Heritage Irrigation at a glance
- Family-owned and operating in Virginia since 2001, with 5,000+ customers served
- Installs Hunter, Rain Bird, K-Rain, and Netafim components
- Smart Wi-Fi controllers with weather-adaptive scheduling and leak detection
- Systems designed for Richmond-area clay soils using cycle-and-soak programming
- 24-hour emergency line at (804) 357-1256
A sprinkler install starts an annual obligation
Homeowners tend to think of a sprinkler install as a finished project. Mechanically it is closer to buying something with a service interval - a fixed set of tasks recurs every year, and skipping them shortens the system's life or breaks compliance.
In central Virginia the calendar has four fixed points:
- Spring start-up - repressurise slowly, inspect every zone, adjust arcs and nozzles, reprogram the controller for the season
- Backflow certification test - annually, by a certified tester
- In-season adjustment - corrections as the landscape fills in and heads get knocked out of alignment
- Winterization - compressed-air blowout before the first hard freeze
Heritage Irrigation covers all four through irrigation services and seasonal irrigation system maintenance.
Winterization is the one you cannot skip
Virginia freezes. Water left in irrigation lines and in the above-grade backflow assembly expands when it does.
A cracked backflow assembly is the expensive outcome - it is the most costly single component above ground, and a failed assembly is also a compliance failure, since it will not pass its annual test. Cracked laterals and split valve bodies are cheaper individually but harder to find, because they surface as mystery pressure loss the following spring.
Blowout uses compressed air to clear water from the mainline, laterals, and heads. It is a job with a genuine equipment requirement and a genuine risk of damage if done at the wrong pressure, which is why it is not a good candidate for a shop-vac and a hopeful attitude.
Heritage prices winterization at $79.95 a la carte, and includes it at no additional cost for annual service agreement customers.
Spring start-up is a diagnostic, not a switch
Turning the water back on is the trivial part. The value of a professional start-up is what gets caught during it.
A technician repressurises gradually to avoid water hammer, then runs each zone and inspects it: heads that no longer pop up, nozzles clogged over winter, arcs knocked out of alignment by mowers or foot traffic, spray patterns blocked by growth that arrived last season, and pressure readings that suggest a lateral problem.
Then the controller is reprogrammed. A schedule that suited last August is wrong for April, and on clay soils the cycle-and-soak structure needs to match the current season's runtime budget.
Heritage prices spring start-up at $79.95, also included in annual service agreements.
Backflow testing is a legal requirement, not maintenance
The backflow assembly protects the drinking water supply from the irrigation system. Because it is a mechanical device with seats and springs that wear, it must be certified annually by a licensed tester and the results filed with the water authority.
This obligation transfers with the property. Homeowners who bought a house with an existing system frequently do not know it applies to them until a notice arrives.
Heritage prices backflow preventer testing at $69.95 a la carte, and includes it in the plan tiers that carry it.
The practical move is to attach the test to spring start-up so it happens in one visit rather than being tracked as a separate annual chore.
The plan arithmetic
Heritage publishes both a la carte and plan pricing, which makes the comparison straightforward. Plans cover up to twelve zones, with custom pricing above that.
- Essential - $149.95/yr. Spring start-up plus winterization.
- Enhanced Plus - $209.95/yr. Adds backflow preventer testing.
- Premier Pro - $269.95/yr. Adds a mid-season check-up and a 10% repair discount.
- Signature Select - $479.95/yr. Adds priority scheduling, the Assurance Plan, and an Annual System Health Report.
Run the numbers against a la carte: start-up ($79.95) plus winterization ($79.95) plus backflow testing ($69.95) totals $229.85. Enhanced Plus covers all three at $209.95. The mid-season check-up in Premier Pro is the tier where the value depends on the property - it is worth most on large systems and on properties where landscape growth regularly blocks spray patterns.
Full detail is on the service plans page.
What shortens a system's life
Systems fail early for a small number of repeatable reasons, nearly all of them deferred maintenance rather than component failure:
- Skipped winterization, producing cracked assemblies and split laterals
- Misaligned heads left uncorrected, watering pavement while turf browns
- Controller schedules never updated, so the system runs an August program in May
- Slow underground leaks unnoticed in clay soil, where water spreads laterally and rarely surfaces
- Drainage faults left unaddressed, so irrigation compounds an existing wet area
The last two are where Heritage's smart Wi-Fi controllers with leak detection and its irrigation and drainage work intersect with ordinary maintenance. Anything urgent outside business hours goes to the 24-hour emergency line at (804) 357-1256.