--- title: "Sprinkler Blowout | Spottedwood Property Co." description: "Sprinkler blowout in the south Denver metro. What the job involves, what decides whether it goes well, and what I do not do. Quotes from photos, no visit." canonical: https://spottedwood.com/services/lawn/sprinkler-blowout/ source: text/html --- # Sprinkler Blowout A sprinkler blowout is a one time job with a deadline you do not pick. The system has to be clear before the first hard freeze, and in the south metro that can land anywhere from late September to deep into October. Go too early and you give up the last warm weeks of watering. Go too late and you find out about it in April, when one zone comes up as a fountain. The work itself is mostly air volume and sequence, and the part that decides how it went is the brass assembly sitting above ground on the side of your house. [Get a quote](https://spottedwood.com/contact/?service=lawn) [See starting prices](https://spottedwood.com/pricing/) **$40 an hour, 1 hour minimum.** Every visit is billed at least one full hour even if the work takes thirty minutes. [Why, and how to get the most out of it](https://spottedwood.com/pricing/). ## What the job involves - Water gets shut off at the irrigation valve inside, usually in a basement or crawlspace, and the line gets bled down before any air goes in. Air behind a supply valve that is still open only pushes against house pressure and does nothing useful. - The compressor connects at the blowout port, downstream of the backflow. Pressure stays regulated, under 80 psi on rigid PVC and under 50 on poly. Volume is what clears a line, not pressure, so a small pancake compressor cranked to 120 psi will not do the job and can split a fitting instead. - Zones run one at a time off the controller so the air has an exit. Heads mist, then spit, then blow dry. That zone gets shut down within a minute or so of going dry, because rotors turning with no water in them grind their own seals. - Then a second pass through every zone. Water sits in low spots and in the sag of a long lateral, and one round of air rarely takes all of it. - The backflow assembly gets drained, its test cocks opened, and the ball valves left at 45 degrees so anything still trapped has room to expand. That brass sits above ground and it is the piece that actually cracks. - Controller goes to off, and you get a list of what I saw. A head that geysered, one that never popped up, a valve slow to close. That is your spring repair list, written down in October while the evidence is still visible. ## What changes the price Zone count is most of it. Air moves through one zone at a time, so a four zone yard and a fourteen zone yard are not the same job. After that it is access. A system with a real blowout port near the backflow starts fast. A system with no port, or an indoor shutoff buried behind stored boxes, burns time before any air moves. A system that was not fully cleared the previous fall takes extra passes, because water left sitting in a lateral has to be moved before the zone will blow dry. Since I bill by time, all of that shows up as minutes rather than as a package. A straightforward system with an accessible port is often finished inside the minimum. ## What people usually get wrong Most people picture the buried pipe as the thing at risk, so they focus on getting water out of the ground. The pipe is not usually what breaks first. The brass backflow assembly on the side of the house sits in open air, holds water in a small chamber, and cracks on the first hard night. The other common miss is pressure. A shop compressor that reaches 120 psi still moves very little air, and pressure without volume pushes water into a bubble instead of out the heads. ## Send me this and I can quote it without coming out There is no trip charge either way, but a remote quote is faster for both of us and it costs you nothing to try. - A photo of the backflow assembly on the side of the house, close enough to see the two ball valve handles and the test cocks. - A photo of the controller with the door open and the screen or dial visible, so I can count zones. - A photo of the blowout port or air fitting if you know where it is. If you do not know, say so and I will find it. - Where the indoor shutoff for the sprinkler line is, basement, crawlspace or a pit in the yard, and whether it is clear to reach. - Whether the system was blown out last fall, and any zone or head that acted up this season. [Send the details](https://spottedwood.com/contact/?service=lawn) [Call or text (720) 681-4380](tel:7206814380) ## When I am the wrong call If your system runs more than a dozen zones or a mainline over an inch and a half, a crew with a truck mounted compressor will move more air than I can and finish in less time, and time is what you are paying for. If your water provider requires an annual backflow test, that is a different job from a blowout and I do not do it. And if you can borrow or rent a compressor that moves real volume, a small system is a fair do it yourself job. ## The rest of lawn care and landscape maintenance - [Mowing and Trimming](https://spottedwood.com/services/lawn/mowing/) - [Landscape Maintenance](https://spottedwood.com/services/lawn/landscape-maintenance/) - [Snow Removal](https://spottedwood.com/services/lawn/snow-removal/) - [All of lawn care and landscape maintenance](https://spottedwood.com/services/lawn/) ## Where I do this work - [Denver](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/denver/) - [Glendale](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/glendale/) - [Cherry Hills Village](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/cherry-hills-village/) - [Englewood](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/englewood/) - [Aurora](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/aurora/) - [Greenwood Village](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/greenwood-village/) - [Centennial](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/centennial/) - [Littleton](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/littleton/) - [Lone Tree](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/lone-tree/) - [Highlands Ranch](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/highlands-ranch/) - [Parker](https://spottedwood.com/service-areas/parker/) ## Tell me about the job Describe it in your own words and I will tell you what it costs, when I can get to it, and whether I am honestly the right person for it. [Get a quote](https://spottedwood.com/contact/?service=lawn)