How much does it cost to set up a landscape irrigation system in South Africa?
Whether you have a small or large landscape (residential or commercial), so long it has lawn, flowers, or trees, you might want to consider installing a proper irrigation system. A well-planned irrigation system can save you lots of time, watering bills, and landscaping repair costs when setup efficiently.
The cost-saving effects of setting up a good irrigation system can be noticed within a week for very-large office parks. For residential homes, you can notice a reduction in your bills and watering labour time a bit longer since you typically use less water.
If you use an automatic irrigation system that is setup by one knowledgeable about the different watering needs and cycles of your plants then not only will that cut your running costs further down but you will also end up having, possibly, the best lawn, garden and flowers in your neighbourhood.
Irrigation is generally considered pricey but by making the right choices on available options. For example, moving from municipal water to borehole water for irrigation or adding rain-water collection tanks to supplement your watering can even cut your water-bill by more than 50%!
Now to find out how much it costs to have a residential or office park irrigation system setup, you will need to make decision on the four frequently asked irrigation system setup options below. Some of the options are technical for newbies to irrigation but we will explain them. You can always contact us for further assistance.
In practice, the various combinations of the four primary irrigation system options below gives you more than 130 pricing options! Whatever combination you choose, our price for clients in Cape Town, South Africa will typically range from R1750 for a 1-Station, Manual, Outdoor operated control unit that waters a small area (1-50 square meters) to R16000 for a 9-Station, Automatic, Outdoor operated control unit that waters a large area (201-450 square meters).
The above prices may differ in other South African cities but the range should, nevertheless, give you a general idea of what to expect to pay for a professionally set up home or office landscape irrigation system.
Primary Irrigation System Setup FAQ and Options
- What are Irrigation Stations?
Irrigation stations are the number of distinct areas that will need to be watered independently.
Generally, you want to water flowers differently from, say, lawns. Sprinklers or sprayers for lawns tend to disperse high pressure water which can damage fragile flowers. Moreover, some flowers typically do not require as frequent watering as lawns. As such, putting flowers and grass under one station might spell disaster.
Even for lawns, if your yard has different sections (say back and front) with different types of grass (say kikuyu and buffalo grass) then ideally those sections will need to be watered under different stations. For example, depending on the nature of of your soil, kikuyu grass typically requires watering 4-5 days a week, whereas buffalo grass require 2-3 days, as such they will need to be under different stations. - What is the difference in pricing between a manual and an automatic irrigation system?
You will either have a manual or an electronic/automatic system. A manual irrigation system is cheaper than an automatic irrigation system.
With the manual system, you will have to physically open a watering station’s valve to irrigate the area you want. When done, you will have to go back to the control area and switch off the water. You may then open up another station or shut off the water completely.
If you hate the hustle of going up and down to switch on and off watering then go for the automatic irrigation system. Automatic irrigation system are controlled by a control unit.
The control unit can be set to irrigate individual stations at various times, days, and cycles that suits your plants. You may also set the control unit on manual to irrigate sections you want outside of your usual automatic programs, say on exceptionally hot days to cool off plants. Of course, if it is raining you can also stop your system from watering on such a scheduled day.
The difference in pricing between manual and automatic irrigation systems isn’t wild for fewer stations. However, when the stations increase and one opts for the outdoor control unit then the difference can be quite significant.
For example, you will need to top up about R2000 to switch from a manual, single station that waters a small area (0-50 square meters) to an indoor operated automatic system covering the same area. A further R1200 will be required to advance to an outdoor operated automatic system.
Now compare the above to switching from a 9-station manual irrigation system to a 9-station, indoor operated automatic system that waters a large area (201-450 sqm). You will need to fork out R4000 to do such a switch. To upgrade even further to an outdoor operated automatic irrigation system, a top-up of R1400 will be required.
The differences increase sharply mainly due to the increase in number of electronic water valves required to drive automatic systems. A valve is required for each station. A single electrical valve costs around R250 whereas a manual valve costs just R50!
The factor that explains the difference in pricing between an indoor operated control unit and an outdoor operated control unit is the costs of the units. An automatic indoor control unit costs about R1200 whereas an outdoor one costs R2500, depending on the brand. (Popular brands in South Africa include Rain Bird and Hunter). - What is the difference in pricing between an outdoor located control unit and indoors one?
Your irrigation control unit can either be fit outdoor (by the stations’ valves unit) or indoors. With the manual system, there isn’t really a control unit per se and, as such, the location is construed to be outdoors.
However, with the automatic irrigation system, you can either place your control unit inside your house (indoors) or outside (outdoors). The outdoor control unit costs more than the indoor one because it is weather-resistant.
One would think, the indoors control unit would cost more than the outdoors unit for you do not have to go outside to operate it. Remember, however, that with the automatic system that once you have set up your watering schedules and times you would rarely tune it unless you turn on manual watering mode. As such, walking up and down is not a factor for many users.
Over and above the outdoors control unit being weather-resistant, it has the advantage of not being in your sight. With the indoors unit, you will need to find a place in the house (typically garage or kitchen) to position it. It will also permanently use one of your plugs which can be a nightmare if your house has only few plugging spots.
The indoors control unit will also need to be drilled into your wall, and a cable run to the irrigation stations manifold (where station valves are setup and irrigation pipes start from). Some do not like such cabling and wall drilling in the house and opt for the outdoors control unit instead.
The price difference between an outdoors irrigation control unit and an indoors one is about R1500. - How does area affect irrigation system setup pricing?
The size of the area being irrigated has a direct bearing on the pricing of the piping in your irrigation system and number of sprinklers used. The larger your area size, the more piping needed to cover the area.
As mentioned above, your area size also affects that number of sprayers (sprinklers, popups etc.) that are used in your system.
A large area might need to be divided into various stations even if it contains only one kind of plant for effective irrigation. For example, if you have a 400 square meter area of kikuyu grass it does not necessarily mean you will have a single station. The reason being that sprinklers can only spray water to certain distance. (Big popups spray water to distances of about twenty meters.)
In addition, the number of sprinklers you can install per station is limited. If you put many sprinklers on a single station then your water pressure will decrease miserably, making your watering less efficient and effective.
The layout of your area also affects the placing of sprinklers and consequently length of irrigation piping used.
It is not always possible to control area size but with carefully thought-out landscaping, you can minimize your irrigation setup costs. For example, a rectangular grass section will cost less to set up than an odd-shaped one that requires too many sprinklers to cover hard to reach portions.
Now that you have a basic understanding of how a residential and commercial landscape irrigation setup runs, use the form below to get an instant, online estimate of how much such costs. Typically, you will receive your price estimate via email, SMS or both.
Please note, the price figure you receive is only an estimate and not necessarily the final quote price. For an official quotation, we will need to carry out a physical site inspection and verify the size, layout, additional costs and extra work that will have to be carried out alongside the installation of your irrigation system.
The afore-mentioned necessary extra work and costs may include:
- lifting up and restoration of existing paving along planned irrigation piping paths
- purchasing of essential irrigation equipment such as borehole pump controllers for boreholes without such
- hiring of specialized tools such as Jack Hammers for breaking up concrete surfaces of rocky areas
The form below is for getting an instant and automatically generated residential or commercial landscape irrigation system setup estimate for areas within a 40km Cape Town radius. Please contact us directly for irrigation system pricing anywhere else in South Africa. Generally, the estimate price you receive will not vary significantly from the final quote price. As previously stated, to get the final quote price you will have to call us out for a site inspection.