Outdoor lighting
The wiring goes in before the paving does
Landscape lighting is a low voltage system. A transformer near the house drops line voltage down to twelve volts, and everything past that point is cable running out to the fixtures. It is safe to work around, it is easy to add to later, and the fixtures themselves draw very little, which is why a modest transformer can carry a whole front yard.
The part people get wrong is the timing. The cable has to get from the transformer to the far side of the yard, and if there is paving in between, it goes under the paving. That means sleeves: empty pipe laid across the base at the excavation stage, capped and marked, so cable can be pulled through months or years later without lifting a stone. Sleeves cost very little on the day the base is open. Cutting a finished patio to add one costs a great deal.
We are family owned and operated in San Carlos, and lighting is normally part of a bigger job for us rather than a visit on its own. If you are already planning paving, add it now. Most path lighting ends up along the front paths and side yard runs we build.
What does a low voltage system actually need?
A transformer, cable and fixtures. The transformer is the piece worth spending thought on: it should be sized well above what the fixtures draw today so there is headroom to add more, mounted somewhere dry and accessible, and fitted with a timer or a photocell so nobody has to think about it again. Undersize it and the far end of a long run goes dim.
Cable size matters for the same reason. A long run to the back of the yard needs heavier cable than a short hop to a couple of uplights by the door, or the voltage drops along the way and the last fixtures look yellow next to the first ones. We plan the runs so each zone stays even, the same way we plan every other service in the rest of our landscaping work.
Where should the lights actually point?
At things worth looking at. Uplighting a stone faced wall from close to its base rakes the light across the face and brings out every course and every joint, and the same trick on a mature oak lights the trunk and the underside of the canopy so the tree still reads at night. Those two moves do more for a yard than a dozen fixtures scattered around.
Wall washing is the softer version: the fixture sits further back and lays an even sheet of light across a surface instead of a hard streak. Pillars at an entry, a garage face, a long run of stone veneer all suit it. Texture is what the light is for, which makes a stone faced wall we have built one of the best things in a yard to aim at.
Free estimate on your outdoor lighting
Low voltage lighting planned with the paving, in San Carlos and across the Peninsula. 20 year warranty on every installation.
Call (650) 705-0628How far apart should path lights be?
Further apart than most people put them. The goal is pools of light with darker stretches between them, so the eye reads the shape of the path and the edge of the paving. Space them too close and you get a continuous strip that looks like a runway, costs more and lights nothing in particular. A path light is there to show you the edge, not to light the whole walk like a hallway.
We stagger them rather than lining them up in pairs, keep them back off the paving edge so a mower or a wheelbarrow does not catch them, and set the height so the light lands on the surface instead of in your eyes. Steps are the exception and always get lit properly. The cable trench wants the same route under a walk as the irrigation sleeves under that walk, so we dig it once.
What happens if you add lighting after the paving?
You cut it open. To get cable from one side of a finished patio to the other, the pavers come up, the bedding layer is pulled back, a trench is dug, the sleeve or the cable goes in, then the base is recompacted and the pavers reset on fresh bedding sand. Pavers are the one surface where that can be done neatly at all, whether the field is Calstone, Belgard or McNear, but it is still a day of work to solve a problem that ten dollars of pipe would have prevented.
That is why we ask about lighting at the estimate, even when nobody has decided on it yet. Sleeves go in either way. They cost almost nothing while the base is open, and they leave the option sitting there for whenever you want it. Ask about it when you get a free estimate and we will plan the routes in.
Ask a paver installer
Straight answers about paver installation on the Peninsula
Is outdoor lighting safe around kids and pets?
Low voltage systems run at twelve volts past the transformer, which is a large part of why they are the standard for gardens. The cable is buried or run under the paving, and the fixtures run cool enough to sit in a planting bed.
Can you add lighting to a patio you already built?
Yes, and it is far easier if we sleeved it at the time. If we did not, pavers can be lifted and reset, so we open a run, get the cable across, recompact and put the same stones back down. It is a day of work.
How many fixtures does a front yard usually take?
Fewer than people expect. A couple of uplights on the house or a feature tree, a few path lights spaced along the walk and something at the steps will do most front yards. We would rather place a small number well.
Do the lights come on by themselves?
Yes, if you want them to. Most transformers take a timer, a photocell or both, so the system comes on at dusk and goes off when you choose. A system somebody has to switch on by hand is one that stops getting used.
Will digging for lighting damage my lawn or planting?
Cable in open ground goes in a narrow slit trench that closes back up and disappears within a season. Under paving it goes in a sleeve during the base stage, so there is no digging later. We work around root zones, not through them.
Do you install lighting outside San Carlos?
Yes, across the Peninsula. Burlingame, Menlo Park, Hillsborough, Atherton, Belmont, Redwood City and San Mateo are all regular ground for us, usually as part of a paving or hardscape job at the same property.