The system
Start from a common job, then replace every figure with your takeoff. Changing controller, backflow, or soil never overwrites a rate you already typed. This prices a new irrigation-system install — not a winterization / blowout, and not a lawn-care mow.
Your crew rates
A $38/h tech loaded at 32% is $50.16. Quoting the raw wage on a published $400-a-zone special is how a 10-zone rock drip backyard that looked fine turns into a two-day loss after the first extra valve and the first extra hundred feet of trench.
Your bid
- System and hardware
- Trench and extras
- Crew hours
- Loaded labor
- Valves + pipe + extras
- Travel + equipment
- Overhead
- Total cost
- Profit at this price
- Price per zone
- Effective hourly rate
- Walk-away price
A bid link carries your own rates — wage, burden, overhead, and target margin — so the page reopens exactly as you left it. Send it to yourself or your crew. The customer should get the price, not the link.
Where the hours go
Where the cost goes
Transparent arithmetic from your own inputs. Starting hours and material rates are common ballpark figures, not an industry standard or an irrigation design — replace them with your own takeoff.
Hand the customer a proposal
The price above is for you. This is the page you print or save as a PDF and give to the customer — your details, their details, the scope, the deposit split, and a line for them to sign. Your business details are saved on this device so you only type them once; the customer’s details are never saved.
Everything on the printed page is text you typed or a number this calculator worked out. It contains no warranty, lien, or cancellation wording — those depend on your jurisdiction and your contract, and this tool is not the place to invent them.
Common questions
Why can a flyer advertise “$400 a zone installed”?
Because that number is written around one specific yard, and it is the first preset here: a 6-zone front-yard spray system, 6 heads a zone (the included count, so no extra-head labor), a 3/4-inch PVB in dirt, and 180 feet of trench. Priced honestly it really is close to $400 a zone. A 1.5-inch RPZ, rock trench, extra heads, or a drip conversion each add their own labor and material — none of which a flat per-zone number was built to carry.
Why does backflow-device size change the price so much?
Because a bigger device is a bigger tap and a test-cock assembly, not just a pricier part. A 3/4-inch PVB bills 1.4 hours and a $185 kit. A 1-inch RPZ bills 2.4 hours and $420. A 1.5-inch RPZ bills 3.6 hours and $780 — more than four times the PVB’s material cost and over twice the labor, on a line most homeowners never notice until the county requires it.
Why does soil type matter if the trench footage is the same?
Because the calculator applies a soil multiplier to trench hours, not to price directly. Dirt or loam is the 1× baseline. Clay multiplies trench hours by 1.4×. Rock or hardpan multiplies them by 2× — the same 280 feet of trench takes twice as long in rock as in dirt, which is exactly the kind of site condition a per-zone flyer price cannot see in advance.
What counts as an “extra head”?
Anything past 6 heads per zone, the number built into the base per-zone labor rate. A zone with 6 heads or fewer bills no extra-head hours at all. An 8-heads-per-zone yard bills 2 extra heads per zone, each at its own labor rate, on top of every zone in the job — so a dense zone layout costs more than a sparse one even at the same zone count.
What do drip conversion, a rain sensor, and a master valve add?
Each is its own toggle with its own hours and kit cost, billed only when checked. None of them ride along with the base zone price, so the difference between a bare 10-zone spray system and the same system with drip, rain sensing, and a master valve is a real, itemized add — not a rounding error on the per-zone rate.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No account and no network requests — the calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your bid is saved in this browser’s local storage so it is still here next visit. The optional usage counter records only which features were used and the day, never your zone count, wages, or prices.