Our Process

Interior to exterior views are considered when designing your lighting

The first phase is to come up with a rough design. Mike will meet with you at your project location. He will listen to your ideas and dreams for the property and come up with a preliminary plan. He may take some picture of the areas in which the lighting will be integrated. He will ask you to think about the type of effects you prefer, how you use your property. where the primary and secondary viewing locations of these spaces are and how you want to control your lighting systems But don’t worry. None of these decisions have to be final. Remember, this is the brainstorming stage; nothing done at this point will necessarily be final (see no. 9 below). Budgetary considerations will be discussed. We will prepare a list of all the equipment and amenities we recommend with a cost to supply and complete the install. The purpose of this meeting is to determine if we mutually agree that there is a basis for us to continue and work together on the project. There is no pressure to commit but with that being said 90% of clients who hire us sign up and reserve a space in our construction schedule at this meeting. In order to proceed to step two, an agreement is signed and a deposit rendered.

Time elapsed: 1 to 3 hours

We will notify you once we are prepared to start your project, and will be on your site within the following week to lay-out the landscape lighting system. We have found that pictures of our projects give clients a much better idea of our design than a written sketch or plan. While we are exceptional in this field and have dedicated our life to it and have 25 years of success behind us. Landscape Lighting is not an exact science and is highly subjective as to brightness levels, desirability of effects etc. What is spectacular to someone may not be acceptable to another.

We also have found that final decisions cannot be made until the client has actually seen the lighting live on their property at night. The lighting systems is laid out on site and fired up for the clients to see before anything is finalized. This guarantees that our clients are 100% satisfied with the end result. Our goal at this stage is to get all of the fixtures operating as soon as possible so we can begin receiving critical client feedback and adjust on the fly if needed.

Mike places flags where the fixtures are to go and he and his team begins conceptualizing how the conduit and cable is going to routed around obstacles such as concrete structure, roots, boulders and landscape amenities with the least disturbance possible. Homeruns (voltage test points) and distribution junctions in the system are determined and located.

Mike and his head tech assemble and install transformers and switching controls and connect to the existing 120 volt electrical systems on the property.

The following procedures take place each day until all of the fixtures are working. All fixtures installed and connected that day are operational that same night for the client to see and provide feedback on.

Fixtures and LED lamp modules are removed from their boxes and assembled. Final quality control fixture inspection is made by Gambino technicians. Once the LED lamp module is hard wired into each individual weather tight fixture, it’s brightness level is adjusted and proper optic placed. It is then closed up and handed off to Mike who brings it out to its location and is installed. Marking flags are removed except at voltage test point which make them easier to locate once the system has been fired up.

Now that all of the fixtures, transformers, controls and cable runs are in place the system is now ready for Gambino techs to connect all of the wires.

System is turned on. Each fixture and LED is inspected to make sure it is on and operating properly. Voltage tests are then made at several key test points in the system. Adjustments are made at the transformers until all test points are adjusted to 12 volts or as close to 12 volts as possible. This will ensure predictable performance and best lamps life of the LED’s.

As soon as the client has approved the final look. Gambino technicians disconnect cables, roll them up and put them aside and then dig or slit trench the ground where cables are then placed into rigid PVC conduit of appropriate size and placed in the trenches and backfilled and leveled. Water is sprayed on the trenches to aid in the healing of the ground.

Cables are then reconnected. All throughout this process which may take several days there is no interruption of service and the lights are fully functional at night for the duration of this process which may take several days or weeks.

After the landscape lighting system cable is buried inside of conduit underground. connections have been closed and buried and final voltage readings have been taken and adjusted and documented and lights have been operating at night, the project is considered to be substantially complete and the final payment is due.

We will come out at night and make any final minor tweaks if necessary and photograph your lighting project to be included in our photo gallery of work. Client confidentiality is maintained throughout and after completion of your project. Sur Names and street addresses withheld to protect your privacy. We will never have prospective clients contact you without your prior approval.

We warrantee our work for one year. The equipment comes with warrantees that vary from one to three years to lifetime. We only use the top of the line equipment, and any equipment problems (which are extremely rare) are addressed immediately by our technicians with repair or replacement at our discretion. Please be aware that certain Warranties are void in the event the system is worked on by unauthorized individuals or companies or non OEM parts installed.

When everything is finished we will wait for our invitation to the party we know you are going to have to show off your beautiful new landscape lighting system !!!!!!!