Irrigation Design Associates, Inc.

They are like all the rest of them. They are a lot of pain in the as$. They take forever to get scheduled and come late or they don't show up or what ever. They are all the same. I talked to a bunch of people about them and they are not very happy with them. When they finally show up they do a good job. You wear out your telephone dialing finger getting a hold of them to get things scheduled. Since I can't find anyone else that scores any higher I will continue to use them. It is not a happy choice.

I will definitely continue to use them.

Not good. We signed the contract in mid-September and were told they would probably install the following week. We did not hear from them for over a month. They finally set an installation date of Thursday, October 30 - which was the first time we heard they would need access to the house for 2 days. They were only supposed to need access to the inside of the house for the morning of the first day, so we arranged to have someone there. However, the plumber didn't show up until after lunch, which caused a huge scheduling problem. Initially, some of the taller pipes they installed were white pvc pipes with bar codes all over them. It looked hidious, and they agreed to replace them with copper (which looks fine). They wanted to wait to install the drip irrigation until this spring. However, I'm not sure when that will happened. We have called them 3 times in the last week, and no one has bothered to return our calls. I will probably have to call someone else to get the system up and running (and install drip), although this service was supposed to be part of the original cost. Absolutely one of the most disorganized companies I have used. I don't even know if the system works, since I haven't been able to use it.

I thought the estimate was fair. I think the actual electric box didn't work for one month. My flowers began to wither. They sent someone out and they said I did something wrong. The third time, the owner came out. He said that they would set it up again in the spring. They really tore up my lawn. They dug up the grass and put pipes in the front. I will need to have it reseeded. They didn't take any responsibility for it. They forgot to put a rain sensor on my property.

I liked everything. They answered my calls promptly and came out within the next day. They were very friendly. About 2-3 days later, they provided an estimate which was the least expensive of the three companies I received from Angie's List. They were able to cover all the areas I wanted to water and walked me through the entire yard to show me the placement of each sprinkler head. He asked for a deposit, but proceeded with the job before receiving it. They also did a follow up after the job was complete and made sure everything was to my satisfaction.

Last year, I knew I wanted to install a sprinkler system the coming spring so I called Irrigation Design. Did not bid it out because they had such a good rating on Angie's List and I wanted to be sure the approximate cost would be within budget. Because the first meeting went so well with great follow up and the price seemed reasonable, I decided they would be the contractor of choice in the spring. I'm fairly anxious for spring as soon as the new year hits so I started calling in early January to setup a March install. Ends up sprinkler companies seem to shut down for the winter as no one returned my calls for weeks. Due to lack of response, I eventually called other companies and got more prices. A few were a penny or two lower but most were higher. Once Irrigation Design was "back in business" in late February, they called back, apologized and met with me again to run through the project. The expertise relative to the other estimators was impressive and they gave me a strong feeling of confidence that they would go out of their way to be sure all went as planned. Eventually I signed up and was their first install of the 2008 spring. They did a great job. Best part: there was a small leak in the copper leaving the house. When I noticed it a few weeks after the install, they were at the house hours later to fix. Also, the rain sensor wasn't turning the system off when it rained - as soon as I figured that out, I called and again, hours later, they were at the house fixing it. Excellent response all around. The crew did a great job with limited damage to the lawn or my gardens. I recommend Irrigation Design Just don t call them off season as no one s home.

See "work performed" section for estimate process. On the day of installation, the IDA team arrived around 8:30 am as promised, and immediately began working on the installation. Around 9:00, the foreman (Mike?) arrived, and we walked around the lot so that he could confirm that the location of the sprinklers was adequate for our landscaping plans. Around 10:30, a plumber (sub-contracted by IDA) came out, shut off the water and installed the backflow preventer in our basement near the water heater. As the plumber finished, the on-site manager installed the programmable controller in the garage where I requested (a connecting line was run through the basement to the garage). The foreman, who left after speaking with his team in the morning, returned around around 3:00 when the installation was nearly complete. He toured the lot and confirmed that all sprinklers were working appropriately. He then showed me how to operate the controller, and answered my questions.

VERY DIFFICULT TO GET A HOLD OF THEM. WAS TOLD BY THE PREVIOUS HOMEOWNER THEY WERE THE ONES TO COME OUT AND BLOW COMPRESSED AIR THROUGH THE LINES IN PREPARATION FOR WINTER. SINCE I COULDN'T GET THEM ON THE PHONE, AND SINCE THEY DIDN'T RETURN MY CALLS, I TRIED OTHER COMPANIES IN THE AREA. I WAS USUALLY TOLD THAT ''IF WE DIDN'T INSTALL IT, WE DON'T SERVICE IT.'' FORTUNATELY, THEIR OFFICE WAS ONLY ABOUT 10 MINUTES FROM MINE AND I HAD TO DRIVE TO THEIR OFFICE TO GET ON THEIR SERVICE CALENDAR AND AM NOW ON THEIR CUSTOMER MAILING LIST. OTHER THAN THAT, PRICE WAS IN LINE WITH OTHER COMPANIES, THOUGH SLIGHTLY HIGHER, BUT JOB WAS PERFORMED PROFESSIONALLY AND WITHOUT INCIDENT. $90 FOR <30 MINUTES WORK IS A BUSINESS I SHOULD GET INTO WHEN ALL YOU'RE SUPPLYING IS AIR!

THEY WERE SOMETIMES HARD TO GET AHOLD OF. THEY HAD TO COME BACK TO MAKE SOME CORRECTIONS BECAUSE SOME SPRINKLER HEADS WERE PLACED WHERE 100% COVERAGE WAS NOT PROVIDED. THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE IT OUT THE FIRST TIME.