You long for a green and colorful landscape. One that looks healthy and thriving with great-looking plants and bursting with bountiful blooms.
Who doesn’t? We all want this amazing, welcoming, wonderful space to be proud of and enjoy. This also escalates your curb appeal and gives you an amazing home to come back to everyday.
To get a vibrant landscape takes great planning, great care, and some basic necessities – namely adequate water.
The dry, hot, Kansas City summers certainly don’t help make your landscape dream a reality. These conditions can quickly make your green plants wilt and your lawn brown. This can make your whole property look sad.
For supplemental watering, moving sprinklers around your yard can help, but it’s extremely time-consuming and doesn’t deliver very consistent results.
The answer to your watering woes could be an irrigation system. But just throwing an irrigation system in your yard isn’t going to do anything worthwhile. What you need is an irrigation plan that uses a sprinkler system map to ensure you have a properly planned and installed system that works for your landscape’s specific needs and challenges.
Let’s learn more about how mapping an irrigation system can be beneficial for you and your Kansas City property.
Sprinkler Zone Map Basics
You want to optimize the design and functionality of your irrigation system. That’s how it will work properly and suit your needs best, keeping your landscape healthy with some additional watering.
Mapping your irrigation system can help ensure it works best. Here are the benefits of a sprinkler system map, what it does, and why you want one in your landscape.
What Does a Sprinkler Zone Map Look Like?
The map of a sprinkler system is essentially a layout of the key components of your home landscape’s watering system. In addition to the parts of your landscape you can see, like trees, plants, and above ground sprinkler heads, an irrigation map also depicts the many underground elements of any irrigation system that help to make everything work cohesively.
A truly professional irrigation map can be hand drawn or computer drafted, so you might see it in multiple forms. It might be color coded to show each unique zone. Each valve, sprinkler head, irrigation clock, and main water line will be marked on the irrigation map to provide a cohesive understanding of the entire system’s inner workings.
The key elements of a system will always be on a sprinkler system map, regardless of which form the map comes in. These are:
- Master valve and other valve locations
- Mainline and lateral line locations
- Head locations
- Clock location
Why Is It Important To Map Out Your Irrigation System?
When you have a sprinkler system map, it communicates a well-thought-out process, documenting the locations of primary irrigation elements.
Also, since any sprinkler system is complex and will require regular maintenance, having a detailed map for reference is important. This documentation is incredibly important because it shows a record that can make it easier for an irrigation professional to make repairs or revisions to your system if they are ever needed. Talk about a time and money saver. Understanding the layout of your irrigation system can help your irrigation technician more quickly and more accurately locate components for seamless repair instead of spending precious time searching for these elements. If you plan on adding to or upgrading the system, you’ll want an irrigation map to guide construction.
Your irrigation map can also be handy if you ever need to sell your property. Prospective buyers may want to know they have access to all the details of your sprinkler system’s infrastructure.
What Does Mapping a Sprinkler System Do For You?
The most important functions of mapping an irrigation system are optimization of design and system function for the best coverage and most effective water use.
Mapping things out before you start ensures you minimize the amount of water that your system requires to keep your lawn and landscape healthy. This can be helpful during drought or a hot, dry summer, so you avoid watering the same areas twice and save water while still maintaining a green yard.
Choosing sprinkler locations is one the most important parts of mapping to ensure even water coverage across your property. Mapping can aid this process.
On top of that, repairs and renovations are simpler because your irrigation professional will more quickly be able to find the locations of key irrigation elements.
This is especially important if any construction is necessary after an irrigation system is installed. A mapped out plan can help prevent damage if you can share this map with your contractor.
How Does a Sprinkler System Map Create a Better Irrigation System?
Mapping a sprinkler system lets you more clearly communicate your needs and expectations to your irrigation specialist because he or she can show you the visual water coverage plan for your property.
Mapping enables an irrigation specialist to better plan adequate coverage and cover gaps so there are less holes or surprises once your irrigation system is complete.
Can a Sprinkler Zone Map Save You Money?
Having distinct zones for your lawn and plant beds that have different watering needs helps irrigation professionals create a more seamlessly designed system.
Any time proper and meticulous planning is involved, you’ll find it’s much easier to stay in control of an irrigation system design and installation budget.
How to Map Out a Sprinkler System
You might be wondering how to map out a sprinkler system. Well, the process begins with an experienced irrigation specialist identifying the key components of your irrigation system.
Once key components like the mainline and irrigation clocks are set, a valve locator will help identify every single wire in the entire system. Each wire leads to a valve that should be marked on the map. The number of clocks and valves will vary based on property size.
Locating valves leads to specific measurements being marked. Then sprinkler heads can be recorded on the map. The completed map – whether hand-drawn or computer-generated – becomes the master plan for your property.
How Do You Know You’re Working With an Irrigation Professional Who Knows How to Properly Map Your Sprinkler System?
Your irrigation specialist should be able to discuss with you all of the details of your irrigation system, first of all.
This includes taking ground measurements, checking water pressure, and assessing your horticultural needs.
They will also be able to present you with a physical map, whether it’s hand drawn or computer generated.
Mapping a sprinkler system is a detailed and thorough process, which requires an irrigation professional to be done right.
Mapping an Irrigation System in Kansas City
When you invest in a smarter strategy for watering your home landscape in Kansas City, such as creating a sprinkler system map, you’re investing in more than just a better way to water your lawn and beloved landscape plants, shrubs, and trees.
You’re saving your water use, targeting your water to your plant roots where it’s needed most, and saving yourself time and energy from having to worry about watering your landscape all summer long. You ultimately become a more focused family member and homeowner and a better steward of the environment.
If you are still having trouble understanding irrigation mapping, give the High Prairie Outdoors a Call. Our experts can share the importance of this strategy with you, show you some examples of irrigation maps in action, and explain how this would work on your property.
The end result will be a better looking landscape that uses less water, saves you money and time, and looks like a million bucks.
Ready to learn why High Prairie Outdoors could be your choice for professional irrigation in Kansas City? We’d love to learn more about you. Get started today with a free consultation. Together, we can prepare a custom plan that meets the watering needs of your outdoor living space.
