Issues with Electrical, Aesthetic & Maintenance Can Dim Your Enjoyment of Your Outdoor Lights
LUX Landscape Lighting repairs all brands and types of landscape lighting, from older incandescent systems to modern LED landscape lighting to top-of-the-line smart lighting. We’ve seen hundreds of interesting and unusual problems, but here are the nine most common landscape lighting installation problems we fix.
3 Electrical Landscape Lighting Installation Problems
There are specific guidelines for installing landscape lighting wire for safety and durability. But we often find other installers have thrown caution to the wind– and their work doesn’t last.
- Problem: Transformers too close to the ground (or even actually on the ground).
- Repair: Transformers should be mounted 12 inches or more above grade.
- Problem: Exposed landscape lighting wire. (Bonus problem: Using the wrong wire nuts).
- Repair: Wire should be buried six to eight inches deep, where it won’t be damaged or seen.
- Problem: Wire run through the middle of landscape beds or across walkways/driveways.
- Repair: To prevent wires being broken due to gardening or foot traffic, run the wire along a home’s foundation or the edge of landscaping beds. In high-risk areas, run the wire through conduit. When we need to cross walkways, we slice a small
3 Aesthetic Landscape Lighting Installation Problems
- Problem: Bad light placement that is boring or unattractive
- Repair: Landscape lighting installation should follow design principles that show off your home and landscaping to best effect
- Problem: Poor choices of lighting intensity that either overwhelm the viewer with brightness or under-light important areas
- Repair: Use brighter light on focal points and darker building materials, like brick. Use less intense light on upper stories, small details or white walls
- Problem: Using too few light fixtures
- Repair: Make the property feel more balanced with the right number of fixtures that doesn’t leave the viewer feeling in the dark
3 Maintenance Landscape Lighting Installation Problems
- Problem: Overgrown bushes blocking the light.
- Repair: Either trim back the bushes, or elevate the light fixture on a copper stand.
- Problem: Lights aren’t as bright as they used to be.
- Repair: While sometimes this can be an electrical issue, often the lenses on the light fixture need cleaning.
- Problem: Crooked path lights.
- Repair: Dig up the light base and re-seat the fixture (Pushing it back into place can break the fixture or the wire). For high traffic areas, replace standard plastic stakes with more durable brass stakes.
Is your landscape lighting installation in need of repair? Contact us to get a diagnosis and a quote.