Sprinkler winterization checklist and cost: the fall blowout, the spring start-up and what to charge (free printable and route sheet)

Published November 8, 2026 · Steps and prices checked November 8, 2026

• Free. The two checklists are a printable (Google Docs, Word or PDF), and the route sheet is a Google Sheets copy or an Excel file. The links come by email.
• Deepsel is our product: free estimate, invoice and scheduling software for contractors (scheduling, quotes, invoicing, card payments, service plans). The section before the FAQ says where it fits and where it doesn't.
• The steps come from Hunter, Rain Bird and Colorado State University Extension, linked below. The prices are what irrigation owners said on Reddit, each checked live on November 8, 2026. They aren't a survey.
• Follow the manufacturer's instructions for each component. Compressed air can throw debris and hurt you: wear eye protection and don't stand over pipes, heads or valves while the system is under air.

A sprinkler blowout pushes the water out of every zone with compressed air before the first freeze, at no more than 50 psi on polyethylene pipe and 80 psi on PVC, with the air going in after the backflow assembly, never through it. The spring start-up refills the system slowly, resets the controller, and runs every zone to find what winter broke. For an irrigation company these are the two visits that come back every year: owners charge $65 to $100 a blowout (or $8 to $26 a zone with an $80 or $90 minimum), $75 to $100 for a one-tech start-up, and $150 to $250 a year for both.

Both checklists are on this page, and as a printable with one page for each visit: make your own copy in Google Docs (lands in your Drive), download the Word version (.docx), or download the PDF. Each page has the customer's zones, pipe type, backflow type and compressor settings at the top, the steps with tick boxes, a zone log, and room for the repairs to quote. The route sheet keeps the whole book in one place: customer, address, zones, controller, backflow type, the blowout date and price, the start-up date and price, and the backflow test due date, with totals for what's booked and done. Get it as a Google Sheets copy or an Excel file (.xlsx). Pick a format, enter your email and I'll send the links.

Why the two visits are the recurring book

Irrigation service is seasonal in a way customers can set a calendar by. A contractor described his year: "For us it picks back up in September when people want them 'fixed for next year'. Then October we blow them out and it's all over for 5 months until April."¹² The start-up and the blowout bracket that season, and each one is a reason to be in the yard: the start-up finds the broken heads and the leaking valve, and the blowout is a visit nobody wants to skip, because a frozen backflow assembly costs far more than the blowout. If you plow in those five months, snow removal pricing works out per push and seasonal prices from your truck hour.

It adds up. A Missouri irrigation owner wrote about a solo backflow tester who "picked up around 100 customers his first year. Which, if you winterize the same customers irrigation systems in the fall you can make a quick $17000 each year with just those 100 customers."¹² An owner with ten years in the trade, who had just formed his LLC, priced the pair as an annual contract: "I've landed at about $250. That gives me $75 for a startup and $175 for a winterization."¹³ Sell both at once, in the fall or with the install, and the spring is booked before it starts. Keep the promise to the visits you can count. Another owner's advice: "Set your price for an opening and closing and don't corner yourself by offering check-ups."¹²

The fall blowout, step by step

Size the compressor and set the pressure

• Volume. Colorado State's fact sheet says "Air volume is as critical as air pressure. If an insufficient volume of air is used, after forcing some water out, the air will ride over the top of the water," and the water left behind drains to the low spots and freezes. Hunter and Colorado State give the same formula: the gallons per minute of the largest zone, divided by 7.5, is the cubic feet per minute (CFM) you need.^1,3 Hunter's flow meter page puts it as a machine: "an air compressor with a cubic foot per minute (CFM) rating of 80-100 for any 2" or less mainline."²
• Pressure. Hunter: "Pressure should not exceed 50 psi for polyethylene pipe or 80 psi for PVC pipe," and the blowout pressure "should remain below the maximum operating pressure specification of the lowest pressure-rated component in that zone." Colorado State gives the same 50 and 80 psi limits and warns that pressure above the nozzles' rating "will blow the sprinkler nozzles off."^1,3 Rain Bird's homeowner guide uses 50 psi for everything.⁴
• No shortcuts. "Do not attempt to fully charge the holding tank and then release the highly pressurized air flow into the mainline to compensate for the compressor's lack of CFM."¹ Rent or buy the volume. One owner runs three: "185 Airman tow behind for the big places, 90 vanair skid mount, and 50 CFM Kaeser skid mount. The 50 and 90 cfm is capable of doing most places."¹⁴

The steps

1. Put on eye protection. Don't stand over pipes, heads or valves while there's air in the system.¹
2. Shut off the irrigation water supply at the stop and waste valve or the main shutoff. If the valve is buried, use the key and don't force it.³
3. Remove any flow sensor and seal the pipe, "to avoid damage to the sensor."¹
4. Close the backflow assembly's isolation valves. Attach the compressor hose to the blowout fitting downstream of the backflow, with the compressor's valve closed. If there's no fitting after the backflow, add one first.^1,3
5. Open a zone before you open the air. Start with the zone highest in elevation and farthest from the compressor. "Never run the compressor without at least one irrigation control valve open."¹
6. Open the compressor's valve slowly, so the air comes in gradually, and stay under the pressure limit for the pipe and the weakest component.¹
7. Run the zone until no water comes out of the heads, about two minutes or more. "Using two or three short cycles per station/zone is better than having one long cycle." Then work zone by zone toward the compressor.¹
8. Stop when a zone is dry. "Compressed air moving through dry pipes can cause friction, which will create heat and could cause damage."¹ Rain Bird warns that running air too long through gear-drive rotors "can heat the rotor wiper seal and melt the rotor head together."⁴
9. Keep a valve open while you shut the compressor off, then disconnect it and let any air pressure out.^1,4
10. Drain the backflow assembly, without air. Hunter: "Do not blow the system out through a backflow or pump." Colorado State: pressure vacuum breakers and reduced pressure assemblies "must never be blown out with compressed air. The rubber seals inside can easily melt from the heat of the air." Work the ball valves and test cocks back and forth several times, then leave the isolation valves at about 45 degrees, half open, and the test cocks open.^1,3 A reduced pressure assembly has two check zones to drain separately; Colorado State's fact sheet gives the steps.³
11. Close any manual drain valves you opened. "Do not leave the manual drain valves (if installed) open after the blowout."¹ If the system has a pump, drain it and store it inside or insulate it.³
12. Set the controller. Put it in rain mode or off, so it keeps its program; Richmond's utility notes that unplugging it means resetting the time and date in spring.⁹ Colorado State goes further and suggests leaving it powered, because the transformer's heat helps keep moisture out.³
13. Write down what you found: zones, minutes, heads that didn't pop up, a valve that wouldn't close, a cracked backflow. That's the spring work order.

In Fairfax County, Virginia, taking the backflow assembly off for the winter is normal: the county bars removing one without its approval "Excluding removal due to annual winterization."¹⁰ Elsewhere, ask the water utility before you pull one off.

The spring start-up, step by step

1. Check the ground. Rain Bird: "Use a shovel to make sure that the soil is frost-free 12 inches deep." Starting up in frozen ground can burst pipes.⁶
2. Close every manual drain valve, close the backflow test cocks, and close the backflow ball valves before you pressurize. Reinstall the flow sensor.^3,6
3. Look the backflow assembly over for freeze cracks and check the drain plug is tight.⁵
4. Open the water slowly. Rain Bird: "Turning the main valve on too quickly can create 'water hammer,' or a surge of high-water pressure that can damage pipes and valves." Then open the backflow ball valves slowly too.^3,5
5. Set the controller: date and time, the backup battery (Rain Bird says replace it every 6 months), and the spring program.^5,6
6. Run each zone from the controller. Look for heads that don't pop up or rotate, buried or blocked heads, bad coverage, leaks and pooling, and misting, which means the pressure is too high.^5,6
7. Check the pressure with a gauge. Rain Bird puts the usual operating range at 40 to 65 psi and suggests a regulator above it.⁶
8. Test the rain or soil moisture sensor. In North Carolina every automatic system has to have one: "All automatically controlled irrigation systems shall include sensor or other technology designed to inhibit or interrupt operation of the irrigation system during periods of either adequate soil moisture or rainfall."⁷
9. Book the backflow test if the water utility requires one, and note the due date. The rule is the utility's: Raleigh wants residential irrigation assemblies tested by July 1 every three years, Fairfax County every year in an assigned month.^10,11
10. Write up the repairs and quote them before you leave the yard.

How long it takes: one irrigation commenter's timings are "20 minutes for the backflow. 15 minutes for the clock. 4 minutes per zone," so about an hour for a six-zone system.¹⁵ The route sheet uses those as its example minutes; put in your own.

What owners charge for blowouts and start-ups

These are owners stating their own prices, each comment checked live on November 8, 2026:¹³

Two ways to price a blowout show up: a flat price for a typical house ($65 to $100, $175 for one owner who prices it as the bigger half of a contract), or per zone ($8 to $26) with a minimum around $80 to $90. Per zone with a minimum is the easier one to defend, since zone count is what drives the minutes. Start-ups are a flat $75 to $100 for one tech, an hourly rate, or time and materials with a two-tech minimum of about $200. The route sheet prices each customer from the zone count, a per-zone price and a minimum, and lets you override any row.

Where blowouts matter in North Carolina and Virginia

Hunter's guidance is for "regions located where the frost level extends below the depth of installed piping."¹ In most of North Carolina and Virginia the frost isn't deep, but sprinkler laterals are shallow. Richmond's public utilities department tells its customers that "in most yards, sprinkler lines aren't buried deep enough to be protected from the cold."⁹ And the parts that freeze first are above ground: the backflow assembly, the riser and the stop and waste.

The State Climate Office's average first fall freeze, by station:⁸

So the mountains need blowouts by mid-October, the Piedmont by the end of October, and the coast has until mid-November and a shorter case for blowing out at all, though the backflow assembly still needs draining or insulating there. The spring side is the last freeze: start-ups in Charlotte or Raleigh can begin in April, and in Boone not before May. A North Carolina owner pointed out the other side of a mild winter: customers who skip the season underestimate "NC summers and the amount of water needed to keep a green yard and garden bed during peak heat."¹³

Running it as a route

• Sign customers up for both visits at once. A contract for the pair, paid in the fall or split across the two visits, books your spring before the phone rings. The landscaping maintenance agreement template has the seasonal scope table to write them into. If you plow, the blowout visit is also the time to sign the winter: the snow removal contract template has per-push and seasonal options.
• Price from the zone count. Count zones at the first visit and put the number on the customer's record, with the controller make and model, the backflow type and the pipe. That's what the route sheet's first columns are for.
• Book by area, not by who called first. Group the week's blowouts by town, and leave a buffer before the first freeze date for your area.
• Send the reminder. A short message two to three weeks before the window ("We'll blow out your system the week of October 20; reply to pick a day") fills the route. Send the spring one when the frost-free date for your area is close.
• Track the backflow test due dates. Raleigh's three-year cycle and Fairfax's assigned month mean different dates for every customer, and Raleigh sends its notice to the water customer two months before the due date, not to you.^10,11
• Quote the repairs you find. The start-up is where the year's repair work comes from: write it up on the printable's last box and send the quote that day.

The printables

The printable is two pages, one per visit, made to go on a clipboard. The fall blowout page has the customer block (zones, pipe type, backflow type, the lowest-rated component's psi, compressor CFM and the pressure you set), the 13 steps above with tick boxes, a 12-zone log for minutes and cycles, and a box for what to fix in spring. The spring start-up page has the same customer block with a box for the static pressure, the 10 start-up steps, a 12-zone log for heads, leaks and adjustments, the rain sensor and backflow test lines, and the repair list to quote. The route sheet is the list both pages feed: one row per customer with both visits, prices worked out from the zone count, and totals for booked, done and billed.

More for irrigation and lawn businesses

• Irrigation pricing: service call, hourly rate and per-zone installs, what owners charge, North Carolina's license rules, and a free price sheet.
• Landscaping maintenance agreement template: seasonal scope, skip-visit rule and card-on-file billing, free in Google Docs, Word and PDF.
• Lawn care pricing: what to charge for mowing, fertilizer and weed control, and the season price.

Where Deepsel fits

The checklist and the route sheet work from the first fall. When the book grows, Deepsel can take over the parts that repeat. On any plan, Free included, the customer record holds the address and equipment records hold the controller and the backflow assembly with make, model and serial, so they're typed once; the zone count goes in the customer's notes. Jobs get scheduled and dispatched to your techs, and invoices can be paid by card. The start-up and the blowout as a pair are a plan, and plans run in the service plans module on Pro at $29 a month with unlimited estimates and invoices: it keeps the ledger of visits owed against delivered, charges the card on file on the schedule you set or sends a scheduled invoice, retries a failed card and flags the office when it still fails, sends a reminder by email when a covered visit comes due, on wording and a schedule you approve, and warns you and the customer before a paid visit expires. What it won't do: plan the route (Deepsel has no route optimization) or set up recurring jobs as a series. And the arithmetic of a route: 100 blowouts in October are 100 invoices that month, past Free's 10. The Free plan covers 30 estimates and 30 invoices a month for your whole team; Pro is $29 a month for unlimited estimates and invoices. Details are on the pricing page.

Frequently asked questions

What PSI should I use to blow out a sprinkler system?

No more than 50 psi on flexible polyethylene pipe and no more than 80 psi on rigid PVC, which is what Hunter and Colorado State University Extension both say. Hunter adds that the blowout pressure should stay below the rating of the lowest-rated component in the zone, so check the heads and fittings too. Rain Bird's homeowner guide uses 50 psi for every system.

What size air compressor do I need to winterize sprinklers?

Volume matters as much as pressure. Hunter and Colorado State give a formula: the gallons per minute of the largest zone divided by 7.5 is the cubic feet per minute of air you need at the connection. Hunter's flow meter page says a compressor rated 80 to 100 CFM for any mainline of 2 inches or less. Contractors run tow-behind or skid-mounted machines; one owner runs a 185 CFM tow-behind for big properties and says his 50 and 90 CFM machines do most places. Never fill the tank and dump it into the mainline to make up for a small compressor.

Can you blow compressed air through a backflow preventer?

No. Connect the compressor after the backflow assembly and close its isolation valves first. Colorado State says pressure vacuum breakers and reduced pressure assemblies must never be blown out with compressed air because the rubber seals can melt from the heat of the air. Drain the backflow assembly separately, then leave its ball valves about half open (at 45 degrees) and the test cocks open for the winter.

How much should I charge for a sprinkler blowout?

Owners who state their prices charge $65 to $100 a blowout for a typical house, or $8 to $26 a zone with an $80 or $90 minimum. A Virginia owner charges $8 a zone with a $90 minimum. Spring start-ups run $75 to $100 for one tech, and $200 to $209 for a two-tech crew. Annual packages with both visits run about $150 to $250.

When should I blow out sprinklers in North Carolina?

Before the first freeze where you work. The State Climate Office's averages put the first fall freeze around October 14 in Boone, October 25 in Asheville, November 1 to 5 in High Point, Winston-Salem, Greenville and Charlotte, and November 18 in Wilmington. Above-ground parts, the backflow assembly first, freeze before buried pipe does, so the mountains and the Piedmont need blowouts and the coast still needs the backflow drained and insulated.

What should a spring sprinkler start-up include?

Check the soil is frost-free 12 inches down, close the drains and test cocks, open the water slowly to avoid water hammer, set the controller's date, time and program, run every zone to check heads, coverage and leaks, check the pressure, test the rain sensor, and book the backflow test if the water utility requires one. Write up the repairs you find and quote them before you leave.

Sources

1. Hunter Industries, "Winterizing Your Irrigation System" (blowout method; the largest zone's GPM divided by 7.5 for the CFM; "Pressure should not exceed 50 psi for polyethylene pipe or 80 psi for PVC pipe"; "Do not attempt to fully charge the holding tank"; "Compressed air should not be blown through any backflow device"; start at the zone highest and farthest from the compressor; about two minutes per zone, two or three short cycles; "Never run the compressor without at least one irrigation control valve open"; isolation valves at 45 degrees with the test cocks open; remove flow sensors; close manual drain valves). hunterirrigation.com, read November 8, 2026.
2. Hunter Industries, "Hydrawise - Winterizing: Removing the Flow Meter" ("an air compressor with a cubic foot per minute (CFM) rating of 80-100 for any 2" or less mainline"). hunterirrigation.com, read November 8, 2026.
3. C.E. Swift and M. Higgins, "Home Sprinkler Systems: Preparing Your Sprinkler System for Winter," Colorado State University Extension Fact Sheet 4.719, published October 2014, reviewed August 2025 (air volume; 40 to 80 psi, "with 80 psi being the maximum for rigid PVC pipe and 50 psi for polyethylene pipe"; GPM divided by 7.5; stop and waste valve; PVB and RP "must never be blown out with compressed air"; draining a PVB and an RP; leaving the controller powered). extension.colostate.edu, read November 8, 2026.
4. Rain Bird, "Fall is Blow-Out Season: Tips for Winterizing Your Sprinkler System," October 20, 2025 ("The air pressure should not exceed 50 pounds per square inch (psi)"; gear-drive rotor wiper seals; leave one zone on while you shut off the compressor). The same page also says a compressor "should be regulated to provide 75-85 psi," which contradicts its 50 psi line; I followed the 50 psi line and Hunter's limits by pipe type. rainbird.com, read November 8, 2026.
5. Rain Bird, "Is Your Sprinkler System Ready for Spring? Here's How to Get Started," March 23, 2026 (frost-free soil; inspect the backflow preventer; open the main valve slowly to avoid water hammer; test each station). rainbird.com, read November 8, 2026.
6. Rain Bird, "Springtime Sprinkler Tune-Up Checklist" ("make sure that the soil is frost-free 12 inches deep"; replace the controller's backup battery every 6 months; manual drain valves closed before turning on water; open the main valve slowly; operating pressure "typically 40 -65 PSI"). rainbird.com, read November 8, 2026.
7. 21 NCAC 23 .0509, Controller, North Carolina Irrigation Contractors' Licensing Board rules. reports.oah.state.nc.us, read November 8, 2026.
8. NC State Extension, "Average First and Last Freeze Dates-Table," prepared by the State Climate Office of North Carolina (station, years of data and average dates per county). gardening.ces.ncsu.edu, read November 8, 2026.
9. City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities, "Winterize Your Sprinkler System Before It's Too Late" ("in most yards, sprinkler lines aren't buried deep enough to be protected from the cold"; rain mode or unplug the controller). rva.gov, read November 8, 2026.
10. Fairfax County Land Development Services, "Requirements and Responsibilities for Installation and Testing" (annual testing by a certified tester in an assigned month; "Excluding removal due to annual winterization"). fairfaxcounty.gov, read November 8, 2026.
11. City of Raleigh, "Backflow Frequently Asked Questions" (residential irrigation backflow assemblies tested by July 1 every 3 years; commercial irrigation every year by July 1). raleighnc.gov, read November 8, 2026.
12. The season, Reddit comments checked live November 8, 2026: "Then October we blow them out and it's all over for 5 months until April" (August 16, 2024, reddit.com); Springfield, Missouri, a solo backflow tester who "picked up around 100 customers his first year" (August 26, 2026, reddit.com); "Set your price for an opening and closing and don't corner yourself by offering check-ups" (December 25, 2024, reddit.com).
13. Blowout and start-up prices, each a Reddit comment checked live November 8, 2026: Virginia, "I charge $8/zone with a $90 minimum for winterizing alone" (March 26, 2025, reddit.com); North Carolina, "$150 is a good deal for start up and shut down in NC. You are also probably underestimating NC summers and the amount of water needed to keep a green yard and garden bed during peak heat" (March 26, 2025, reddit.com); Colorado, "$90 up to 6 zones. 8 for each therafter. $135 minimum for commercial with $15 per zone" (March 27, 2025, reddit.com); Colorado, "$65 bucks for the blowout"; "80% of my customers are seniors" (February 26, 2026, reddit.com); "We charge $80 for a blowout and guarantee it against freeze damage" (October 19, 2024, reddit.com); "I charge $80 for up to 9 zones. $10 per zone after that" (November 5, 2024, reddit.com); "I charge $100 for blowouts and $100 for start ups plus whatever repairs are if needed" (March 27, 2025, reddit.com); "So many of these people give me such a hard time paying the $100 bucks to winterize" (November 20, 2025, reddit.com); "~$80 an hour for service (this includes startups), $90 for a winterization" (November 6, 2025, reddit.com); "about $250. That gives me $75 for a startup and $175 for a winterization" (November 6, 2025, reddit.com); Midwest, "We charge $20 per zone. Midwest" (November 5, 2024, reddit.com); "I'm in the northeast along the coast. We get $17-20 per zone" (October 22, 2025, reddit.com); "I charge $26 per zone" (August 7, 2025, reddit.com); Eastern Long Island, "Start ups are t&m with $200 minimum for the 2 techs to show up. Winterizations are $25 per zone" (November 28, 2025, reddit.com); Washington, "Spring Start ups are currently $209 plus tax for two techs for an hour to check the water meter, cut out turfs heads and go through coverage on each zone.. pre program the controller" (November 26, 2024, reddit.com). Left out: homeowners reporting what they pay, and one account that read as a marketer.
14. Compressors, a Reddit comment checked live November 8, 2026: "I have three different machines. 185 Airman tow behind for the big places, 90 vanair skid mount, and 50 CFM Kaeser skid mount. The 50 and 90 cfm is capable of doing most places" (August 7, 2025, reddit.com).
15. Start-up timings, a Reddit comment checked live November 8, 2026: "Irrigation system startup take: - 20 minutes for the backflow. - 15 minutes for the clock. - 4 minutes per zone" (March 27, 2025, reddit.com). The commenter didn't say whether they own the business, so I use it only for the example minutes.