Three Pillars of Landscape Lighting
August 3, 2017
Three of the most important elements of a professionally installed landscape lighting system are design, craftsmanship and functionality. These three things should be the pillars on which any outdoor lighting system is built upon. Without all three working together, one element would detract from the other and the benefits of an outdoor lighting system would be greatly reduced.
A properly designed outdoor lighting system will bring your property to life at night. It should bring out your home’s most unique features,. It should add depth and warmth to it’s architecture and landscaping while also providing security from nighttime hazards and burglary.
Knowing how to light a home, its architecture and its landscape specimens is something that is learned through time, trial and error. In our over ten-years of installing landscape lighting we have encountered many different types of homes, specimen trees, waterscapes and hardscapes and we have created some truly stunning scenes. Our experiences lend us the ability to design a better landscape lighting system and to also have the installation techniques and tools necessary to design the absolute best-possible system.
This leads us to craftsmanship. When an outdoor lighting system has been properly and professionally installed, everything should work seamlessly. Craftsmanship is the greatest differentiator between a beautiful and lasting system and something that a homeowner or inexperienced contractor might install.
Craftsmanship can be determined in a few ways. The first way is by the actual quality of the fixture, the lamp and the underground materials. Cost can be saved by using lesser quality materials, but in an outdoor system, lesser quality materials can never last as long or perform as well as high-grade commercial materials, like those used by S&M.
Another way to determine craftsmanship is by the quality of the installation, including specialty fixture placement like tree downlights, core drilled lights, driveway or belgian block lights, Bistro lights or waterscape lights. Most contractors won’t even attempt the installation of these lights because of the experience and the tools necessary to do it right. When it is done right, however, these lighting techniques can be transformative.
This finally brings us to functionality. Some contractors will try to fit a square peg in a round hole, so to say. Whether it is through ignorance of the types of fixtures available and their benefits for lighting certain areas, or through laziness and not wanting to keep specialty fixtures in stock. Others might not understand how certain specialty fixtures need to be installed, like step lights on a railing, which need to be positioned in a way to spread even amounts of light without creating glare for safety reasons. Pool and landscape lighting. Pool and landscape lighting.
Sometimes what a client wants may be detrimental to the safety of those who are approaching the home, walking down a flight of stairs or the location of a certain fixture would lead to problems with landscapers and lawn services damaging the fixture. A responsible and qualified professional landscape lighting contractor will explain the reasons why certain decisions were made in a properly designed outdoor lighting system and also explain the solutions that are available to keep the client happy and the system safe and functional.
There are a lot of ways to light a home, but there is usually only one “right” way to do it. Find yourself a contractor that can design the right kind of system, customized for your home.
To see if S&M Landscape Lighting might be the right contractor for you, please email us at service@NJlandscapelighting.com or call us at (908) 369-7791.