Most residential irrigation repairs in North Georgia land somewhere between roughly $125 and $600 all in, with simple work — a broken head, a nozzle, an adjustment, a blown controller fuse — at the low end and underground leaks, valve replacement and wire faults higher. Irrigation Medics charges $125 for the first hour on site, which covers first hour on site, diagnosis plus repair time, then $80 for each additional hour, billed as worked. Parts are billed separately and you get an estimate before work begins.
Everything below that is labelled a market estimate is exactly that — a general figure for what this kind of work costs in the North Georgia market, published so you have a sense of scale before anybody visits. It is not a quote for your system, because the cost of an irrigation repair is set by what has actually failed and how hard it is to reach.
- Most residential North Georgia repairs: roughly $125 to $600 all in.
- Irrigation Medics: $125 first hour, then $80 per hour, plus parts.
- Simple repairs are often diagnosed and completed inside that first hour.
What Irrigation Medics charges
These are our own rates, not estimates. They are the same whether the call comes from Gainesville, Duluth, Johns Creek, Norcross or Alpharetta.
| Item | Rate | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| First hour on site | $125 | First hour on site, diagnosis plus repair time |
| Each additional hour | $80 | Each additional hour, billed as worked |
| After hours and emergency | Port-to-port plus $125 | Evenings, weekends and emergency dispatch |
| Parts | Billed separately | Quoted with the repair. Nothing is fitted before you approve it. |
The first hour is deliberately diagnosis plus repair time rather than a diagnostic fee that stops when the fault is found. On a straightforward problem — a broken head, a clogged nozzle, a solenoid, a fuse, a programming error — the fault is usually located and repaired inside that hour.
Want a real number instead of a range?
Tell us what the system is doing. Once a technician has identified the fault you get an estimate before any work or digging begins.
Irrigation repair price ranges in North Georgia
Every figure in this table is a general North Georgia market estimate, not an Irrigation Medics quote. Two identical-sounding repairs on two properties genuinely can differ by several hundred dollars, and the reasons are in the variables section below.
| Repair | Market estimate | What moves the number |
|---|---|---|
| Sprinkler head replacement | $12–$35 per head, plus labor | Rotors cost more than spray heads. Pressure-regulated bodies cost more again. |
| Nozzle replacement | $4–$15 per nozzle, plus labor | Often done while a technician is already on site for something else. |
| Sprinkler head adjustment | Usually labor only | Realigning arcs, raising a sunken head, clearing a screen. |
| Broken lateral pipe repair | $125–$450 per break | The pipe is cheap. Finding the break and getting to it is the cost. |
| Underground leak repair | $150–$700+ depending on depth and access | Depth, surface above it and whether the leak is on mainline all move this a long way. |
| Irrigation valve replacement | $150–$400 per valve | Per valve. A manifold with several failing valves is quoted together. |
| Valve diaphragm or solenoid repair | $90–$225 per valve | Cheaper than replacement where the valve body is sound and parts exist. |
| Wiring troubleshooting and repair | $150–$600+ depending on how far the fault runs | Tracing is the work. A splice at the fault is quick once it is found. |
| Sprinkler controller repair | $95–$250 | Fuse, transformer, terminal corrosion. Frequently cheaper than people expect. |
| Sprinkler controller replacement | $225–$550 installed | Conventional unit, installed and programmed, with stations identified. |
| Smart controller installation | $325–$750 installed | Station count, enclosure and per-zone configuration time drive the range. |
| Rain sensor replacement | $95–$225 installed | Includes siting it somewhere it will actually get wet and then dry. |
| Backflow-related repair | $150–$500 depending on device and parts | Device type and parts availability. Freeze damage is the usual reason. |
| Zone troubleshooting | Charged as diagnostic time | Diagnosis is time, not a part. The repair is then quoted separately. |
| Adding sprinkler heads | $65–$175 per added head | Per head added. Depends on trenching distance and whether the zone can carry it. |
| Moving sprinkler heads | $75–$200 per head relocated | Per head relocated. Common after landscaping changes or new hardscape. |
| Adding a new zone | $600–$1,800+ per new zone | New valve, new trenching, new heads, controller capacity. A project, not a repair. |
| System inspection or tune-up | $95–$225 for a full zone-by-zone check | Full zone-by-zone check with findings written down and prioritised. |
| Winterization | $75–$175 for a typical residential system | Typical residential system. Blowing out lines costs more than draining. |
| Spring startup | $85–$200 for a typical residential system | Typical residential system, charged slowly and walked zone by zone. |
| Major multi-zone repair | $700–$3,000+ | Several faults at once, or a system that has been neglected for years. |
Ranges like these are useful for one thing: deciding whether to worry. If you were braced for a four-figure repair because a zone stopped working, the table above is probably good news. If a quote you have received sits well outside these ranges, it is reasonable to ask what about your system puts it there — there may be a perfectly good answer.
How Much Does a Sprinkler Service Call Cost?
Irrigation Medics charges $125 for the first hour on site, covering first hour on site, diagnosis plus repair time, then $80 for each additional hour, billed as worked. Across the North Georgia market generally, a first-hour or minimum service charge in the region of roughly $85 to $175 is typical, with after-hours response higher — market estimates rather than quotes.
What matters more than the number is what the hour buys. Ask whether it is a diagnostic fee that ends when the fault is identified, with repair time billed on top, or whether it includes repair time. Those two structures produce very different bills for the same work, and the headline figure tells you nothing about which one you are getting.
Also worth asking: whether travel is billed, whether the charge is waived if you proceed with the repair, and whether the company will tell you what it found even if you decline the work. A diagnosis you paid for is information you own.
One thing a service call is genuinely good value for: a system nobody has looked at in years. An hour of a technician's time spent running every zone and writing down what is wrong tends to be the cheapest hour spent on an irrigation system, because it replaces guesswork with a list.
How Much Does It Cost to Replace a Sprinkler Head?
As a general North Georgia market estimate, sprinkler head replacement runs about $12–$35 per head, plus labor, and nozzle replacement about $4–$15 per nozzle, plus labor. Head adjustment is usually labor only. Those are market figures, not quotes.
The part itself is inexpensive, and that is what makes head replacement one of the few irrigation repairs where the labour genuinely dominates. Digging out a head, cutting in a new riser, setting it at the correct grade and adjusting the arc takes a few minutes; a technician already on site for something else can often do several while they are there. Calling someone out for one head is where the economics get awkward.
Three things move the price. First, head type — a spray head is cheap, a gear-driven rotor costs more, and a pressure-regulated body costs more again but often pays for itself on a system with high pressure. Second, the riser — a head that broke because it was on a rigid riser should go back on a flexible one, or it will break again. Third, grade — a head that has sunk below the turf line needs the riser adjusted rather than just a new head screwed onto the same short stub.
Heads that break repeatedly are not really a head problem. See why sprinkler heads keep breaking and sprinkler head repair.
How Much Does an Irrigation Valve Cost to Replace?
As a general North Georgia market estimate, irrigation valve replacement runs about $150–$400 per valve, and rebuilding a valve — a new diaphragm or solenoid in a sound valve body — about $90–$225 per valve. Market figures, not quotes.
The spread comes down to three questions. Can the valve be found quickly? Does the whole valve need replacing, or just the part that failed? And how many are in the manifold?
A labelled valve box at grade is minutes of work. A valve buried under sod, a planting bed or a deck has to be located electronically first, with a valve locator energising the solenoid and a receiver tracing it — and that time is real. See how irrigation companies find underground valves.
On the repair-versus-replace question, a valve whose diaphragm has torn or whose solenoid has failed can often be rebuilt for considerably less than full replacement, provided parts are available for that model and the body itself is not cracked or corroded. On a manifold where several valves are the same age and one has failed, it is worth asking about the others while everything is exposed — the second visit costs another first hour.
See the detailed valve cost breakdown and irrigation valve repair.
Zone not running, or a valve that will not shut off?
A valve stuck open wastes water continuously. Schedule diagnostics and we will find out which valve and why.
How Much Does It Cost to Repair an Underground Sprinkler Leak?
As a general North Georgia market estimate, underground leak repair runs about $150–$700+ depending on depth and access, and a broken lateral pipe about $125–$450 per break. Market figures, not quotes — and this is the category where the spread is widest, for a reason worth understanding.
The pipe and fittings cost very little. What you are paying for is locating the break and getting to it. A leak under open lawn with a clear surface symptom is a contained job. The same leak under a mature planting bed, beside a retaining wall footing, in a root mass, or running beneath a paver walkway is a different piece of work entirely — and none of that is visible from the road.
The mainline-versus-lateral distinction matters more than any other single factor here. A lateral line is only pressurised while its zone runs, so a lateral leak wastes water for the minutes that zone is on. Mainline is pressurised around the clock, so a mainline leak bills you every hour of every day until it is fixed, and the repair itself usually means isolating the system to work on it. See mainline versus lateral line leaks.
On digging: some leak repairs need an excavation no bigger than a bucket, and many need less than homeowners fear. What determines it is how precisely the leak can be located before the first shovel goes in, which is why locating equipment matters more to the final bill than digging speed does. See does leak repair require digging and irrigation leak repair.
How Much Does a New Sprinkler Controller Cost?
As general North Georgia market estimates: controller repair about $95–$250, conventional controller replacement about $225–$550 installed, and smart controller installation about $325–$750 installed. Market figures, not quotes.
Start with the repair column, because a surprising share of "dead" controllers are not dead. A tripped GFCI upstream, an unplugged transformer, a blown fuse on the valve circuit or a corroded terminal all present as total failure and cost a fraction of replacement. It is a fair question to ask before agreeing to a new unit.
When replacement is the right call, the thing that determines whether you are happy with it afterwards is not the unit — it is wire identification. If the existing field wires are unlabelled, each one has to be traced back to its valve so the zone numbering still means something. Skip that and you get a working controller that waters the back lawn when you press the button for the front.
| Option | Market estimate | When it makes sense |
|---|---|---|
| Repair the existing unit | $95–$250 | Fuse, transformer or terminal fault, and rebuild parts are available |
| Conventional replacement | $225–$550 installed | Surge damage or a failed output, and weather-based scheduling is not wanted |
| Smart controller | $325–$750 installed | The system underneath is sound and the schedule would otherwise never be adjusted |
| Rain sensor added or replaced | $95–$225 installed | Conventional controller with no rain response, or a sensor that has failed |
One caution on smart controllers, because it is the most expensive mistake in this category: a smart controller cannot detect a leak, a broken head, a seeping valve or lost coverage. It schedules beautifully into whatever system it is connected to. Fix the hydraulics first, then automate. See are smart controllers worth it and smart irrigation controllers.
Is It Cheaper to Repair or Replace an Irrigation System?
Repair is cheaper in the great majority of cases, and it is not close. Irrigation systems are built from replaceable components on buried pipe, and the pipe — the expensive part to install — usually outlasts everything attached to it. A system with three failed valves and a dozen tired heads is a system that needs three valves and a dozen heads, not a new system.
Replacement becomes the better argument in a narrower set of situations:
| Situation | Why repair stops winning |
|---|---|
| Pipe that is brittle throughout | Each repair cracks the pipe adjacent to it, and you are chasing failures |
| Repeated leaks in different places | The pipe itself, or the pressure it runs at, is the problem |
| Coverage that was never right | Repairing heads does not fix spacing designed wrong originally |
| A layout that no longer matches the landscape | Beds, hardscape and canopy have changed; the zones have not |
| Zone count far too low for the property | No amount of repair gives you the run time you need inside the watering window |
| Failing valves and heads at once, across the board | The cumulative cost over two seasons approaches doing it properly once |
| Rotors and spray heads mixed on the same zones | A zoning fault; no schedule can suit both application rates |
The honest framing is cost over the next few seasons rather than cost today. Four repair visits in two years, each with its own first hour, is a real number worth comparing against a partial or full renovation — and a renovation is often partial, replacing the worst zones rather than everything. See repair or replace an irrigation system.
Can an Irrigation Company Give Me a Price Over the Phone?
For a repair, no — not a real one. And it is worth understanding why, because the companies that will give you a number over the phone are not doing you a favour.
Take the most common call we get: one zone will not turn on. The causes include a failed solenoid, a valve fouled with debris, a torn diaphragm, a cut or corroded station wire, a break in the common wire, a failed controller output, a closed flow control stem, and a supply problem upstream. The cheapest of those is a part that costs a few dollars. The most expensive is hours of wire tracing across a large property. Any single number covering that whole range is either padded to the worst case or it will change on arrival.
What a company can and should tell you on the phone: its service call structure and hourly rate, whether the first hour includes repair time, what after-hours costs, whether parts are billed separately, that you will get an estimate before work begins, and roughly what this kind of fault usually turns out to be.
What you can usefully tell them, which shortens the visit and therefore the bill: which zones are affected and which are fine, whether the controller runs a zone manually, whether you can hear valves clicking at the manifold, whether the water meter moves with everything off, what changed around the time it stopped, and whether there has been any digging, fencing or landscaping work. See the full explanation and how to check the system yourself.
Have a sprinkler zone that will not turn on?
Schedule diagnostics. $125 covers the first hour, which is diagnosis plus repair time — so simple faults are often found and fixed in one visit.
Why Irrigation Repair Prices Vary So Much
Two homeowners with what sounds like the same problem get quotes hundreds of dollars apart, and both quotes can be entirely fair. Here is what actually sets the number.
| Variable | Effect on cost |
|---|---|
| Number of zones affected | One dead zone is a contained diagnosis. Four dead zones usually means a common wire, a controller fault or a supply problem, and the work is different. |
| How many components have failed | Three broken heads and a seeping valve is four repairs. Parts and labour both scale. |
| Underground access | A break under open lawn is straightforward. The same break under a mature bed, a retaining wall footing or an irrigation line stacked above another one is not. |
| Tree roots | Roots crush laterals and displace heads, and cutting into a root mass to reach a pipe takes longer and has to be done carefully to keep the tree healthy. |
| Concrete, pavers and hardscape | A line running under a driveway, patio or walkway can sometimes be bored or rerouted. Either option costs more than digging turf. |
| Wire tracing distance | A wire fault ten feet from the valve is cheap. A fault somewhere along two hundred feet of buried wire is hours of tracing with a locator before anything is repaired. |
| Valve location | A labelled valve box at grade is minutes. An unlabelled valve buried under sod, a bed or a deck has to be located electronically first. |
| Controller type and brand | Parts availability varies. Some units have a replaceable transformer and fuse; others are sealed and mean replacement. |
| Pipe diameter | Larger pipe means larger fittings, more excavation and, on mainline, shutting the system down to work on it. |
| Mainline versus lateral line | A lateral is pressurised only when its zone runs. Mainline is pressurised constantly, so a mainline leak wastes water around the clock and the repair is more involved. |
| Emergency or after-hours response | A zone that will not shut off at 9 p.m. is worth dispatching for. It costs more than the same repair on a scheduled weekday visit. |
| Parts | Rotors, pressure-regulated bodies, larger valves and smart controllers all cost more than their basic equivalents, and the right part for the spot is not always the cheapest one. |
| System age | Older systems use fittings and head models that are harder to source, and adjacent components are often close to failure themselves. |
| Previous poor-quality repairs | This is the one homeowners never expect. Hose clamps on pressurised pipe, untaped wire nuts buried in soil, mismatched fittings and heads on the wrong zone all have to be undone before the actual repair can be made. |
The pattern running through that list: parts are rarely the cost. Access and diagnosis are. A repair is expensive when the fault is hard to find or hard to reach — which is also why a system with labelled valve boxes, documented station assignments and accessible manifolds is genuinely cheaper to own than an identical system without them.
Signs a Small Irrigation Problem Is Becoming an Expensive Repair
Irrigation faults do not stay the same size. Water moving where it should not be erodes, undermines and spreads, and an electrical fault left alone takes more components with it. These are the symptoms where waiting reliably costs more than acting.
| Symptom | What it becomes |
|---|---|
| Water bubbling up from the lawn | A widening washout around the break, so a pipe repair becomes a pipe repair plus soil restoration |
| A wet spot that never dries | Continuous saturation undermining nearby hardscape, and root damage in beds |
| The meter moving with everything off | A mainline leak or seeping valve billing you around the clock, every day it is left |
| A zone that will not shut off | Hours or days of uncontrolled watering, plus saturation damage. The most urgent item on this list |
| Misting instead of spraying | Excess pressure that is steadily breaking heads and fittings across the system |
| Repeated blown fuses | A short being re-energised each time, which eventually damages the transformer or the controller |
| Heads breaking in the same spot | An underlying cause — rigid riser, grade, traffic, pressure — still there after each replacement |
| A water bill climbing with no explanation | Whatever is causing it does not stop on its own, and each month is another bill |
| One zone gradually weakening | Often a developing lateral leak, growing quietly until it surfaces |
| Dry areas expanding season to season | Lost coverage compounding, and turf loss that costs more to restore than to prevent |
The two on that list worth acting on today rather than this month: a zone that will not shut off, and a meter that moves when everything is off. Both are continuous water loss. Everything else can reasonably wait for a scheduled visit.
Cost guides for specific repairs
Sprinkler valve replacement cost
What drives the price of a valve repair, and when rebuilding beats replacing.
Read more → ◷Sprinkler controller cost
Repair, conventional replacement or smart controller — and how to tell which you need.
Read more → △Why did my water bill go up?
The irrigation faults that show on a bill before they show in the landscape.
Read more → ◇How much water does a broken head waste?
Putting a number on the cost of leaving a broken head alone.
Read more → ◎Is irrigation repair worth it?
When a repair pays for itself, and when a system has reached the end.
Read more → ✶What is an irrigation tune-up?
What is included, and why adjustment saves more water than repair does.
Read more →Irrigation repair cost questions
$125 for the first hour on site — first hour on site, diagnosis plus repair time — then $80 for each additional hour, billed as worked. After-hours and emergency dispatch is port-to-port plus $125 for evenings, weekends and emergency dispatch. Parts are billed separately. You get an estimate before work begins.
No. The first hour is diagnosis plus repair time, so on a straightforward fault the problem is often found and fixed inside it. You are not paying for a diagnosis and then starting the clock again.
Where noted, yes. Several are noted as parts plus labour, because the labour depends entirely on access. They are published to give you a sense of scale before anyone visits — they are general North Georgia market estimates and they are not quotes for your system.
Because the same symptom has causes that differ by an order of magnitude in cost. "One zone will not turn on" could be a solenoid, a wire fault, a stuck valve or a controller output. A number given before anyone has tested anything is either padded to cover the worst case or it changes when the technician arrives.
Yes. Once the fault is identified you get an estimate before work begins, and before any digging starts. That is the point at which a number means something.
Almost always now. A mainline leak or a seeping valve runs continuously, so it bills you every day it is left. Lateral leaks and broken heads also undermine and wash out soil around the break, which turns a pipe repair into a pipe repair plus restoration.
For repair work, the visit is a diagnostic visit at $125 for the first hour because finding the fault is the work. For larger projects such as adding zones, get in touch and we will tell you how we handle it rather than guessing here.
Yes, and it happens. A system with failing valves throughout, brittle pipe and heads at the end of their life can reach a point where repairing it piece by piece costs more over two seasons than addressing it properly once. We would rather say so than sell you six visits.
Where these prices apply
Irrigation Medics works two connected markets from a Gainesville base: Hall County and the Lake Lanier and South Hall communities, and the Gwinnett and North Fulton corridor from Norcross and Peachtree Corners north through Duluth, Suwanee and Buford and across the river into Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Milton and Roswell. Rates are the same across the service area. See the full service area.