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Enough to cover the minutes and the miles on that system, not enough to match the cheapest postcard on the block. A ten-zone house with two drip laterals and a backflow to drain is not the same stop as a four-zone front yard, and a flat “$75 blowout” cannot see the difference.
Open the free bid calculatorStart with how many spray, rotor, and drip zones you will actually blow. Spray is often around four minutes a zone. Rotors take a little longer. Drip laterals need a longer, lower-pressure purge — often closer to eight minutes — because you cannot just slam 80 PSI through emitters and walk away. Ten zones that are eight spray and two drip are not the same labor as ten spray. A per-zone special that treats them as equal is unpaid drip time.
A backflow preventer is a drain-and-insulate, not a bonus line on the blowout. Fifteen minutes to isolate, drain, and wrap one device is a quarter hour on the clock. Two devices on a commercial split is half an hour. If that work is “included” in a $75 neighborhood special on a typical house, it is unpaid. That special is often below the walk-away once loaded labor, compressor fuel, and a ten-mile round trip are counted.
Miles are a round trip. Ten miles at 35 mph is not “in the neighborhood”; it is more than half an hour on the clock before you hook the compressor. A trip / truck fee exists because the first hour of a two-zone bed still required the trailer, the insurance, and the setup. If on-site time would land under your minimum, charge the minimum.
A tech paid $26 often costs more than $33 once employer taxes, workers’ compensation (this is outdoor compressed-air work), liability, and paid time off are counted. A freeze-warning or after-hours call premiums that labor, not the compressor. Overhead sits on top of direct cost. Margin is a share of the price the customer sees, not a markup you add last and forget. The walk-away number is total cost: below it the stop makes nothing, even before you pay yourself.
This is not a manufacturer blowout procedure, not a freeze-protection spec, and not a finding that a system is winterized. Starting minutes-per-zone are ballpark numbers so a contractor can see the shape of a bid. Replace them with times from your own jobs, confirm the backflow drain method on site, and have a qualified professional review anything that has to be signed or insured.
Price this stop in the calculator
Charge the hours the stop will actually take — spray, rotor, and drip zones at their own minutes, plus backflow drain-and-insulate time, compressor setup, travel, and a trip fee — then divide cost by one minus your target margin. A flat $75 or $8-per-zone price hides the difference between a four-zone front yard and a ten-zone house with drip.
Head type, backflow, and the drive. Drip laterals need a longer, lower-pressure purge than spray. A backflow preventer is a drain-and-insulate, not “included.” Ten miles one way is almost half an hour on the clock before you hook the compressor. A neighborhood special that ignores those lines is how a tech works a morning for a one-stop price.
No. Starting minutes-per-zone are editable ballpark numbers, not a manufacturer procedure, a freeze-protection spec, or a finding that any system is winterized. Confirm drain method, local freeze rules, and condition on site.