Crush the Sprinkler Guild
I suspected as much! What the lady at Home Depot called the "sprinkler repair cult" is an emerging guild seeking privileges and regulations from the government. That means a supply restriction, high prices, or another do-it-yourself project. But there is a way around it.
I first began to smell a rat when the automatic irrigation system on my front yard needed work, but had unusual struggles in trying to find a repair guy.
The first place I called informed me that they could accept no more clients. Clients? I just wanted a new sprinkler thing, for goodness sake. I don't want to be a client; I want to be a customer. Is there no one who can put on a new sprayer or stick a screwdriver in there or whatever needs?
Nope, all full.
The next call was not returned.
The next call ended with the person on the line fearfully saying that they do landscaping but will have nothing to do with sprinklers or "automated irrigation systems." Umm, ok.
The next call seemed more promising. The secretary said they had an opening on the schedule in three weeks. Three weeks? In that period of time, my yard will be the color of a brown paper bag.
The next call failed. And the next one. And the next. Finally I was back to the off-putting secretary. I made the appointment but the guy never came. Fortunately, in the meantime, a good rain came, and then at regular intervals for the whole season, and I was spared having to deal with this strangely maddening situation.
Why all the fuss? We aren't talking brain surgery here. These are sprinklers, little spray nozzles connected to tubes connected to a water supply. Why was everyone so touchy about the subject?
Why did all the power seem to be in their hands, and none in mine? Must I crawl and beg?
Above all, I wonder why, with most all lawns in new subdivisions sporting these little things, why oh why are the people who repair them in such sort supply?
Little did I know that I had stumbled onto the real existence of a most peculiar thing in our otherwise highly competitive economy: a guild.
It had all the earmarks. If you want your nails buffed, there are thousand people in town who stand ready. If you want someone to make you dinner, you can take your picked among a thousand restaurants. If you want to buy a beer, you can barely go a block without bumping into a merchant who is glad to sell you one. None of that is true with sprinkler repair.
What does a guild do? It attempts to restrict service. And why? To keep the price as high as possible. And how? By admitting only specialists, or supposed specialists, to the ranks of service providers, usually through the creation of some strange but largely artificial system of exams or payments or whatever.
Guilds don't last in a free market. No one can blame producers for trying to pull it off. But they must always deal with defectors. Even the prospects of defectors can cause people who might not otherwise defect turn and attempt to beat others to the punch. There is just no keeping a producer clique together for long when profits are at stake.
There is also the problem of an unlikely: high profits attract new entrants into the field. They must either join the guild or go their own way. This creates an economically unviable situation in a market setting that is always driving toward a market clearing rate of return.
Further evidence of the existence of a sprinkler came from the checkout lady at the Home Depot. I was buying a sprinkler head and she said in passing that they didn't used to carry these things, and the decision of the manufacturer to supply them in retail got some people mighty upset. She spoke of the sprinkler repair people as a cult that should be smashed!
Now, does this guild really exist or is it an informal arrangement among a handful of local suppliers? As best I can tell, here is the guild's website. The Irrigation Association is active in:
Uniting irrigation professionals, including irrigation equipment manufacturers, distributors and dealers, irrigation system designers, contractors, educators, researchers, and technicians from the public and private sectors.
Catch that? Certification. Unity. Standards! Public policy. This are all dangerous words, that come down to the same result: high prices and bad service.
Why should anyone become certified? "Prestige and credibility among peers and customers"; "professional advancement opportunities"; "Enhances the professional image of the industry - your industry."
I thought I needed a sprinkler repairman but these people want me to hire a Certified Landscape Irrigation Manager, a CLIM. How do you become a CLIM? Well you have to send in $400 plus a resume that includes an "overview summary of how you plan to meet program criteria:
Two examples of project development to include:
- System design objective
- System budget estimate
- Water source development
- System design drawings: hydraulic, electrical, detail drawings, pump station
Project specifications:
- General specification
- Installation specification
- Material specification
- Pump station
Two system audits or evaluations to include:
AUDIT
- System performance (uniformity)
- Base schedule
- Recommendations for improvement
EVALUATION
- System performance (uniformity)
- Hydraulic analysis
- Electrical analysis
- Grounding
- Water source
- Product performance
- Recommendations for improvement
Two construction and/or construction management projects:
- Site visit reports
- Drawing of record
- Final irrigation schedule
- Punch lists
Of course they are working with government, federal, state, and local. They want restrictions of every sort. They want their own Turf and Landscape Irrigation Best Management Practices or BMP to be the law of the land. You can read more about this here.
How hip-deep are these people in government? It's hard to say. But I'm guessing that local developers, landscapers, builders, and others are intimidated by all these and are reluctant to challenge their monopoly.
So thank goodness for hardware stores! They are working to bust up this vicious little guild, to the benefit of the consumer and everyone else. It means having to stick your fingers in mud and read instruction manuals and the like but sometimes the defense of liberty requires that you get your hands a little dirty.
Comments (14)
Jeffrey,
You're enterprising chap, why not go down to the local technical school, recruit some freshly minted graduates, buy a van, and form a competitor? ( this is exactly the kind of thing a v.M Inst. MutFund/Charitable giving Trust would be perfect for, btw )
Or, next time 'round, try xera-scaping and leave some water, you know, for the fish...
Published: May 7, 2006 1:29 PM
Reminds me of the medical industry where Doctors have a monopoly on practicing medicine and dispensing prescription medicine, all in the name of the "Public Interest". Also the Security Alarm business, same story....
Published: May 8, 2006 5:31 AM
these words "client," "customer," "trade," "profession" have all lost whatever particular meaning they once might have had. Maybe that's not a bad thing. Persons in the classic professions (law, medicine, and clergy) had to make room for the engineers and the accountants. These were pretty easy jumps to make, because they all require some amount of training and claim of professional ethics. I imagine legal status and exclusivity soon followed.
Now pretty much anybody can claim to be a professional, and have "clients." Partly this is about marketing, and probably in many cases it's a bid for some sort of legal recognition and claiming of occupational turf. It no doubt is in this case.
Just a guess, but I bet the reason you're having so much trouble is the local guys are too busy to mess with replacing a sprinkler head or whatever, and probably figure you'll go to the hardware store and do it yourself anyway... especially once you find out what their repair fee is.
Published: May 8, 2006 4:48 PM
Last weekend I just replaced the automatic valves and the automatic timer system for my backyard. What a nightmare finding someone to do it! And when I found people to do it I got estimates around $800 to which they required the installation of a $200 pressure vacuum system.
"No licensed contractor will work on sprinkler system without the pressure vacuum, or without installing one. It is needed to protect the water supply to your house."
Why isn't a antisyphon valve sufficient?
"It just isn't. Regulations require..." I said forget it, I'll figure it all out myself. I figured the antisyphon is sufficient; who knows if it's even necessary (other than by regs).
With the help of my father in law on the electric and my plumbing we did it all at the cost of $50 for a timer, $45 for valves, and about $50 for associated supplies. Of course opportunity cost of time should be factored in as well.
Published: May 9, 2006 10:42 AM
I went through what you are going through last summer. I ended up spending half the summer digging up and re-doing my lawn sprinklers just so I would learn how to do it & never have to call another sprinkler guy, as they never are able to come out without three weeks notice.
I actually had a good time outside in the sun and now feel very empowered as to my sprinkler system. And in the process I learned some interesting things.
First, Home Depot’s ability to stock sprinkler parts is very limited. You need to find the local irrigation supply house where all the contractors go. I asked my sprinkler guy (the one time I could get him) & he told me where to go. Problem is that they are closed on weekends, so I ended up taking hours off work going down there twice a week to get the parts I needed. But the quality and selection beats Home Depot by a factor of ten. The plumbing supply house closest to me is the exclusive Rainbird supplier so became familiar with how Rainbird works. One day Rainbird had a display both there for the contractors with donuts and coffee. I happened to have a Rainbird part with me that I had purchased from Home Depot that I had a problem with. When I showed it to the Rainbird rep, he laughed and said that the Rainbird stuff that Home Depot sells is in an entirely different world and he knows nothing about it. So I believe that Rainbird probably started selling some parts to Home Depot mainly as a sop.
Another interesting thing I observed at the supply house was that government is probably the largest consumer of irrigation systems. Seemed like half the guys lined up at the counter with me were working with or for the city and county government or highway department. Therefore, I suspect that irrigation services are like medical services. While not explicitly socialized, it is effectively a regulated industry where government purchases make up maybe 25% to 40% of the market.
And the irrigation guys not working for government are all out building those new subdivisions with the government-subsidized housing money. So between the government parks, highways, golf courses, and waterworks, and all the government-subsidized housing work, the average homeowner with a broken sprinkler head does not stand a chance.
In other words, you would have just as much trouble finding someone to polish your nails if you could get government-subsidized loans for nail polishing.
Oh by the way, on that irrigation association website you linked to, under government affairs, they have model legislation that will require a license, an exam, and three years experience in order to practice irrigation for paying clients—much like medicine and law. So they definitely are trying to become a guild de jure and not just de facto.
Published: May 9, 2006 5:04 PM
Interesting observations from everyone. I have a slightly different take on this issue, however.
First of all, fresh water is a scarce resource, and as consumers in the United States we do not pay anything approaching the costs of obtaining it. Not directly, anyway. The true costs for water utilities are paid through other forms of taxation.
Now, as a consumer paying very little for water, it may not be apparent to you that there is a shortage of the stuff and your government pays a lot of money to get it. Thus, our governments are very interested in ways to reduce those costs - far more than the consumer is. So, it stands to reason that the consumer with an irrigation system really doesn't care too much about scarcity or costs. To the person that wants to use this precious substance to keep their lawn looking beautiful would want an economical way to do just that. And, as this blog suggests, we should have a free market for irrigation supplies.
This all sounds great to me. I support the free market system. However, if we're going to go in that direction, I think it would be important to first make the consumer pay the market costs for obtaining the water in the first place.
So, because consumers don't directly pay market costs for water and are therefore not interested in conservation, it becomes necessary for the government to look out for conservation. And it is precisely this government interest and consumer disinterest in conservation that creates a need for water use regulations. And since we have regulations, we need certifications. And since we have certifications, we have professionals. And since we have professionals, we have high costs.
That seems like a very complex solution when it would be so simple to just ask consumers to directly pay the costs of water, so the consumer will be interested in and empowered to conserve it. No more need for restrictions, professions, etc - unless consumers want them.
So let's think this through a little further. Suddenly, you're paying 5 times more for water. You own an irrigation system. Tell me, do you even want to use it any more? If so, what price will you pay to make sure it functions properly? If you have spray heads that aren't functioning properly, do you want to go down to the hardware store, and buy the cheapest head you can find? As a consumer, would you be interested in finding a better irrigation system, even if it costs 3 times as much, that would ALWAYS function properly, never need adjustment, and save 70% of the water you would normally use?
Sorry, I don't know of such a system. We don't have a free market for water, so nobody has ever needed to design one. In such a market, fewer irrigation systems would be sold (BAD for Rain Bird) but they might be higher quality and more expensive (GOOD for Rain Bird). Either way, as long as water is scarce, companies like Rain Bird will be around.
Maybe, just maybe, if we allowed the market system to work, this whole blog thread would be have a completely different tone.
Published: May 19, 2006 3:48 PM
That's a fascinating comment from Mr. Lins, and it sounds right to me (a few quibbles aside). We need a free market in water. He assumes that this would dramatically increase prices, and he is probably right in the short run. But then innovators and new suppliers would get to work and we could choose our suppliers and prices and costs would fall, and we might be back to using "wasteful" sprinkler heads again. But at least the decision would be consistent with economics and not arbitrary government-style conservation or waste.
Published: May 19, 2006 4:13 PM
Yes, good comments. I've read that what a healthy lawn needs is a good soaking of the roots and then let it be for a longer period. Perhaps if water was user paid, systems which soak the lawn's roots more efficiently and far less frequently would arrive. Sprinklers might make way for "soakers". All the green lawns may stay dry above, and just get wet below.
Shading devices might be developed that hover over the lawn shading and cooling it during the heat so that it doesn't brown, instead of using the cooling effect of water to do the job. Or maybe people would just plant more shade trees.
It's hard to know for sure what the market would do if it was free. But we know it would be better.
Published: May 19, 2006 4:31 PM
I realize that this is a forum on economics, not lawn sprinklers,however I feel the need to reply.
As an Irrigation Association member, I believe more irrigation "professionals" should belong. The IA is about training individuals how to correctly install irrigation to conserve water. Do you have rotor heads (the ones that turn) on the same zone as the spray heads? If so, you are wasting a MINIMUM of 50% of the water you using on your landscape.
In the Orlando FL area where I live, there are only a few members. I've been repairing lawn sprinklers for over 25 years, and by far the majority of systems I see waste MOST of the water applied. It takes so little knowlege of irrigation efficiency to pass the contractors test, it's a joke. Many states do not require ANY training in designing irrigation systems, although it's hard to imagine a novice doing a worse job than some of our local contractors.
Here's a plug: if you want to repair your sprinklers yourself, go here: www.IrrigationRepair.com/dvd-course.htm
Craig Borglum CID/CIC/CLIA
Published: December 10, 2006 9:17 AM
Craig, there's nothing wrong with certification or professional organizations per se. They can provide valuable services, resources and education for their members and the clients of the members. The problem comes in when a government makes it mandatory (as in licensing) or otherwise restricts non-members from operating in the industry. It's then that the market gets out of whack.
Published: December 10, 2006 1:04 PM
If the goal is to most rapidly bring a free market system to the world of irrigation, the focus on the professionals engaged in the business is the last place to look. At present, we don't have market prices for water, therefore it's absolutely sensible to regulate conservation by whatever means. By doing so, the government protects its citizens from wasting a resource that in fact costs a lot of money - thereby saving us from ourselves.
Given the nature of this forum, I'm surprised that there hasn't been more emphasis on bringing the free market system to water pricing. It sems to me this blog thread has, to date, focused on the cart and not the horse.
So, I pose a question. If the rate you paid for water was 300% of its current rate, and the water subsidies from other forms of taxation were rebated to you, would you spend the rebate on irrigation, or somewhere else?
Published: December 29, 2006 9:32 AM
The establishment and availability of "guilds" is an important element in capitalistic societies and in labor markets. They generally provide extremely high levels of service and abilities, and ensure that the skill is available when the need exists, and when the money is available. They help to play a significant role in establishing a middle class because they incubate skill levels above that many degress higher than that provided by a common laborer. With the availability of the skill level, the wealthy, the aristocracy so to speak, can then choose to spend their money based their needed level of expected results.
I think you are confusing a guild with a cartel. Do you need a "guild" type profession for automated irrigation? Well the market determines that based on the needs of the market. Water use regulations are established for societal reasons.
If you have a small lawn and you want automated irrigation, you don't have to go to the "guild" you have many different economic options, including do-it-yourself or hiring various levels of skilled or unskilled labor.
Also, if you are doing-it-yourself and you want to conserve water without the guild, search: LawnCheck for information on seasonal and weather based irrigation control.
cheers,
Published: December 27, 2008 1:13 PM
After spending the time to read this blog, I feel compelled to make my first ever "reply" to a blog. All I can say, is that I hope the individual that wrote this was in a sarcastic mood.
We repair DIY projects gone wrong, EVERYDAY.
This article did provide a good laugh.
If you ever have an irrigation issue, please call my company, and we can send out any one of our techs that has been through over 100 hours of training to do what they do in the short amount of time it takes them to do it.
Published: January 17, 2009 9:30 PM
First of all, I've never heard of such a guild. Secondly, Mr Greg Lins has it all dead on correct. Folks do not realize how short of water the world really is! These professional irrigators cameabout because the typical irrigation system isonly 50 percent efficient and about 60 percent of water delivered to customers by water purveyors makes it back to sewage treatment facilities. So, where you think that 60 percent goes? Yep, most of it goes to irrigation of your lawns and landscapes at a 50 percent loss. So, you can see the need for people that know how to properly design these systems to conserve water came about. Government agencies making and enforcing rules for these professionals to follow or risk fines or losing their licenses. These regulations has made it increasingly difficult for these professional to stay in business. Perhaps one major reason you cannot find anyone to service your system. Perhaps the reason it costs so much!
Published: March 22, 2009 2:25 PM