Why do some landscape companies say that they can do lighting so much cheaper ?

24 Jun Why do some landscape companies say that they can do lighting so much cheaper ?

By Mike Gambino

In regards to some of the larger landscape companies out there, they can usually offer lower pricing because they buy more landscaping materials and have better pricing than the smaller companies. The reason landscape companies can come in with cheap prices are twofold. First, many landscapers will use landscape lighting as a loss leader meaning they can afford to lose money on the lighting because they are making money on every other aspect of your landscape construction project.

They don’t view lighting as a specialty or something that will sell future work so they do not keep up with the latest trends and techniques of the industry. They don’t take pride in it, use cheap fixtures and cheap transformers and don’t install nearly the amount of cable (wire) needed to properly power a low voltage lighting system so it operates at the correct voltage.

Neither do they take care or have the know how to connect the proper amount of lights in the proper sequence to the power cable to properly balance the load so all of the lights burn evenly, have the same color rendition and last their rated lamp life. High performance is at the bottom of their priority list and as long as it turns on until the check clears that’s all that matters.

Now this may seem like kind of harsh talk but over the 21 years I’ve been in business I have made a living off repairing and replacing ill conceived projects installed by landscapers and electricians for that matter. Typically they will not come back or cannot repair these problems to the satisfaction of the client because to do so would require that they admit they they not only used poor quality materials but also lacked the understanding of low voltage engineering methods to get the results that are possible when the work is done right.

In other words it will cost a whole lot of money to fix and the landscaper made a small amount or no profit at all on the job so usually the homeowner is stuck with the responsibility to pay once again to have the job done right.

I’m sure you have heard the expression you get what you pay for?

Next, you have the landscaping or gardening companies who are working out of their house or even truck, (now don’t get me wrong, that is how we got started, but we quickly jumped into the business in full when we saw that we needed to commit ourselves to the industry. It took us a very short time to make such a decision.) these companies that work out of their houses often times are unlicensed. They do not have workmen’s compensation. They do not take taxes out on their employees or provide them with any benefits. THEY ARE PROBABLY NOT INSURED. I can go on and on but I think you get the picture. Example: Would you buy a new car, from a company that sells them out of the driveway of their home? You probably would not, even if you could save $15,000 or $20,000.

You know as well as I do that the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on and the guy selling that lighting doesn’t have any leverage with the companies he purchases from either. In the end you are an unhappy lighting system owner and the landscape lighting industry gets another black eye because of the lack of integrity of unqualified landscape lighting system builders.

As a general rule of thumb you should disqualify any company or individual who offers to install a landscape lighting system on your property if they do not offer at the very least a maintenance service program.

A reliable way to find out if you are dealing with a specialist or a part time generalist is to get the answer to these 2 key questions.

1- Does the company own and maintain at least 1 truck that it is dedicated and specifically equipped for installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems?

2- Does the company have at least 1 full time employee who does landscape lighting and landscape lighting only ?

This landscape lighting blog is published by Mike Gambino of Gambino landscape lighting inc. all rights reserved. Mike is a professional landscape lighting system designer/ builder and has been designing, installing and maintaining landscape lighting systems for more than 20 years. Mike resides in the Los Angeles area with his wife and 2 sons. To visit his website go to www.gambinolighting.com . To inquire about hiring Mike please click here .

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