26 Jun Do It Yourself Landscape lighting
By Mike Gambino
Historically kit lighting has been available as plug and play simple and easy to do it yourself installation from big box stores and such. This is not what this article is about.
With the availability of higher grades of lighting available to anyone with a credit card I sometimes get asked, “Can I put a quality landscape lighting system in myself?” Answering this question can be a slippery slope, but the short answer is ‘yes’.
But the real question is do you want to put the system in yourself? There are several reasons that homeowners want to put in their own lighting. For some it is the challenge and the reward with knowing that they have accomplished such a task. For others, it is the fact that they want to save money. And then there are those who are in the construction business or have friends that are in the construction business that can ‘help’ with the process.
Is it easy?
It is a common belief that putting in a low voltage landscape lighting system is easy and anyone can do it. This has some truth to it, but there is also a reason why you’ve likely heard of low voltage landscape lighting installation disasters. Like anything that’s ‘easy’ to build, there are many, many mistakes that can be made. If landscape lighting was so easy to install there would be many more factory direct landscape lighting companies and the higher grade products would be readily available to anyone at Home depot over the counter. The truth is there are very few factory direct landscape lighting companies and the ones that do exist are often viewed by many industry experts as a lower-quality product. And currently you cannot go into Lowes or Home Depot and purchase landscape lighting components of any quality.
To go factory direct or not?
Almost any landscape lighting distributor will sell the consumer landscape lighting materials, but there is a reason that over 95% low voltage landscape lighting consumers have a professional install their system. There is also a reason that most of the better landscape lighting manufactures want qualified specialists installing their systems– it comes with the fact that not only will the end user enjoyability be much higher but they will not have to worry so much about the warranty of the system when it is installed professionally.
So let’s address the pros and the cons of a Do it yourself landscape lighting system. The first question and the most important question is do I still have a warranty? Often times, the answer is maybe ‘no’. This is because if your system has not been installed by a ‘trained factory installer’ they will usually not honor any warranties. But this is understandable, as they do not know if you have installed everything properly and there are a number of things that can go wrong during an installation that could damage the transformer.
How much money can I save if I install my landscape lighting?
This is a tough question to answer, but the answer is usually whatever the cost of labor, markup of materials (remember a pro can probably get products cheaper than you so even with their markup you may be paying the same for materials if you bought through them originally) and whatever their operational overhead is. This is under the best of conditions, and by that I mean no mistakes are made during the purchase of materials and the installation. If you do not properly wire the system it will have to be redone with new wire. A quality lighting system is hard wired meaning the cables are cut at each and every connection point rendering the cable not re-usable.
There has been more than one occasion when I’ve seen homeowners waste over $1,000 in lost wire and connectors because the work wasn’t done properly. Other expenses to keep in mind are 120 volt wiring and connections which should be done by a qualified individual and not the homeowner.
We have had people who started out with a do-it-yourself lighting system that they bought over the internet and have asked us to come out and take it over because they realized the risk was not worth the savings.
Most times this is not worth our while because we cannot guarantee a system of unknown quality bought from sources that we have no control over. Also our profit is built into the markup of labor and materials therefore we must charge higher prices for our labor to compensate for the loss of materials markup. This results in a higher cost to the homeowner had they originally bought everything from us and they do not get a warranty and must handle any problems with the materials that come up. It’s usually a losing proposition for both sides so we typically do not take these jobs.
We have also had people who have bought factory or distributor direct lighting and had have asked us come out to fix the problems of their self install and the money saved was not only lost but they spent more than if they had just hired someone qualified to begin with.
Homeowner Responsibilities
Not everyone can put in a lighting system, but some can and I have seen some nice jobs done by the homeowner. This is the exception, not the rule. Installing the landscape lighting system means procuring all the materials and probably several trips to the home improvement store for incidentals.
This also means you are the general contractor. You will be responsible for any laborers (installing landscape lighting is labor intensive and will involve digging) or sub contractors having workman’s compensation and if you do not 1099 them you could be responsible for any taxes and penalties that the IRS imposes on them if they do not claim it and get caught. You are also the first person in the line of fire for any lawsuits that may happen due to any type of injury that may happen with the installation of your lighting, by a hired hand. I have seen people hurt on jobs and when it happens someone must pay the bills. As you can see, the Cons can far outweigh the Pros, so buyer beware.
Misleading Prices
I want to touch on one more thing about factory direct landscape lighting companies. Whether they be internet based or brick and morter it’s the same. Many of these companies are not highly concerned as to how well your job goes, which is why they try to make landscape lighting seem like a cash and carry item. These same companies will post what appears to be low prices on their websites to entice you to either install the lighting yourself or give you the option of them recommending to you an installer that probably is not a specialist to come out and install your lighting for just a small fee. By the time you add up the cost of the incidentals and many other things that are needed for the project, you have likely not saved much money at all. Instead, you just managed to be fooled into buying a cheap system at a high price.
There are also those manufacturers who will send out a factory employed representative or salesman to set up a demonstration on your property at night without cost. Sell you the products and recommend someone without much experience who they are trying to get started in the business (usually a landscaper) with the hope that if and when they sell jobs on their own they will remember who got them started and be brand loyal. Sadly, I’ve recently seen some lighting companies that I thought were reputable manufacturers stooping to these types of selling practices, which is likely a result of difficult economic times. It’s unfortunate but it’s happening.
Voltage Disasters
The other big question mark for your lighting project is the proper voltage issues (a topic I’ve spoken much about). This is what will make or break the look of your lighting. There are still some companies out there that will try and convince you that the method you use to connect your system by daisy chaining or wiring design is not important. I agree with such a statement if the lighting aesthetics and performance and reliability are of no concern to you.
There has recently been more of this crazy talk regarding wiring design with LED lighting. Contrary to what is being said, as long as it operates on electricity cable size and wire design engineering is very important.
But as we have mentioned here many times on this blog, the most common problem with landscape lighting installations is finding someone who can properly connect, sequence and wire your low voltage landscape lighting system without doing a terrible job. If I had a dollar for every do-it-yourself wiring disaster we’ve seen, I’d be on a beach writing this article, and not in my office. So again, make sure you know how you’re going to handle your system and don’t just allow any ‘Joe handyman’ to come in and take care of the most important aesthetic component of your lighting system.
It is important that you do your research before you make that expensive $ mistake. I know you may have seen factory direct lighting components on the internet for what may appear to be cheap, but as I’ve stressed here, that number is just a part of the total expense. So be clear on your expenses. Put together a list as to what the entire project will require. And talk to your friends that have had a lighting system installed, as they’ll likely point out components of the project you might be missing or didn’t account for. Good luck and may your landscape lighting system provide you years of joy and excitement.
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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