A new sprinkler system from Green Scene is a permitted install, laid out in zones, built with Rain Bird or Hunter products and finished with the backflow device your water provider requires. Before anyone leaves, the controller is connected and every zone is run through a diagnostic test. Most yards take under a week, and the installation carries a three-year warranty.
It's for homeowners in Franklin, Brentwood, Spring Hill, Nolensville and the south side of Nashville who are done dragging hoses across the yard, and for anyone about to put down sod they'd like to keep alive.
What happens during an installation, in order?
Seven steps, and the order is the point. Skip one and it shows up later as a dry corner or a failed inspection.
- Permits. Our office secures every permit the job needs before a shovel touches the lawn.
- The plan. The yard is mapped into zones, so turf, beds and shrubs each get their own amount of water.
- Trenching. Crews cut the lines with equipment built for irrigation, keep to the measurements on the plan and haul away the extra soil and rock.
- Valves and backflow. The electric valve zones go in, along with the backflow device.
- The controller. Each connection at the controller is made and secured.
- Testing. A full diagnostic of every zone and of the controller's operation.
- Cosmetics. Seed goes down on the trench lines so they heal fast, or sod if you ask for it.
How torn up will the yard be?
For a few weeks it will look worked on, and nobody should tell you otherwise. Pipe goes underground, so the ground has to open. What we control is how much of it opens. The trencher follows the plan's measurements and nothing wider, which leaves a narrow seam in the turf rather than a strip of mud.
Once the zones pass testing, the seams are backfilled and overseeded. If you'd rather not wait on seed, the lines can be re-sodded instead, which makes sense when new sod is going in on the same property anyway.
Does a new system need a permit and a backflow preventer?
It needs both. The backflow device isn't optional, and what follows the install depends on who sells you water:
- Brentwood bills a $57.00 cross-connection fee each year for every irrigation backflow device, with inspections by city staff and state-certified testers.
- Spring Hill requires a permit and an inspection to install or replace an assembly, then a test within 30 days and once a year after that.
- Milcrofton Utility District, across eastern Williamson County, wants a reduced-pressure backflow preventer on any permanent lawn system, tested annually.
- Metro Nashville requires one on every sprinkler system, put in by a licensed plumber, with an initial and an annual inspection.
The permit work happens in our office before the crew is scheduled, so you aren't the one calling city hall.
Which brands go in, and how long is the warranty?
New systems are built from Rain Bird and Hunter products and laid out for water efficiency. The installation is covered for three years. When Jose walks the property for your estimate, ask him to go through what that warranty covers on your job.
Once it's in, the same company can keep it running. A new system can go straight onto an annual maintenance agreement, which puts the start-up and the winterization on our calendar instead of yours.
How long does it take, and what should you ask any installer?
Less than a week for most yards. Zone count moves the timeline more than anything, then weather and whatever else is in the scope. A heavily planted lot runs longer. Dr. James Hardie's yard had 14 zones and more than 130 heads, and some days the crew stayed fourteen hours to keep it on track.
Before you hire anyone, us included, get an estimate that names the zones and the controller, hand over a wish list of what you want watered, ask for referrals, and ask questions until the plan makes sense. Teresa and Jose put their own standard this way: "Our promise? Truthful estimates. On-time schedules. No surprises."
Jose and his crew did a fantastic job of installing 14 zones and over 130 sprinkler heads in a very landscaped yard … They were on time each day, very personable and worked each day until the job was finished. Some days they put in fourteen hours.
Dr. James Hardie, customer