Exterior and Landscape Lighting

Have ready

Mark where you want light to land, not just where you want fixtures, and clear mulch and plantings away from the run so the trench line is visible. Have the exterior outlet or the panel location known, and note whether any existing low-voltage cable or transformer is already in the ground. The first three checks are the existing transformer rating, the condition of any buried cable, and whether the mounting surfaces are sound.

• Wet-location boxes
• Motion or dusk sensors
• Low-voltage runs
• Wire protection

The visit

A exterior and landscape lighting visit starts by naming the failure, not by selling the fix. We check what the problem touched, protect the floors and the rooms below, and leave a written scope. The work is done in one sequence by the same company, so the trade that caused the damage is the trade that closes it.

What fails first on the Shore is what we look at: salt-rotted fasteners, water finding the soft spot, and the 'quick fix' that never dealt with the cause. For exterior and landscape lighting, the tell is usually visible on the first visit, and we say what it means in plain English.

Permit

Low-voltage landscape lighting fed from an existing exterior outlet normally needs no permit. New line-voltage circuits run from the panel to a flood, soffit, or post light do require an electrical permit and inspection in most New Jersey towns. A repair or fixture swap on existing wiring is generally repair work. Monmouth and Ocean County towns vary on this, so the scope is walked through first and any permit is pulled and the inspection handled when the work calls for one.

On the Shore

Salt spray is what kills exterior lighting here. It pits aluminum and steel housings, corrodes terminal screws, and eats the finish off any fixture within reach of blowing mist. Freeze-thaw works the buried splices and pushes frost into the boxes. Gasketed wet-location fixtures with stainless or non-ferrous hardware are used, and every buried connection is sealed with a waterproof splice rather than a bare wire nut.

When we leave

The circuit is energized and the sensor is covered by hand or set to test so the technician can watch it switch on and off through a full cycle. Every fixture is checked for output and direction, and the transformer is verified to hold voltage at the end of the run. Wire nuts and splices are checked for tightness, the transformer is set to the correct mode, and you get a note on where the cable runs so digging avoids it.

Built with

Exterior lighting uses wet-location rated fixtures with gasketed lenses, stainless or coated fasteners, and direct-burial cable rated for the circuit. Waterproof splice connectors or gel-filled caps replace open wire nuts underground. A transformer sized to the total load with headroom is used for low-voltage runs, and fixtures on line voltage get a properly grounded box with a bubble cover.