Spring to fall
Seasonal Maintenance
A spring start-up, a check every month of the season and a fall winterization blow-out, so your sprinkler system lasts.
Chapter 01
The program in order: spring start-up, a check every month, fall winterization
Our seasonal maintenance program is three jobs that follow the growing season. In the spring we start the system up and run every zone. Through the season we check it monthly. In the fall we winterize it before the ground freezes.
The monthly check is the part that saves the most trouble. A head clipped by a mower, a nozzle that has clogged or a zone that has quietly stopped covering a bed is easy to catch on a routine visit, and expensive to discover after a dry stretch has already browned the lawn.
The program covers residential properties, commercial grounds, condominium complexes and athletic fields around Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Charlevoix and the Boynes. Ask for a free estimate and we will talk through what your system needs.
A Rainmaker Irrigation pickup towing an air compressor beside a leaf-strewn lawn during a fall blow-out
Why Northern Michigan lines are blown out with compressed air before the freeze
Water left in the pipes, valves and heads of a sprinkler system freezes over the winter. Ice takes up more room than water, and it splits fittings, cracks valve bodies and breaks heads. You do not see the damage until the system is switched on in the spring and starts leaking underground.
Winterizing means getting that water out. We connect a compressor to the system and push compressed air through each zone in turn until the lines are clear. The blue Airman compressor on our trailer is how it gets done, and in our own photo above you can see it parked beside a leaf-strewn lawn with mist rising off the heads as the zones clear.
Winters here arrive on their own schedule, so the blow-out belongs in the fall, ahead of the first hard freeze. Customers from Petoskey to Boyne City can call (231) 348-5477 to get on the list.
Chapter 03
What staying on the program protects
jerry VanKuiken, in a Google review: "I have used them for annual maintenance and repair for 25 years. Never an issue."
That is what a long run on the program looks like from the customer's side. A system that is started in the spring, watched every month and drained in the fall is far less likely to fail in the middle of a dry summer stretch. Regular maintenance of your system is what ensures it lasts.
We have been locally owned and operated on Howard Road in Petoskey since 1987. We are open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
Rainmaker Irrigation. Call (231) 348-5477.