How Much to Charge for Sprinkler Blowout and When to Book

Here is how much to charge for sprinkler blowout: a base fee for the drive and the hookup, plus a per-zone price built from the minutes a zone takes under the manufacturers' limits. Rain Bird's blow-out guide caps the air at 50 psi and any circuit at 2 minutes per cycle, two or more cycles per zone, so the minutes are known before you price them; the route runs between your town's first 32°F and first 28°F dates.

What a blowout costs you: minutes per zone and the drive

A blowout costs you minutes on site, which scale with the zone count, and the drive, which does not. Time three jobs and split the clock into a fixed part (park, hook up, shut the mainline, set the regulator) and a per-zone part (the air cycles and the switch); the base fee covers the first, the per-zone price the second.

The 2-minute rule and why zones take two cycles

Rain Bird's blow-out guide (October 20, 2025) says not to blow any circuit for more than 2 minutes at a time, since heat from the compressed air can damage pipes and components; switch zones, then repeat the cycle two or more times until only a fine mist leaves the heads. Two cycles are at most 4 minutes of air per zone, plus the switch; Rain Bird adds that running the air too long on gear drive rotors can melt the rotor head. K-Rain's page sets the limit at 1 minute at a time.

What size compressor to blow out sprinklers

K-Rain's page calls for a compressor delivering 20 to 25 cfm, air never above 50 psi and a pressure regulating valve; it warns that a small 2 hp shop compressor may not be adequate and that a high-pressure (120 psi), low-volume unit is the wrong tool. Rain Bird's blog goes bigger, a large compressor (50 to 70 gallons) holding 185 cfm or greater; one sentence there allows 75 to 85 psi for big lines, but its two step lists both set the regulating valve to 50 psi.

Colorado State University Extension's winterization page (reviewed August 2025) gives the sizing arithmetic: divide the zone's gallons per minute by 7.5 for the cfm needed, and hold the compressor at 40 to 80 psi, with 80 psi the maximum for rigid PVC and 50 psi for polyethylene (flexible black pipe). It also blows each zone out twice, in two short cycles. On poly all three pages agree at 50 psi.

A rented towable covers the biggest residential zone: Home Depot Rental listed a Doosan 185 cfm towable at $259 per day and $622 per week at its Williston, Vermont store on October 13, 2026 (the rate shows once a store is chosen). The regulator, not the machine, then sets the pressure.

How much to charge for sprinkler blowout: a base fee plus per zone

Charge a base fee for the drive and the fixed minutes, plus a per-zone price for the air cycles, each marked up as cost ÷ (1 minus your margin). The hourly cost is a wage plus the truck and compressor; for the wage floor, the BLS 2025 median for landscaping and groundskeeping workers is $18.82 per hour on O*NET (10th percentile $14.98, 90th $27.28).

In MakeHay, a per-zone price is an Each line in the price book under Settings › Services (unit Each), so a quote carries the base fee as a Flat price line and the zones as a quantity (set up your services and prices).

Sprinkler blowout cost per zone in the consumer surveys

LawnLove's guide, a homeowner cost survey updated December 8, 2025, puts the national average at $60 to $145 and a blowout at $83.50 to $216.50, with three or more zones typically $26.50 per zone; its tiers run $50 to $75 for 1 to 2 zones up to $150 to $250 for 7 to 8.

Fixr's guide, a homeowner cost survey updated January 31, 2025, has a national average of $100 in a typical $75 to $150 range, $50 to $250 overall, and says specialists typically charge a flat rate for up to 6 zones and $8 per zone past that. The table's $109 and $134 sit inside both; if your margin needs more, raise the base fee first.

When to winterize sprinklers: first 32°F and 28°F dates for your town

Winterize between the average first 32°F date, when calls start, and the average first 28°F date, the hard freeze that is the deadline. The US National Weather Service office for Kansas City publishes an average freeze table giving Kansas City a first fall freeze of October 28 and Princeton October 10; the NWS Blacksburg office's fall freeze page (a low at or below 32°F) gives Blacksburg October 10 and Roanoke October 22.

1. 1Step 1: Open your NWS office's climate page (search weather.gov for your office and "first freeze") and read the average first fall freeze at 32°F for the nearest town.
2. 2Step 2: Open NCEI's 1991 to 2020 normals search, find the nearest station and download its CSV (also in the by-station directory).
3. 3Step 3: Read ANN-TMIN-PRBFST-T28FP50: in NCEI's readme the code is TnnFPmm, threshold and probability, so it is the date by which there is a 50 percent chance the first 28°F has come. Kansas City International reads October 24 for 32°F and November 1 for 28°F; Roanoke November 1 and November 12; Blacksburg October 19 and October 29.

In MakeHay, every scheduled visit carries the National Weather Service forecast for the job site's own coordinates about a week ahead, and a weather rule's Min temp °F during the service, set at 28, flags a visit whose forecast dips under it (US addresses only); see plan around the weather.

Filling the sprinkler blowout route from last year's list

Fill the route from last year's blowout customers first, this spring's startup customers second and the request form on your site third; the first two already know the price. Ask each for the zone count, which sets the price, and the backflow type.

In MakeHay, a request form (Settings › Request forms) takes the built-in "Job site address" question plus a Short answer question for the zone count and a Dropdown for backflow type, and Convert to customer + quote creates the customer, job site and draft quote in one click (take requests with a request form). Last year's blowouts set up as repeating jobs show under the Repeating filter on Jobs; visit reminders go the day before.

Backflow preventers, drip zones and the add-ons worth a line

Colorado State's page says pressure vacuum breaker and reduced pressure backflow devices must never be blown out with compressed air and that their valves are left half open after the purge; Rain Bird's blog adds that the drained system gets its water source shut off and its valve boxes and backflow preventers insulated. So the backflow is a procedure, not an air cycle: price it into the base fee, and keep a backflow test, where a customer needs one, as its own line.

Drip zones have no heads to pop up, so the fine-mist check does not apply; time them separately and give them their own per-zone line if they run longer. A head or valve found broken is quoted before it is replaced, as an Each line.

Spring startup and fall blowout: the yearly pair on one job

Sell the fall blowout and the spring startup as one yearly pair, booked together, so the spring visit is on the calendar before anyone else quotes it. The spring visit reverses the fall one: water back on, the backflow valves closed from the half-open position Colorado State's page leaves them in, each zone run while the heads are checked. The other two-visit-a-year plan on this blog is gutter cleaning.

In MakeHay, the irrigation starter list carries "Spring startup" and "Fall blowout" as Flat price lines, "Rotor or spray head, replaced" and "Valve, replaced" as Each lines, and "Trenching" per linear foot. A repeating job (Set up repeat, every N weeks or months) adds visits 60 days ahead at the company's work hours; Bill after each visit makes one invoice per visit marked Done (set up recurring service), and autopay charges the saved card or bank account on Done & charge. There is no automatic yearly charge; the fall visit is billed when marked done.