less leeway for sloppy system design.

Having too many heads in a zone means the pressure drops too much, the water doesn't go the distance it needs to, and you're the neighbor standing out there all summer with the hose watering those brown spots.

To some extent the diameter and length of the plumbing comes into play.

So the answer to how much it would cost would be however much it costs to add one head, or how much to add a whole 'nother zone. Fine if you're on city water. If you're on a domestic well the pump won't be happy supplying only a single head because that would force the pump to cycle on and off rapidly.

[Oilcans]

Cost me $169.10 to add one head last summer. Work done by our lawn company. I'm not very handy, but I think someone that could do this themselves could do it for half that.

[Carter3]

My irrigation company did this for me 3x last year, it cost $95 each time (construction next door to me) . They charge $95/hour and it didn't take those guys 30 minutes to complete but it was August and hot.

I replaced a sprinkler head ($6) and added a sprinkler head last month ($24). The majority of that cost was due to buying extra pipe in case I wanted to add more later.