[VERIFY LANDSCAPE LIGHTING IS OFFERED AS A STANDALONE SERVICE — the night photography shows integrated wall lighting on hardscape projects. Confirm whether lighting is sold on its own, and whether electrical work is in-house or subcontracted, before this page publishes.]
The difference between a yard that looks lit and one that looks floodlit is fixture placement and beam direction. Light aimed at a surface reads as atmosphere; light aimed at eye level reads as a parking lot.
Fixtures set into a wall course or under a cap or step tread. Invisible during the day, and they light the stone rather than the person.
[VERIFY FIXTURE TYPES AND SPACING STANDARD.] Spaced too closely it reads as a runway.
[VERIFY WHETHER TREE AND FACADE UPLIGHTING IS OFFERED.]
[VERIFY WHETHER STEP LIGHTING IS ROUTINE on hardscape projects with grade change.]
[VERIFY LOW-VOLTAGE SYSTEM SPEC, transformer sizing and whether wiring is buried during construction.]
[VERIFY WHETHER TIMERS, PHOTOCELLS OR APP CONTROL ARE OFFERED.]
[VERIFY ALL LIGHTING CAPABILITY, FIXTURE BRANDS AND ELECTRICAL SCOPE WITH DORIAN. Confirm whether any line-voltage work is performed and by whom — do not imply electrical licensing that has not been verified.]
Lighting works best built in alongside the project it lights. Explore the outdoor spaces we build.
[VERIFY LIGHTING PRICING BASIS — per fixture installed, or per system including transformer.] Fixture count drives most of it, plus transformer size, how far the runs have to be trenched, and whether wiring can be buried during an existing excavation or has to cut through finished lawn.
Yes, though it costs more than doing it during construction. Integrated wall lighting means pulling a course of block to set fixtures and run wire behind the face. Path and uplighting are simpler — those only need the runs trenched through lawn and beds. [VERIFY RETROFIT CAPABILITY.]
Fire features & seat walls →Path lights sit low and light the ground you walk on. Uplighting is aimed up into a tree or across a facade for depth beyond the patio. Hardscape lighting is built into a wall, cap or step and lights the stone itself. Most yards need two of the three, rarely all at once.
Landscape lighting is almost always 12-volt low voltage, fed from a transformer plugged into an existing exterior outlet. That is what makes it safe to bury shallow and to work on later. [VERIFY WHETHER A NEW EXTERIOR OUTLET OR CIRCUIT IS EVER REQUIRED and who performs that work.]
Quality fixtures are rated for it, but two things cause most failures here — water sitting in a fixture housing that was not set to drain, and connections that were twisted rather than sealed. Freeze-thaw finds both. [VERIFY FIXTURE BRANDS AND CONNECTION METHOD USED, and any warranty offered.]
That is the right time to do it. The excavation is already open, the wall courses are being set anyway, and wire can be buried under work that has not been finished yet. Adding it afterward means lifting pavers or pulling block that has already been capped.
Paver patios →Where you sit and what is worth lighting. That is enough to lay out a system.
