Irrigation Maintenance Updates

Latest Update

UPDATED WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23:

**this will be our final irrigation update of the season

As of the end of Monday, October 21st, C N’R has completed all scheduled winterization of sprinkler systems. This is a process of bringing a machine to pump pressurized air through your sprinkler lines to blow out the water, and prepare the back flow for the season.

On Tuesday, October 22nd, C N’R returned their rented air compressor to the vendor, therefore this service is shut-down for the season. Any last second requests we will not be able to honor simply because we do not have the machine anymore.

Thank you very much for your sprinkler system business this season! It was quite the weird season to say the least when we had about 3 months (mid-April thru mid-July) where we were getting pounded with way too much rain. Sprinklers were not even needed for a lot of the season. Therefore, if you did sign up for our optional summer sprinkler “tune up” service, it was not really needed, plus all other services were so far behind at that time that we were forced to put all hands on deck to catch up on other services (long story). Then, at the end of the season, it suddenly got really dry with a record hot and record dry September. Only in Minnesota….but we do want to again thank all customers for all their patience this season!

Past Updates

UPDATED WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2

AS EXPLAINED OVER THE PAST SEVERAL UPDATES: If you are looking for more details on how our summer went for irrigation services, please read past updates when you scroll down this page. You will be able to find out more about our sprinkler tune-up services (if you were signed up) and how weather/other items affected this service this season. We thank all our great customers for their patience!

As we now are into October, we are focusing on Sprinkler System Winterization services. This is taking place between the exact dates of 9/30 & 10/21 (no weekends).

At the time of this update, our entire "scheduling layout" for all customers have been completed and the date/time frame of when the winterization service will occur. Remember, we have very limited flex in scheduling/dates/times. Once a scheduling plan has been made, it is tough to have negotiations on available dates, because we send out all scheduling emails simultaneously within the timeframe we rent an air compressor. We appreciated your ability to flexible.

With our scheduling, we provides (3) three options on how we can succeed on the scheduled date offered:
1. Customer will be home
2. Customer to turn off the water downstairs and grant access to the control box (usually in the garage).
3. Someone else will be home to let C N’R in.

These 3 options can help make any appointment time work out.

Thank you very much for your business this spring/summer/fall!

UPDATED SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8:

First off: If you are looking for more details on how our summer went for irrigation services, please read past updates when you scroll down this page. You will be able to find out more about our sprinkler tune-up services (if you were signed up) and how weather/other items affected this service this season.

But, this point forward, we continue to focus on Sprinkler System Winterization services. This will take place between the exact dates of 9/30 & 10/21 (no weekends).

At the time of this update, we have finalized our scheduling layout for all customers and the date/time frame of when the winterization service will occur. Remember, we have very limited flex in scheduling/dates/times. Once a scheduling plan has been made, it is tough to have negotiations on available dates, because we send out all scheduling emails simultaneously within the timeframe we do have an air compressor. We appreciated your ability to flexible.

With our scheduling, we provides (3) three options on how we can succeed on the scheduled date offered:
1. Customer will be home
2. Customer to turn off the water downstairs and grant access to the control box (usually in the garage).
3. Someone else will be home to let C N’R in.

These 3 options can help make any appointment time work out.

Thank you very much for your business this spring/summer/fall!

ORIGINALLY UPDATED TUESDAY, AUGUST 6:

**PLEASE NOTE: The update below continues to be accurate for the months of July & August. We will post another update during the week of 9/9 talking more about sprinkler winterization plans.

SPRINKLER SYSTEM TUNE-UP SERVICES (this is an optional service customer can sign up for):

For typical seasons, upon signing up for this service, C N'R offers to come by 1-2 times per summer to simply go through your sprinkler system. We be sure the rain sensor (if applicable) is properly working and we go through each zone/sprinkler head as it is also important to see if anything has broken, and/or maybe see if heads are not rotating anymore. During hot/dry summers, these malfunctions can show up pretty easily as we all know just by looking at the grass and how its health is doing (burnt areas). But, this season, we have not had much need for sprinkler usage until July because of how wet it was in May & June. July even had some good downpours to help with some shorter stretches of hotter weather.

Now as we are into August, we still have not been able to schedule any “tune-up” service trips yet this season. We do feel it is unnecessary at this time due to how much rain we continue to get. The settings that we apply during the "spring start-up” process are still good to go - likely for the rest of the season.

Also, due to unforeseen circumstances, it will be very tough to accomplish any scheduled tune-up work the rest of this season. If you are looking for a deeper explanation about the reasons why, you can certainly EMAIL CRAIG and he will be happy to talk about it.

But, once again, at the time of this update, it was August 6th. We just received another 2-4” of rain. We have a longer stretch of highs in the 70’s forecasted. The way the sprinklers are set up right now, we should be golden in the sprinkler department. Then it will all-of-a-sudden be September soon and we will be talking about scheduling sprinkler winterizations. Speaking of winterizations, the dates in which we plan to complete all sprinkler winterizations will be from September 30th thru October 21st. Your scheduled date will be emailed out later in September/early October (depending on where you are on the schedule).

Of course, if you are a current customer and you do have a service call situation where you need us to come out, please EMAIL CRAIG and we will get on it as fast as we can. We are still here to service our seasonal sprinkler system customers.

UPDATED TUESDAY, AUGUST 6:

SPRINKLER SYSTEM TUNE-UP SERVICES (this is an optional service customer can sign up for):

For typical seasons, upon signing up for this service, C N'R offers to come by 1-2 times per summer to simply go through your sprinkler system. We be sure the rain sensor (if applicable) is properly working and we go through each zone/sprinkler head as it is also important to see if anything has broken, and/or maybe see if heads are not rotating anymore. During hot/dry summers, these malfunctions can show up pretty easily as we all know just by looking at the grass and how its health is doing (burnt areas). But, this season, we have not had much need for sprinkler usage until July because of how wet it was in May & June. July even had some good downpours to help with some shorter stretches of hotter weather.

Now as we are into August, we still have not been able to schedule any “tune-up” service trips yet this season. We do feel it is unnecessary at this time due to how much rain we continue to get. The settings that we apply during the "spring start-up” process are still good to go - likely for the rest of the season.

Also, due to unforeseen circumstances, it will be very tough to accomplish any scheduled tune-up work the rest of this season. If you are looking for a deeper explanation about the reasons why, you can certainly EMAIL CRAIG and he will be happy to talk about it.

But, once again, at the time of this update, it was August 6th. We just received another 2-4” of rain. We have a longer stretch of highs in the 70’s forecasted. The way the sprinklers are set up right now, we should be golden in the sprinkler department. Then it will all-of-a-sudden be September soon and we will be talking about scheduling sprinkler winterizations. Speaking of winterizations, the dates in which we plan to complete all sprinkler winterizations will be from September 30th thru October 21st. Your scheduled date will be emailed out later in September/early October (depending on where you are on the schedule).

Of course, if you are a current customer and you do have a service call situation where you need us to come out, please EMAIL CRAIG and we will get on it as fast as we can. We are still here to service our seasonal sprinkler system customers.

UPDATED SUNDAY, JULY 28:

SPRINKLER SYSTEM TUNE-UP SERVICES (this is an optional service customer can sign up for):

For typical seasons, upon signing up for this service, C N'R offers to come by 1-2 times per summer to simply go through your sprinkler system. We be sure the rain sensor (if applicable) is properly working and we go through each zone/sprinkler head as it is also important to see if anything has broken, and/or maybe see if heads are not rotating anymore. During hot/dry summers, these malfunctions can show up pretty easy as we all know just by looking at the grass and how its health is doing (burnt areas). But, this season, we have not had much need for sprinkler usage until July due to the heavy rains May & June, and even some good downpours in July are still occurring.

At the time of this update (late July going into August), it is definitely warmer and it is getting a bit drier, but current forecast trends have later July into early August with plenty of shots of moisture.

And due to the “back up” of landscape services during the first half of the season when we did not have many days available to work, sprinkler service items have been tough to get to due to shortness in help and we need all hands on deck to work on projects that are way behind.

Currently (at the time of this update), we do not have a plan for sprinkler tune-up visits quite yet, and we are wondering if we will this season just due to the way the season has gone (super wet, big delays, etc). Our settings from the spring on the sprinkler systems that we do monitor are still good now even though it is hotter and dryer, because lawns are looking quite healthy out there and Mother Nature continues to help. Also, if you are a homeowner, you can simply raise some of your zone times if needed. For now, C N’R is on hold to complete sprinkler work until further notice. As we get a couple weeks into August, we will open up the conversation again and see if we can start making a visit to some (maybe not all) sprinkler system tune-ups if you are signed up.

If you have further questions and would like further information about our decision making explained above, please EMAIL CRAIG.

ALSO: Of course, if you are a C N’R sprinkler system customer and you think you need us to come out to look at a possible problem, we can get on it as soon as possible. Again, EMAIL CRAIG your request.

UPDATED SUNDAY, JULY 14:

ARE YOU SIGNED UP FOR OUR "optional" sprinkler system tune-up service this summer?

For typical seasons, upon signing up, C N'R offers to come by 1-2 times per summer to simply go through your sprinkler system. We be sure the rain sensor is properly working and we go through each zone/sprinkler head as it is also important to see if anything has broken, and/or maybe see if heads are not rotating anymore. During hot/dry summers, these malfunctions can show up pretty easy as we all know just by looking at the grass and how its health is doing (burnt areas). But, so far this season, we have not had much need for sprinklers unless you are watering more sensitive plants. The question is: Will our frequent bouts of rain continue through most of this summer instead of drought conditions that we experienced the past 2 summers in a row?

At the time of this update (middle of July) - we are hotter at times, but we are still receiving good bouts of rain and scattered downpours. This is good for our lawns as they continue to look green and lush whether you are regularly running your sprinkler system or not.

We did email advice to many customers early in June to simply turn your system off because the rain was relentless. Since then, during the beginning on July, we did reach back out to those particular customers and advise to turn the sprinklers back into a regular schedule mode just because it was getting hotter.

Most systems zone run-time settings are still set to a "spring mode" - meaning, when C N'R originally started up sprinklers, we enter zone times in to reflect the time of the season, not heavy watering early on. We feel these settings are still good even though we are getting some bouts of heat because the rainfall is still consistent enough. We hope this makes sense.

What this all means is that we are still not technically scheduling sprinkler check ups in a full-time matter at this time. If you are signed up for this service, we are monitoring your lawn and the weather and if we feel we need to get to your particular property to make some adjustments after noticing any bad elements within your lawn, we will certainly contact you to come by as soon as we can.

Also, a domino effect of C N'R services being significantly behind schedule for the months of May and June has created stress on our irrigation department for services as we are still trying to use more help toward other services more in need than working on our sprinkler tune up services because lawns are still looking great!

Once we start regularly scheduling our Tune-up service, we will update this service at that point right here! We will at least be getting around to everyone 1x this season still, and if it is later in the season than usual, then we will just make a decision at that time on what to do with zone times, etc, but still go through sprinkler heads to be sure things are operating correctly.

UPDATED FRIDAY, JUNE 21:

C N’R’s “sprinkler system start-up” service did run through early June this season before all systems were gone through and set up. Was this a bit late? No, this is perfectly on-time, and even though we had a lot of bumpy weather (rainy days) to battle during the month of May into June, we mostly stayed consistent and worked through a lot of the weather bumps (not all, but most). Being done with this service during the first half of June is very normal for C N'R, and we were able to finish up the first week in June. We thank you for your business and patience!

OPTIONAL SPRINKLER SUMMER “tune-ups” ? This is a service that you can sign up for if you desire. Most seasons, upon signing up, we like to come by 1-2 times per summer to simply go through the sprinkler system. Make sure the rain sensor is properly working and going through sprinkler heads is also important to see if anything has broke, or maybe some heads are not rotating anymore. During hot/dry summers, these malfunctions can show up pretty quickly as we all know just by looking at the grass and how its health is doing. But, so far this season, no need for sprinklers! Will the rain continue through most of the summer instead of drought conditions the past 2 summers in a row? That is a question yet to get answered, and for now we are not scheduling/planning any tune-ups until further notice. We will continue to monitor the weather.

If you have further questions about your sprinkler system that C N’R services, please feel free to reach out and EMAIL CRAIG.

UPDATED WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12:

C N’R’s “sprinkler system start-up” service did run through early June this season before all systems were gone through and set up. Is this late? No, this is perfectly on-time, and even though we had a lot of weather to battle during the month of May, we mostly stayed consistent and worked through a lot of the weather bumps (not all, but most). Being done with this service during the first half of June is very normal for our company, and we were able to finish up the first week in June. We thank you for your business and patience!

OPTIONAL SPRINKLER SUMMER “tune-ups” ? This is a service that you can sign up for if you desire. Most seasons, upon signing up, we like to come by 1-2 times per summer to simply go through the sprinkler system. Make sure the rain sensor is properly working and going through sprinkler heads is also important to see if anything has broke, or maybe some heads are not rotating anymore. During hot/dry summers, these malfunctions can show up pretty quickly as we all know just by looking at the grass and how its health is doing. But, so far this season, no need for sprinklers! Will the rain continue through most of the summer instead of drought conditions the past 2 summers in a row? That is a question yet to get answered, and for now we are not scheduling/planning any tune-ups until further notice. We will continue to monitor the weather.

If you have further questions about your sprinkler system that C N’R services, please feel free to reach out and EMAIL CRAIG.

UPDATED MONDAY, JUNE 3:

SPRINKLER SYSTEM START-UP SCHEDULE? Yes, we do continue to “open” and “go thru” sprinkler systems as we head into the first week of June (this is actually normal). Weather has plagued us through the month of May, but we are still proud of our progress working through Mother Nature and her plans. We do expect this service to wrap up during the week of June 3rd, and all systems will be “a-go” for the season.
All customers have been contact at this time for scheduling.

WHAT IS NEXT FOR SPRINKLERS? C N’R completes 1-2 rounds of “sprinkler tune-ups” (check-ups) through the summer season. This all depends on past/current & forecasted weather conditions. At the time of this update since we are just wrapping up the “start up season”, we do not have any plans quite yet to come around to check on sprinklers systems. With all our rain, systems are not working very hard at all yet, so no hurry here. Our sprinkler “tune-up” service is an OPTIONAL service customers can sign up for, so not everyone receives these check-ups through the season prior to the end of the season when we do “winterization”. And obviously winterizations are still 4 months out.

ALSO: Through the summer, C N’R will be open for some installations or add-ons to existing systems. We do have some confirmed projects in this category that are on our radar eventually, and if you are looking for some sort of installation, addition, or change of your current system, please go to FREE ESTIMATES and submit your request and we can go from there.

UPDATED FRIDAY, MAY 24:
**the next update for this service will occur around June 3rd, or during the week of June 3rd

Please scroll down to read the past update from May 19th to get a sense of how things have been going for this service.

At the time of this update (5/24), sprinkler system start up service continues to be completed. The start up process will last through the week of June 3rd. If you are not scheduled yet, you should be getting an email shortly.

But, again, scroll down to the previous update to read up on progress.

Any further questions, EMAIL CRAIG.

UPDATED SUNDAY, MAY 19:

For even more information about our progress with sprinkler system start ups, please read past updates below.

To sum our progress up, at the time of this update, we are now 3 weeks into the sprinkler “start-up” season with a couple weeks left to go. It is very normal for this service to last through the entire month of May and into June. We try to get to all sprinkler systems to have them running as fast as possible, but as we are going from appointment to appointment, we do focus on thorough work on each system, not hurry through them.

As far as weather has been concerned, we came into the season actually pretty wet with our late March snow, and some really good April rains. Then, we got into May, and it started to dry out a bit, and it started to get warmer. But our warm/dry days were not super long and consecutive enough to really start “burning” things out per-say. Most remember the past 2 springs where it became a hot summer very quickly, very early in the spring. When we started to naturally warm up this spring, it brought back those memories, and there was some panic out there to start sprinkler systems. But, now, here we sit around May 19th at the time of this update and we have had some scattered good rains, and now the forecast actually calls for a months worth of rain during a 3-day period (May 20-23).

Folks, we understand when you plant your pots you want the sprinkler water on for some, but remember, most sprinkler systems are designed for grass areas. Temps and moisture look just fine and there is really no reason to panic. C N’R will get to all scheduled sprinkler start-ups just as soon as we can. We can fully assure you we are working our tails off.

Again, we want to send a big thanks to our GREAT customers for being patient as we strive on customer satisfaction, and we want to have all sprinklers up and running as soon as possible!

Stay tuned for more updates!

UPDATED SUNDAY, MAY 12:

On Wednesday, May 15th - this will mark the end of our THIRD week of sprinkler system start ups. Please note, it takes about 5-6 weeks to properly turn on and go through each zone of every sprinkler system. Some companies move much faster because they turn them on, and if they see water coming out, they move on. We at C N’R thrive on detail and like to spend more time for each start up to be sure all areas are being covered appropriately with water, and all items of the sprinkler system are working in their proper state. Because of paying attention to details, yes, it takes C N’R a bit more time, but in the end, it is worth it for our customers to have confidence things are working good before the “hotter” season arrives. If you have not been quite turned on and gone through quite yet, if you feel you really need the water on, feel free to turn it on, and once we do have a scheduled date for you, we will still go through each zone/sprinkler head on your system.

Remember, last season we did not start until May 8th! Yes, we did not JUST START until May 8th turning on sprinkler systems. This year is WAY ahead of that obviously, but near normal for scheduling (just a bit behind). We say a bit behind because that late March snow and much rain the first half of April, or even most of April, it took longer to get things going service wise even though back in mid-March, it appeared everything was going to be starting WAY earlier than normal. Late March snow erased that “early start” idea completely away, and if you are a snowbird customer, you may not realize that.

One more note of good news, although it is starting to warm up a bit more at the time of this update…as we said above….we have had some pretty darn good beneficial rains this early season which quickly removed us from our drought status. Grass/trees/shrubs, etc, are happy, and most sprinkler systems we have started earlier this spring we have left off from regular watering anyways due to how wet it has been. So, if you see that it is now starting to dry out a bit, this is ok. We need it to dry out. It has been too wet.

Thank you for your patience during the “start up” season, we will get to everyone just as fast as we can.

UPDATED SUNDAY, MAY 5:

We are currently in progress with sprinkler system start ups at the time of this update. C N’R started about 3 weeks ahead of last season’s LATE START. But, when we actually did start during the week of April 22nd this season, this was still about a week later than a “normal spring”. So, yes, way ahead of last year, but still a bit behind from normal due to our late-March snow and melt thereafter.

With the above said, as we eluded to on our 4/18 update (scroll down to read past updates), we have received plenty of moisture since the end of March, and now a month later, we continue to collect moisture (we have been dropped from our drought condition). At this point, there is no emergency with any sprinkler system if this weather continues. This does NOT mean we take some days off from getting all sprinkler systems up and running as we are working Monday through Friday on them until we are totally done. This DOES mean that requesting your system to be turned on ASAP is really not valid with the moisture we have received and we continue to receive.

C N’R will continue to schedule this service weekly (we do not put out a full schedule at once like we do in the fall) - as we do need to consider weather and rainy days for the sprinkler start up, because it is tough to work on sprinkler systems in the rain. And as Mother Nature decides on days we cannot work, then the schedule moves back.

We will definitely keep you posted on progress as more weeks go by. We do expect to be completing sprinkler start ups through the entire month of May. There is plenty of time to go, and we will get around to everyone as fast as possible before June or into very early June.

Please feel free to EMAIL CRAIG with further questions you may have.

UPDATED SUNDAY, APRIL 28:

Please read the past update from April 18th to catch up on what has lead us to this point, and this update.

But, in short, we are now currently now in progress with sprinkler system start ups. This is about 3 weeks ahead of last season’s LATE START. But, when we actually did start during the week of April 22nd, this is even a few days to a week later than a “normal spring”. So, yes, way ahead of last year, but still a bit behind from normal.

With this said, as we eluded to on our previous 4/18 update, we have received plenty of moisture since the end of March, and now a month later, we continue to collect moisture (we have been dropped from our drought condition). At this point, there is no emergency with any sprinkler system if this weather continues. This does NOT mean we take some days off from getting all sprinkler systems up and running as we are working Monday through Friday on them until we are totally done. This DOES mean that requesting your system to be turned on ASAP is really not valid with the moisture we have received and we continue to receive.

C N’R will continue to schedule this service weekly (we do not put out a full schedule at once like we do in the fall) - we do need to consider weather and rainy days for the sprinkler start up, because it is tough to work on sprinkler systems in the rain. And as Mother Nature decides on days we cannot work, then the schedule moves back.

We will definitely keep you posted on progress as the weeks go by. We do expect to be completing sprinkler start ups through the entire month of May. There is plenty of time to go, and we will get around to everyone as fast as possible.

Please feel free to EMAIL CRAIG with further questions you may have.

UPDATED THURSDAY, APRIL 18:

Sprinkler System Start-ups will officially begin the week of April 22nd which will be almost 2 weeks ahead of last year, and about right on schedule for a “normal” season. This means all sprinkler systems should be opened earlier this season than last season, but it is still a 6 week process. So, at this time, even though it is way too early to project when all start-ups will be completed, it is still safe to say it will take all of May to get them done. Also, remember, we do not schedule super far ahead due to weather problems that can develop. For sprinkler winterizations in the fall, we send out a full schedule at the beginning of that season, but during start-ups, it is a week to week scheduling format. Why? Well, because if it is going to be a rainy day working in the mud and rain trying to go through a sprinkler system and solving possible leaks in heads is very difficult to do while it is raining. When it rains all day, a lot of times appointments can get cancelled, and the schedule will delay a bit. In the fall when we are only “blowing out” the lines, even if it is raining, it is a lot easier to work through it.

On another note, let’s briefly talk about moisture. We all know we have been in drought conditions for the past couple of seasons. And then we hardly had any moisture this last winter. When late March came, we had 3 snow events with very high liquid ratios. This was great for drought! Plus the ground was not frozen which helped that melting snow NOT to “run-off” as much. And during April, we get some good rains, and actually on April 15th, we were removed from our drought status and things are becoming “normal” again. With all this moisture, at this time, there is no hurry to have sprinkler systems running regularly when it has been so wet already this season, plus it seems we do have plenty of chances looking ahead through the end of April. Please have patience with the start up process. Our amazing irrigation tech works his tail off for everyone and we cannot get all start-ups done at once.

Stay tuned for more updates to come!

Early April Update:

Sprinkler start-ups were on track to possibly start a bit earlier than “average” this season, and WAY earlier than the past 2 seasons. The last couple years, we have not been able to start sprinkler start ups until May which is pretty late to just “start”! This season, it seemed maybe during the first half of April, we would be able to get started on things, but our late-March snow halted this plan, and here we sit early April wondering when it will be a good time to start? Current thinking is to get out during the week of 4/15 or 4/22 to get things started, such as cleaning out water features and then moving onto starting some sprinkler systems. Barring no huge April snowstorms, we really should be very steady with our sprinkler start up services right around April 22nd, give or take. Stay tuned for more updates to come.

UPDATED MARCH 3RD, 2024:

We have a couple different services we do during the season for sprinkler systems. The first is our sprinkler “start-up” service. Then, as the season goes on, we have an OPTIONAL sprinkler “tune-up” service. And then in the fall is our Winterization process during the month of October.

For now, signing up for these services should be our customers focus just in case we get a head start this season starting systems up. Although things are pointing to an early spring, it is unclear how early we will start opening sprinkler systems.

We do expect our “start-up” season to start sometime in April, and if it is an “on-time” start, usually we can be done with all start ups by early June. The last couple years have been late which changed our “average” schedule plan.

Stay tuned for more updates to come later in March!

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