Most of what separates good irrigation and lighting work from poor work is visible on the day the job finishes, if you know where to look. Sprinkler heads should sit flush with grade and perfectly plumb. Valve box lids should be level with the turf and openable by hand. Wire splices should use silicone-filled direct burial connectors, never indoor wire nuts. Lighting fixtures should be hidden while their light is visible, all at one color temperature. And the transformer should be sized so total fixture wattage sits at roughly 80 percent of its rating or below. None of that requires tools. All of it is worth checking while the crew is still on site and before you release final payment.
This guide is a walkthrough checklist for a finished job, covering both systems.
Why the Walkthrough Happens Before Final Payment
Timing is the whole point of this article.
Once the final invoice is paid and the crew has left, correcting anything becomes a scheduling request rather than an obligation. Before that, it is punch list work, and reputable contractors expect it. Asking for a joint walkthrough is normal, not adversarial.
Two things make the walkthrough productive:
- Ask for it in advance. Say at contract signing that you would like to walk the finished job together. Nobody is surprised, and the crew allots time.
- Bring the proposal. Comparing what was specified against what was installed is the point. Head models, pipe class, fixture counts, and transformer size are all checkable against the document.
A contractor who resists a walkthrough is telling you something. Any established company, including Evergreen Contracting & Irrigation, should treat a final walk as the normal close of a project rather than a complication.
Run Every Zone and Watch It
This is the single most informative twenty minutes available to you.
Have the crew run each zone in turn while you watch. Look for:
| What you want | What signals a problem |
|---|---|
| Spray from each head reaching the next head | Gaps between spray patterns, which become dry rings by July |
| Firm, defined droplets | Fine mist or fog, which means pressure is too high for the nozzle |
| Full rated throw | Short throw and heads that barely turn, meaning pressure too low |
| Water landing only on turf and beds | Any spray reaching siding, windows, walks, or the driveway |
| Heads rising fully and retracting cleanly | Risers that stick partly up or fail to seat |
| Consistent head type within a zone | Rotors and spray heads mixed on one zone, which cannot be scheduled correctly |
| Similar performance across the zone | The last heads noticeably weaker than the first |
Overspray onto the house is the item to be firm about. Water repeatedly hitting siding or masonry causes real damage over years, and correcting it now is a nozzle change rather than a callback.
That the zones perform evenly is the actual deliverable of an irrigation system installation. Pipe in the ground is the means. Even water on the lawn is the product, and this is the moment to confirm you got it.
What to Check at Each Sprinkler Head
Walk the heads individually after the zones have run.
- Flush with grade. A head sitting proud of the turf is a mower target. One sitting low sprays into surrounding grass.
- Plumb. Heads should be vertical. A tilted head throws its pattern off-target and gets worse as soil settles.
- Swing joints at the base. Flexible connections let a struck head bend rather than snapping the lateral. Ask whether they were used, since you cannot see them.
- Correct nozzle for the arc. A full-circle head covers twice the area of a half circle, so it needs a different nozzle. Identical nozzles on different arcs is one of the most common design faults found in professional audits.
- Clearance from hard edges. Heads set back from walks and curbs, not tight against them.
- Nothing obstructing the pattern. Heads placed behind shrubs water the shrub and nothing else.
Valve Boxes Tell You Most of What You Need to Know
Open every valve box. This is where care or its absence shows most clearly.
What good looks like:
- Lid flush with grade, seated, and openable by hand
- Box large enough to work in, not crammed
- Valves oriented so the solenoid and bleed screw are reachable
- Gravel or drainage material in the base
- Wire slack coiled neatly inside, so a future repair has length to work with
- Splices made with silicone-filled direct burial connectors
- Clean interior, no soil packed around the valve body
What poor looks like:
- Lid buried under turf or sitting two inches proud
- Valves crowded so tightly the bonnet cannot be removed without excavation
- Wire pulled taut with no slack
- Standard indoor wire nuts or electrical tape on splices
- Soil and gravel packed over the valve
That wire slack detail matters more than it appears. Every future repair needs a few inches of conductor to make a fresh splice. Wire pulled tight at installation means the first repair requires splicing in new wire, which turns a short irrigation service and repair visit into a longer one.
The Backflow Assembly Has Specific Requirements
This component has rules that are checkable without expertise.
- Height. A pressure vacuum breaker must sit at least 12 inches above the highest sprinkler head in the system. Measure it if you are unsure.
- Plumb and supported. The assembly should be vertical and mechanically supported, not hanging on the pipe.
- Accessible. It needs annual testing, so it must be reachable without moving plantings or equipment.
- Test cocks reachable. The small ports must be usable by a tester.
- Correct type for the hazard. Any system injecting fertilizer requires a reduced pressure assembly under the plumbing code.
- A blowout connection downstream of it. Air should never be pushed through the device, so the winterization port belongs on the system side.
Ask who will file the first backflow test and when. Most water supplier programs require it, and a new assembly usually needs testing before the supplier accepts it.
Trench Restoration and Sleeves
The ground is where a rushed job shows up first.
Check for:
- Trench lines backfilled and tamped, not left as loose mounds that will sink into visible depressions
- Seed or sod on disturbed areas, with the method matching what the contract specified
- No wheel ruts across the lawn from equipment
- Sleeves under every hard surface crossing, which the contractor should be able to point to on the plan
- Sleeve ends marked so they can be located later
- Cleanup complete, meaning pipe cuttings, wire scraps, and packaging removed
Sleeves deserve a specific question because they are invisible and expensive to add later. Boring under a finished driveway costs several times what an empty sleeve in an open trench costs. If a future addition or a bed expansion is likely, this is the moment to ask about spare sleeve capacity, since retrofitting crossings is one of the more expensive irrigation upgrades later.
Signs of Quality in Outdoor Lighting
Come back after dark. Lighting cannot be evaluated in daylight.
What good looks like:
- You see the light, not the fixture. Uplights tucked behind plantings, well lights recessed, spotlights screened
- One color temperature across the whole property, in the warm 2700K to 3000K range
- No fixture you can look directly into from a walkway, patio, or window
- Two or three genuine focal points rather than everything lit
- Even brightness among path lights, with no single fixture noticeably brighter
- No wire visible anywhere
- Fixtures set plumb and at consistent heights along a path
What poor looks like:
- Mixed color temperatures in one sightline, the most visible sign of piecemeal work
- Bare glare in your eyes at normal walking height
- Cable running across mulch
- Everything lit at equal brightness, which flattens the property
- Fixtures aimed into a neighbor’s windows
Aiming is worth doing together after dark rather than accepting whatever was set in daylight. Small adjustments make large differences, and this is the easiest time to get them. That composition work is most of the value in outdoor lighting design and installation, and it is the part a homeowner is best placed to judge.
The Transformer Is Where Lighting Quality Really Shows
Open the transformer cabinet. This is the most technical check on the list and the most revealing.
Sizing. Industry practice is to load a transformer to no more than about 80 percent of its rated capacity. A 300 watt unit should carry no more than 240 watts of fixtures. Distributors note this follows the electrical code convention that appliances operating more than three hours a day be derated to 80 percent. Add your fixture wattages and compare against the transformer rating. A unit loaded to capacity runs hot, fails early, and leaves no room to add a fixture later.
Terminal connections. Every copper strand should be fully contained and tight in the terminal block. Loose strands cause arcing and overheating, which is a fire risk rather than a performance issue.
Wire gauge. Twelve gauge direct burial wire is a common minimum, with heavier gauge on longer runs. Undersized wire produces voltage drop, which is why the fixtures farthest from the transformer look dim and slightly off-color.
Multi-tap use. Transformers with 12, 13, 14, and 15 volt taps let long runs be fed from a higher tap to offset drop. If your property has a long run, ask which tap it uses and why.
The power source. Confirm the receptacle feeding the transformer has GFCI protection, which the electrical code requires for outdoor receptacles.
Mounting. Secure, off the ground, and accessible for service.
If the last fixtures on a run look noticeably dimmer or yellower than the first, that is voltage drop, and it is a design issue to raise now rather than after payment.
The Controller and the Documentation
Two items that cost nothing and get skipped constantly.
At the controller: zones labeled with actual descriptions rather than numbers, a starting schedule programmed rather than left blank, manual operation demonstrated so you can run a zone yourself, rain or freeze sensor connected and explained, and the model and manual left with you.
In documentation: an as-built plan or photographs of trench lines before backfill, valve box locations measured from two fixed points, head and nozzle models by zone, pipe type and class, fixture models and transformer specification, sleeve locations, warranty terms on parts and labor separately, and the first backflow test result.
That documentation is worth real money over the life of the system. It shortens every future repair, it answers a buyer’s questions at resale, and it makes the fall blowout and spring start-up quicker for whoever performs them during seasonal irrigation services. Ask for it before final payment, because it is much harder to obtain afterward.
What Corner-Cutting Looks Like
The patterns that reliably indicate a rushed job.
- Valve boxes buried, crowded, or sitting proud of grade
- Indoor wire nuts or tape on buried splices
- Wire pulled tight with no service slack
- Heads tilted or set above grade
- Identical nozzles on full-circle and part-circle heads
- Spray hitting the house on any zone
- No sleeves under a driveway the pipe clearly crosses
- Mixed color temperatures in the lighting
- A transformer loaded to its rated capacity
- Visible low-voltage cable
- Controller zones unlabeled and unprogrammed
- No documentation offered
One or two of these are punch list items. Five or six describe how the whole job was done, and that is worth addressing before the final payment rather than after.
Final Thoughts
Quality in this work is mostly visible if you look at the right things at the right moment. Run every zone and watch where the water lands. Open every valve box. Check heads for grade and plumb. Come back after dark for the lighting. Open the transformer cabinet.
The specific numbers worth carrying with you: a pressure vacuum breaker sits at least 12 inches above the highest head, lighting stays in the 2700K to 3000K range and stays consistent, and a transformer carries no more than about 80 percent of its rated wattage.
The two items most often missing are wire slack in the valve boxes and documentation, and both are far cheaper to obtain on the last day of the job than at any point afterward.
For work where the walkthrough is part of the process rather than an interruption to it, ask about sprinkler system installation in Central Pennsylvania and say at the outset that you want a joint walk before final payment. A contractor who welcomes that is confident about what you will find.