Well the brilliant minds who run our government have passed some new mandates for the installation of lawn irrigation systems.  I am not sure if these are just relevant to the State of Texas or the country, however, they did sneak up on the building industry when they were implemented.  Now, please don’t get me wrong, properly installed and MAINTAINED sprinkler systems will reduce water waste. 

Fun Fact – Every bit of water that has ever existed on the earth still exists.  It is just a matter of what form it is in now and where it is located.

We have all driven by a property and witnessed small gushers from broken heads or a sprinkler watering the street and not the lawn.  The funny thing is more often than not it is a city system not a homeowner’s that is flooding the street.  However, creating new rules that will make irrigation systems more costly, add more time to the installation, create opportunities for foundation damage and expose more of the system to damage is not the best means of addressing the waste of water by “some” homeowners.

The irrigation systems installed now require additional permitting, inspections and different types of design parameters.  All of these elements add costs to the project.  In addition the new process turns a one day job into a two to three day job.  The more times your sprinkler contractor has to drive to a job, do work, leave and then return, the more costly it is to complete the project.

Here are some of the challenges these new regulations will put upon homeowners.

Time

It will take several days to complete a project that used to be completed in one day.

Time is added to the process as your irrigation installer must submit a much more detailed permit package to the town.  These permit applications require review by a staff member who is usually working on other projects so he/she may not get to it immediately.  Once the permit is approved, your installer must install the system and then wait for an inspector to come out to inspect the installation.  If that inspector is behind on inspections, enjoying a holiday that city staff’s often get that we builders do not.  If it happens to rain before the inspector gets there of during the day of the inspection you could be loose even more time.  The installer cannot cover up your trenches until he gets the inspection so the landscape installer, grass installer, fence company and general clean up folks have to wait.  A typical yard that could be irrigated, landscaped and sodded in a few days may take a week or longer.

Fun Fact – A homeowner can install a mini weather station or link your sprinkler via the internet to a service that will automatically adjust your water usage based upon wind, rain, temperature, etc…  No special permit or law required.

Foundation Damage

Most builders and warranty companies require a fully irrigated foundation.  History has shown us that a majority of all foundation problems occur from unequal moisture content arround the foundation’s perimeter.   To battle this builders have placed irrigation systems completely arround their foundations.  However the new regulations may make it so that we must use different components or are not allowed to place any heads in certain areas.  One of two things will happen, different components will vary the moisture level at different areas of the foundation creating risk factors AND the cost of the system will be more as more zones and components are needed to irrigate the same area.

Future Damage

One of the components that is being mandated/utilized for many areas is a soaker system.  Now on first blush most folks say, hey that is cool and makes great sense.  However here are some problems.  The soaker hose is placed directly under the grass.  When I say directly I mean you have dirt, then they put down the hose then they put down the sod.  Why do they do that, because such little water comes out of the soaker hose that if they bury it in the dirt, the grass would die because the roots are so short.  (this post will go up early but I will be adding a picture of these hoses in a bit so please check back).

A couple of problems this presents; 1 – these hose goes down like a snake/web so if you were to dig in that general area for any reason you are pretty much sure you are going to hit it, 2 – if you ever have to service it or replace it you will have to dig up the entire section of grass to get to the hose and put a new one down.  Gone are the days of just swapping out a broken head.

Cost

These systems will cost more due to permitting, design, components and time.  Warrantying them will cost more as well.  As you can imagine, the landscaper will pass that on to the builder and the builder will pass that on to the homeowner.  There is no free lunch.  If you ever wonder why houses keep getting so expensive it is because every time we turn arround someone is passing a rule or fee that adds a few dollars here and a few dollars there.  Pretty soon it adds up to real money.  Just wait till you see what all the “climate change” laws do to your new home’s price.

So…..

 All too often in life our government (at the urging of well meaning citizens) tries to compensate for some individuals not being as cognisant of their actions but mandating rules to make everyone’s life more difficult and more costly.  Although I am sure these new regulations will cut water waste somewhat, I am not sure the lost time and additional costs to a homeowner will show these to be the most cost effective means of water reduction.

Yes I hold almost every green certification a builder can hold.  Yes I turn out the lights when I leave a room and yell ( I mean instructively remind) at my kids if they leave the sink running.  However, the most effective tool in living a “green” life and being conscious of not wasting resources is not some politician mandating special interest rules but common sense.  Well you can’t legislate common sense and politicians can’t take credit for it so we have laws that cost everyone money and may create more problems than they solve.

So please don’t be mad at your builder or landscaper when your home price edges up and takes a bit longer.  AND please remember that when you are digging in a flower bed and destroy the soaker hose that is 1″ deep, that is not a warrantable event.  Maybe you can call down to Austin and see if one of our legislatures will come fix it for you.

Please feel free to leave your comments, drop us an email at mike@garabedianproperties.com or call our office at 817-748-2669.  I also encourage you to visit www.garabedianproperties.com to see our entire website.