HOW MUCH ARE WE TALKING?

A quality automated professionally designed and installed irrigation system is a luxury item. As a professional contractor only concerned with bringing the commercial quality to households, I can tell you now that the average supply and installation for the average block would be around the $6-10k mark. I've supplied and installed new systems from $500 all the way up $66,000. Size of property, required specifications, new or existing site, soil type, obstructions, available water pressure and flowrate can all influence the price.

The fact however remains that rarely is the cost below the clients price expectations. Quite often my experience has been that the clients price expectation is usually about on par with the materials cost alone. This is precisely why I warn people about the average price before booking a consultation. This is also why I don't provide free quotations as a large amount of work goes into measuring up the site, taking pressure and flow readings and then designing the system. All this in order to provide the quotation.

The point that's relevant here is that when it comes to irrigation, there is no point in having a system if it's not going to be effective and EFFICIENT when you actually need to use it and rely on it. This may only be 6 months of the year. If you're going to spend half the price on an inferior and inefficient product that doesn't do what it should when it should in summer, my advice would be just spend the money on a holiday instead and pay a neighbour some pocket money to hand water while you're away.