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Lead Story · SEP 28

Landscape Lighting Install, Where the Light Should Go|Thinking About Landscape Lighting and What It Should Cost You in Effort

Landscape lighting is a design problem before it is a shopping problem Landscape lighting puts light on the ground level of a property: walkways, beds, trees, steps, driveways, the path from the car to the door. Done well, it looks like the yard is lit and not like a row of lamps. Done badly, it looks like an airport runway down the driveway. What a yard normally needs Path lighting is usually the starting point, since walking to the door in the dark is the daily problem.

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Analysis · SEP 28

Curb Appeal Lighting: How Light Changes the View From the Road|Does Lighting Improve Curb Appeal?|Nighttime Curb Appeal: A Homeowner's Guide

The oversight The front of a home absorbs a lot of budget. All of it is designed for daylight. After dark all that work stops existing. Half the hours anybody sees the front of your home are after sunset for a good part of the year, and there is nothing to see.None of that requires much: an outline, a focal point, and matched color. The uncommon part is thinking about it before the sun goes down, rather than the cost. The houses that look good at night are almost always the

Dispatch · SEP 26

Eave Lighting, The Detail That Decides How It Looks|Why the Eave Is the Right Place for the Track: The Practical Reasons|Soffit, Eave, Fascia: A Homeowner's Glossary

First, which part is which The roof edge comes with vocabulary, and the names are worth two minutes. The fascia is the flat board facing you at the edge of the roof. The soffit is the horizontal surface tucked beneath the overhang. Eave is the general term for that overhang.You will not need this vocabulary often, but it appears in every estimate, and quotes are hard to compare when you are not sure what is being described. So when the plan says soffit mounted, you can pict

Also in the edition

Holiday Light Installation, What You Get When Somebody Else Hangs Them|Should You Hire Out Your Christmas Light Installation What the Job Includes

Why people stop doing it themselves The job seems small in the driveway, then it eats a whole weekend. Add the steep pitch, a roof with a real pitch to it, and the fact that December in the Upstate can be wet, and the math changes. What you should be getting The job has four parts, and the last two are the ones people forget to ask about. It starts with a plan: what gets outlined, which trees get wrapped, how it looks from the road. Then the install, done by a crew with th

SEP 26

Commercial Outdoor Lighting: What It Buys You Beyond Looking Nice|What Commercial Outdoor Lighting Is Really For After the Sun Goes Down|Lighting a Commercial Building

Your building works after hours whether you light it or not People drive past your building in the evening constantly, and what they see is either a lit facade or a dark rectangle. A dark building does not just look closed, it stops being noticed. A lit one stays in the mental map of everybody who drives that road.This is not an aesthetic decision for a business. A building that reads clearly at night is working for you during hours you are not open. It is one of the few ex

SEP 24

Permanent LED Lighting Installation: How the Job Gets Done|How Permanent Lighting Installation Works

Step one is a free consultation Nothing gets installed until the design is settled. Somebody walks the property, asks how you use the outside of your home, and works out where the light should go. It costs nothing, and you are not signing anything to have it. Why the design comes first Your house is not the same shape as the one down the street, so the plan gets drawn around it. A good design follows the architecture that is already there: the roof edge, the peaks, the col

SEP 24

How to Choose an Outdoor Lighting Company Six Questions Worth Asking|What Separates One Outdoor Lighting Company From Another: A Plain Guide

The part people rush The trouble with shopping for outdoor lighting is that two numbers can describe two completely different jobs. A template plan and a plan drawn for your house often quote close together, and look nothing alike once installed. Ask whether the design comes first Ask to see what they are proposing for your house. A company that designs for the property will be able to tell you why the light goes where it goes. A company that will not is selling you a pack

SEP 21