Sprinkler & Irrigation Photo Gallery: Calgary, AB

How to read irrigation photos like an installer

Any company can post a picture of green grass. If you're using this page to size us up, here is what we'd tell you to actually look at. Watch the arcs in the running-water shots: on a properly spaced system each head throws far enough to reach its neighbours, which is why the wet patterns overlap instead of leaving pale crescents between them. Turf that dries in stripes mid-July almost always traces back to heads stretched too far apart on install day to save a few dollars of pipe.

Look at the edges next. Boulevard strips, fence lines, and the ground beside walkways are where lazy design shows first, because narrow turf needs different nozzles than open lawn. In the pathway shots above you can see the spray staying on the grass rather than glazing the pavement, and that is nozzle selection, not luck. Water on concrete is money on concrete, and in a Calgary summer with watering guidance in effect it's also the fastest way to annoy a bylaw officer.

In the bed shots, notice how low and slow the water moves compared to the lawn zones. Perennials and foundation plantings hold their moisture in mulch and want gentle application at the root, so those areas run on their own zone with their own schedule. And in the on-the-job shots, the detail worth noticing is the valve box sitting flush and level with the soil. It's a small thing, but it's the kind of small thing that predicts how the parts you can't see were handled.