When folks choose to live in Western Montana they make many choices and occasionally some sacrifices. One of the decisions that is automatically made for them is the lack of water that Mother Nature provides us. Our annual rainfall in this part of the country is around 12 inches annually. We can go long periods of time without any meaningful precipitation, particularly during the summer. Being able to irrigate our lawns, gardens and nursery stock becomes a very important task for most of us.

A Little History

Earth & Wood has been installing underground sprinklers since 1978. We have installed over 800 sprinkler systems during that time and can easily say we have experienced almost every possible scenario from homeowners regarding how to efficiently allocate this precious resource.

In the old days people were able to water whenever they wanted and for as long as they wanted with the belief that water was forever going to be in unlimited supply. There may be places around like that but they have become fewer and fewer over the years. Western Montana would not be nearly as lush as it is without effective irrigation techniques. There are still ranchers and farmers in our agricultural areas who can effectively flood irrigate their fields however most of us must take a defined amount of water and allocate it over a very select area.

Most of the early lawn sprinkler systems incorporated the old "rain bird" type heads with their familiar sounds and motion. While these heads disbursed water out of the nozzle, they were very inefficient and inaccurate. They could dump out as much water as you wanted but were little better than flood irrigating. The improved development of plastics enabled the irrigation industry to make a much more precise gear driven sprinkler head which could be calibrated and adjusted considerably better than the prior models. Add to this an improved electric valve to regulate the flow of water and we now have a much more efficient and affordable sprinkler system.

Why Choose Us

Our company got into underground sprinkler systems during the switch from the old galvanized pipe, brass pop-up heads and mechanical timers. We found ourselves getting started when manufacturers were moving straight forward into plastic injection molds which made the price of pipe and the other necessary fittings considerably more reasonable. We attended all the trade shows we could find and searched far and wide for companies willing to not only supply their products to us but provide us good support and follow-up whenever questions surfaced. Being in a rural area such as ours it was necessary for us to keep close to our suppliers.

Today we find ourselves not only installing between 50 and 100 new systems annually, but also maintaining many systems installed by our competition who either have left the industry or no longer provide adequate support to their customers. We pride ourselves on not only our top-notch installation crews but our service technicians as well who keep all these systems in top running order.

Contact Us

If any of this information appeals to you, please feel free to contact us for an estimate. Usually there is no charge for an estimate and even if you choose not to use our company, you will have an idea of what a professionally installed underground sprinkler system is worth. We will determine your gallons per minute of available water, calculate the number of heads required to effectively water your property, and determine how to allocate the water by zones around your property. You have the opportunity at that point to make knowledgeable choices regarding how much it is worth to water certain areas of your property. As with so many other parts of our business, we do our best work by educating our customers as to the benefits our industry can provide to you. We would like you to consider our company when making a decision on an underground sprinkler system.