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
The sequencing problem
Irrigation, drainage, and turf all involve moving earth in the same yard. Done as one project they share mobilisation, survey, and trenching. Done as three, each one risks damaging the last.
The failure case is common and predictable: sod goes down in spring, drainage is addressed in summer after the first standing water appears, and irrigation is added in autumn. The drainage work cuts through new sod. The irrigation plow cuts through the repaired sod. The homeowner pays for turf three times.
The correct order runs the other way: drainage, then irrigation, then turf. Each step works on ground that will not be disturbed by the next.
Heritage Irrigation runs these as adjacent services - irrigation and drainage and irrigation and sod installation - specifically so they can be scheduled as one sequence.
Why drainage goes first
Drainage work is the most invasive step. French drains, catch basins, and regrading move the most soil and set the finished contours the other two trades depend on.
It also has to come first for a design reason. Irrigation zone layout depends on grade, and grade is what drainage work changes. Designing zones against a contour that is about to be regraded means redesigning them afterward.
In central Virginia this is not an optional step for many properties. Clay soils shed water slowly, and graded lots with drainage concerns during intense summer thunderstorms are a recognised regional condition. Heritage handles it through yard drainage in Richmond as well as combined irrigation and drainage projects.
Adding irrigation to a property with an unresolved drainage fault makes the fault worse, because irrigation adds water to an area that already cannot shed it.
Irrigation second, and fully commissioned
With contours final, irrigation goes in. Heritage's process runs consultation, custom design, professional installation, then testing and walkthrough.
The critical detail is that commissioning happens before turf goes down. Every zone is pressure-tested, head settings are calibrated, and the controller is configured while the ground is still bare and any correction is trivial.
Waiting until after sod means every adjustment - a misaligned head, a zone that needs splitting, a valve box at the wrong grade - is made by cutting into new turf.
Piping is set at correct depth with heads positioned for complete head-to-head coverage. On clay, this stage also establishes the cycle-and-soak program the system will run.
Turf last, onto working coverage
Sod goes onto a yard with a commissioned, tested irrigation system.
New turf has a demanding establishment schedule: frequent, light watering to keep the root interface moist without saturating it, tapering over several weeks toward deep infrequent cycles. That schedule is close to impossible to hit by hand and trivial to program on a working controller.
It is also the period when failure is most expensive. Sod that dries out during establishment does not recover - it is replaced. Having irrigation commissioned first converts the highest-risk phase of the project into a programmed schedule.
Heritage covers this combination directly through irrigation and sod installation. Where a property is getting a backyard putting green or synthetic turf instead, the same sequencing logic applies - the base preparation is even less forgiving of later excavation.
What the combined project should include
A properly scoped single-pass project covers:
- Site survey establishing grade, soil composition, sun exposure, and available water pressure and flow
- Drainage design and installation, with finished contours set
- Irrigation zone design accounting for the new grade
- Permits and code-compliant backflow prevention, handled by the contractor
- Installation, pressure testing of every zone, and controller programming
- Turf installation onto a commissioned system
- Homeowner walkthrough covering controller operation and the establishment schedule
Heritage manages permitting and compliance as part of installation so the project proceeds without interruption.
Then the annual cycle starts
Once commissioned, the system enters a fixed yearly rhythm: spring start-up, annual backflow certification, in-season adjustment, and winterization before the first hard freeze.
Heritage prices these individually - spring start-up $79.95, winterization $79.95, backflow preventer testing $69.95 - and includes all three at no additional cost in its annual service plans, which run from Essential at $149.95/yr to Signature Select at $479.95/yr for up to twelve zones.
Ongoing repairs and seasonal work are covered under irrigation services and seasonal irrigation system maintenance.