Bring a plan or a clear sketch, your measurements, where the water comes from, and when you need material on site. Those four things cover most of what a supplier needs to build an accurate materials list. The more of that you walk in with, the less guessing ends up priced into your job.
We've been quoting irrigation projects across the counter in Hotchkiss and Olathe since 1964, and the pattern hasn't changed: the jobs that go smoothly are the ones where somebody showed up with real numbers instead of a rough idea. Here's what we look at when you hand us a set of plans.
What Goes Into an Irrigation Materials List?
An irrigation materials list is every piece it takes to get water from the source onto the ground. What gets forgotten is almost never the pipe. It's the small stuff you need the morning the trench is open. Building a list off your plans, we work through:
- Mainline and lateral pipe, broken out by size and by run
- Fittings, couplings, tees, and a transition at every size or material change
- Valves: isolation, control, air relief, and quick couplers
- Filtration matched to your water source
- Emitters, drip tape, micro-sprinklers, sprinkler heads, or gated pipe outlets
- Risers, stakes, clamps, and end caps
- Solvent cement, primer, gasket lube, and thread sealant
- Valve boxes, markers, and tracer wire for anything going underground
How Do You Get a Pipe Quote That's Actually Accurate?
Give us footage by size and by run, not one total number. A thousand feet quotes differently depending on whether it's one straight run or six branches, because branches are where the fittings live, and fittings are where the surprise is in the final number.
Tell us how the pipe is going in, too. Coiled poly pulled into a long trench and stick pipe laid in sections carry very different joint counts, and joint count drives your fitting order. We stock poly from Centennial Plastics, PVC from JM Eagle and Diamond Plastics, and Philmac fittings. Which one fits depends on your ground and your run, not on cost per foot.
If part of the run crosses ground that heaves with freeze-thaw, or you're tying into pipe buried since the eighties, say so up front. That changes the fitting recommendation more than anything else on the sheet.
What Does a Supplier Look For When Reading Irrigation Plans?
Six things, roughly in this order: where the water comes from, how much ground you're covering, what's growing on it, what the dirt is like, how the ground falls, and when you need material. Everything else on the list follows from those.
Water source matters most around here because so much of the North Fork Valley and the Olathe and Delta country runs on ditch water. It carries sediment, algae, and whatever came down the lateral, and that drives the filtration conversation (screen, disc, or sand separator) before anything else. We carry Amiad and Irritec for that reason. A clean well feeding the same acreage is a different list.
What you're growing changes the delivery end. An orchard or vineyard usually points toward drip or micro-sprinkler, which is Netafim, Rivulis, and Nelson territory. Row crops and hay ground more often come down to gated pipe, hand lines, or wheel lines, which is Wade Rain, Gheen, and Fresno Castings and Valve. Tell us the crop and row spacing and half the decision is made.
What Is a Project Takeoff, and Who Does It?
A takeoff is the count. Somebody reads the plan and turns lines on paper into quantities of real parts. On most jobs out here, either the contractor does the takeoff and we check it against the plan, or you hand us the plan and we do it and hand back a materials list you can order from.
What we're doing is a materials list, not a stamped engineering design. If your project needs a sealed design, meaning a commercial job or anything where an engineer's signature is part of the paperwork, that comes from a designer, and we quote off their drawings. A pasture conversion or an orchard block usually doesn't need that.
What If You Don't Have Plans, Just a Field and a Problem?
Sketch it and measure it and you're most of the way there. Homeowners and ranchers come in all the time with a field, a ditch, and an idea, and that's a fine place to start as long as the sketch has real numbers on it. What makes one usable:
- Measured dimensions of the area, since paced off beats guessed
- Where the water enters the property and what it comes out of
- Roughly where the ground falls, and which way
- What's growing there now and what you want growing there
- Photos of the headgate, pump, or hydrant you're tying into
When Should You Bring a Project In?
Earlier than feels necessary. Winter is when the good planning happens in this valley, with the ditches dry and time to lay a system out instead of patching one together the week water comes on. Once you've shut things down for the season, that's your window. Spring is short, and the ditch company sets the date, not you.
Common Questions
What information do you need to quote irrigation pipe?
Footage by size and by run, how many branches and size changes there are, what the pipe connects to on each end, and whether it's going above ground or in a trench. Tell us the water source too. Those details decide the fitting count, and fittings are where a pipe quote goes sideways.
Can you put together a materials list from a hand sketch?
Yes, as long as the sketch has measurements on it. A dimensioned sketch on graph paper with the water source marked is enough to work from for most pasture, garden, and small orchard projects. What we can't use is an undimensioned drawing, because every quantity depends on distance.
Does ditch water change what I need to buy?
It changes the filtration side of the list, which affects everything downstream of it. Ditch water carries sediment and organic material a well typically doesn't, so systems running on it need filtration chosen for that load, especially drip and micro systems, where the outlets are small enough to plug.
Should I order irrigation materials before I'm ready to install?
Get the list and the pricing done early even if you hold the order. Knowing what the project costs and which items may take a while to come in gives you time to adjust the plan or stage the work. We'd rather talk it through in January than the week the water's turned on.
Come See Us With What You've Got
An accurate quote isn't about perfect plans. It's about real numbers, a clear picture of your water source, and enough lead time to fix what doesn't pencil out. Bring whatever you've got to the counter in Hotchkiss or Olathe, or send us your plans and we'll put together an accurate materials list. We'll go through it with you and tell you straight if something won't work.
