Simple lighting is probably something you can install by yourself, but that is all it is – simple. When you really want beautiful lighting in your landscape that emphasize all its magnificent features, you will want to call outdoor lighting contractors near you. These are professionals that have many years of experience doing this type of work and therefore know exactly how to highlight everything appropriately. They will also know which lighting fixtures should be used in what settings.
You may be living in a state where installing such lighting fixtures in fact requires a license. After you have spent so much time making sure your landscaping is beautiful, you will also want to make sure it looks so with the right lighting. Landscape lighting installers are the best at ensuring that your landscape looks great at all times of the day, and these installations will also help increase the value of your home.
Some of the Lighting Techniques Used by Pros
The pros know how to use different lighting techniques to achieve different results and bring out the different features of your home and landscaping.
- Tree lighting – as the name implies, this is used in order to highlight specific trees during the night, although it includes whatever methods best manages to highlight the features that you wish to highlight. It also includes light added to shrubs.
- Grazing – when you want to emphasize the texture of a surface, grazing is what you will use. For it to look elegant, it needs to be done correctly. Using it on the outside of your home, it can help in showing off your magnificent siding investment. It ensures that your home doesn’t only have curb appeal during the day, but also at night.
- Path and area lighting – paths and walkways can be unsure at night if there is no light to help someone walking them and all of a sudden you may end up with a sprained ankle. Using lighting to avoid this makes it safer to walk around at night.
- Down lighting – the source of light is installed high up and shines down on whatever it is that needs to be highlighted. When you want a larger area lit, this may be the solution that you want to go for, being fairly good at imitating natural light due to the source’s placement.
- Up lighting – opposite of down lighting, up lighting is lighting coming from the floor level. It is very effective in creating dramatic effects highlighting silhouettes and throwing beautiful shadows. While being used for contours, it will naturally also provide some level of safety lighting.
- Deck lighting – decks are places where accidents are just waiting to happen, especially if you walk on them at night with no lighting.
Getting the Help of Outdoor Lighting Contractors
Even if the contractor might need to be licensed in the state that you live in, a professional with some training should be able to perform this work, and this means that it might be slightly easier to screen contractors doing this type of work compared to someone doing home remodeling, because of the difficulty of the work. If a contractor has experience with this type of work and they have the necessary permits allowing him to do the work, they should likely be able to get it done. However, you never want to hire someone who unsolicitedly approaches your home and tries to sell you the work. You need to make sure that they’re in fact an established company with permission to do the work.
They should also be happy to show photos of previous work they have done and how they were able to create distinguished designs with beautiful, decorative abilities. It won’t take you long, but check out the photos that they should be able to provide you with. They should also take the time to discuss the ideas they may have for your property, coupled with the ideas you may already have.
We always encourage homeowners to get quotes from competing landscape lighting contractors. If they suggest vastly different things, that might be explained by the difference in the quotes, but otherwise they should come in at roughly the same price. When there are big differences, that’s when you need to ask why one quote is either significantly cheaper or more expensive than the rest.
Having them compete for your business is also how you ensure that you don’t end up paying too much for the project. They might also be handymen that try and upsell you with other repair services, and if you were already planning on having those things fixed, bundling it together could be a possibility for you to save some money.
Reasons to Install Exterior House Lighting
The reasons for installing outdoor lighting are many, and you should consider these different aspects when the contractor is making suggestions as to what he thinks you ought to install. You’re the one needing to make the call on what should be done, but knowing the reasons you’re doing this in the first place ensures that you won’t want to have things changed later on. There could even be reasons underneath that you hadn’t thought of as being important. Without further ado, here’s the list.
- Illumination – Illuminating your backyard also helps make it more functional which is great whether you’re hosting a party, BBQ or there’s another reason why you’re choosing to use the backyard at night. Hanging out in your backyard is just nicer when there’s actually a bit of light, no matter if you’re hanging out on the porch or lawn.
- Safety – accidents and injuries aren’t hard to imagine in the middle of the night when there’s no light, which is why safety is one of the reasons homeowners choose to have lights installed. This includes walkways or other places where people are more likely to be walking, or where potential falls will be more likely. You don’t want to have someone fall and hurt themselves on your property.
While your friends likely wouldn’t sue you, too many people are being sued for strange things. If you have either a pool, deck or seating area, these are great areas to be adding safety lighting to.
- Décor – the decorative effects of installing lighting can be significant and beautiful if it is well integrated with your landscaping. There are certain aspects of your garden that you may be especially proud of, and using light strategically will highlight this.
The lighting can be focused on water features, trees, waterfalls, ponds or other features you really appreciate about your backyard. You don’t simply want it to be aesthetic, you want it to create a specific atmosphere there.
- Curb appeal – part of the purpose of the lighting is to draw attention to those things that you want people to see, but at the same time it should be strategically placed so that it draws attention away from aspects that you’re less proud of. There are things that you may need to have in your backyard but aren’t really things that you wish to show off, one example of this can be a utility shed, although it would include anything you find unsightly. Professional lighting installers can help you make sure only the things that you’re proud of will stand out.
- Increasing your home’s value – when you make upgrades to your home, these are also likely to increase its value, meaning you will get a lot of the money back when you decide to sell if not all. When you live in a neighborhood where all the surrounding lights have this installed, you will also want to get it installed on your home.
- Security – outdoor lights also help in keeping your property more protected from criminals. The more light is helping light up your property, the less likely an intruder is to go unnoticed if they’re approaching the home. There’s a reason why they encourage you to keep some light on when you go on holiday.
If you were an intruder in the neighborhood, wouldn’t you be more likely to pass on the house that was well-lit? You may not want to always have strong lights turned on, but you could add ones that turn on with the help of a motion detector.
Staying Green While Adding Light to Your Home’s Exterior
There are good options you can have installed even if you have a strong desire to be eco-friendly including more efficient LED light bulbs. While still gaining the benefits that were previously mentioned, you do it without raking up a big electricity bill.
Getting Free Estimates & Quotes the Easy Way
You want to have outdoor lighting installed, but you also want to have it done in a cost-effective way. That is why we have made it easy for you to get free estimates & quotes from contractors. All you need to do is take 2 minutes to fill out the form at the top of the page and we’ll match you with the most relevant contractors. They’ll then reach out to you to hear more about your project and then provide you with their quotes for you to choose between.
Don’t worry, there’s no obligation and you can always say no. What are you waiting for?