Maintaining your exterior lighting in perfect condition can be a daunting task to accomplish, especially if you have little knowledge about how to do so. While you might think that such tasks might be difficult to obtain, there are various alternatives you can utilize to efficiently keep your landscape lighting in good condition.
Getting the most out of the landscape lighting might be one of the primary goals of every homeowner. To do that, one must efficiently carry out proper cleaning and maintenance methods, as well as enhance proper system functioning.
Besides these options, this article would discuss some important things you must know about proper methods in maintaining landscape lighting.
Administering Proper Landscape Lighting Maintenance
When it comes to adding curb appeal to your home and making it more attractive for visitors, one of the primary things you can do is to spruce up your landscape lighting. Usually, home exteriors are considered some of the most important aspects of one’s home as they’re the first visible features to passersby. If you like to have a house that’s eye-catching and noticeable, better start with your landscape lighting.
To know more about these simple landscape lighting hacks, continue reading below.
1. Arrange Plants Strategically
If you’re thinking about the proper methods you can utilize to better your landscape lightings, one of the primary things you must consider is creating proper plant arrangements in your yard. You may not know it, but the place where you put your succulents plays a vital role in highlighting the performance of your lights.
Be it new sets of seedlings, blossoms, or greeneries, any type of flowering plants or shrubs can be of great value to the overall aesthetics of your landscape lighting. But before you put them in their arrangement, consider first their distance to your lighting fixtures.
Ideally, you must put such flowering plants in a place where they can have ample distance from your fixtures, so they won’t obscure them. It’d also be better if you trim them regularly to prevent blocking your lightings.
2. Add Mulch Carefully
If you want to enhance your landscape lightings, one of the primary things you must consider is the presence of mulch in your garden. Whether you believe it or not, this mulch can benefit your landscape in more ways than one. First, they could protect your plants from scorching heat and keep them covered from a heatwave.
Applying a considerable number of mulches could also pose significant impacts on your exterior lighting since they prevent weed growth. To avoid damaging your lightings, it’s a wise idea to place them carefully.
If you’re planning to add mulches into your landscape, it’d be beneficial to communicate with your gardener and tell them to avoid placing them near your lightings. Putting a mark or flag on your fixtures could also help in preventing them to be buried under mulch eventually.
3. Eliminate Debris
After executing proper plant arrangements and adding mulch, another thing to do involves eliminating debris around your fixtures. Such litters may include dirt, mud, dried leaves, or wastes from animals and insects. Removing them from your fixtures is crucial in enhancing the illumination of your lightings as well as making your outdoor space look tidier. Besides that, it’d also help in prolonging the life of your fixtures and preventing them from being damaged.
4. Check For Any Damaged Cables
When it comes to bolstering the durability and efficiency of your landscape lightings, one of the primary things you must monitor is the possibility of damaged cables. Although you might think such instances are less likely to occur because your landscape lights were installed seamlessly, there’s no denying the possibility of them becoming exposed.
Factors such as rodent attack, heating, inappropriate cable application, mechanical failure, degradation of cable sheath, electrical overloading, and ultraviolet (UV) exposure are some of the prominent aspects that could lead to faulty electrical wirings.
To efficiently prevent such risks, it’d be better if you’ll have your lightings checked regularly by a professional. As a rule of thumb, you must look for any exposed wires and check them first before burying them in the ground. Once you cleared any faulty wirings and there’s nothing left, you can now lay them to the ground again to reduce risks of tripping hazards and damages.
However, if you’re not sure about checking them yourself, you can always contact your trusted local service provider or a professional electrician to inspect them and do the work for you. This option makes for more assurance that nothing important would be left unnoticed.
5. Look For Any Damaged Fixtures
Apart from checking the wirings for any damaged cables, another thing to watch out for is the possibility of broken fixtures. From dented metals, broken lenses, corrosion, or any other type of damages, it’d always be better to check each of your landscape lighting fixtures for any impairments.
If ever there are broken parts, you could replace the damages immediately to prevent affecting the others. If you have lesser knowledge about fixing, you could contact an electrician to repair them properly.
6. Replace The Bulbs Regularly
If you’re having a hard time choosing between light-emitting diodes (LED) or regular bulbs for your landscape lightings, one of the major aspects you must consider is their efficiency and the ability to last longer.
In most cases, many homeowners opt for LED lightings for their landscape due to their durability. Besides that, LED lights could also lessen the need for replacing bulbs, which could be financially straining on the homeowners’ part. But if you think your old LED lights don’t perform as bright as they did before, then it might be the right time you replace some bulbs in your lightings.
Having a professional electrician to check for corrosion and replace the bulbs could also be an ideal option since they could properly inspect the sockets for any necessary repairs.
7. Consider Proper Lighting Arrangements
Aside from the options stated above to keep your landscape lightings in perfect condition, another ideal alternative you might want to consider involves proper lighting arrangements. Among other factors, foot traffic is considered one of the most common aspects that could damage your lightings.
You must consider whether they’re near any bush or plant and make sure they won’t be stepped on. Besides that, you may also put them in a place where they won’t receive any foot traffic to prevent damaging them.
Furthermore, it’d be nice to methodically place your landscape lighting in a place where they’ll be highlighted the most and could illuminate your yard better. Simply said, it’d be better if you’ll utilize proper lighting arrangements to prevent risks.
To further prevent any foot traffic, it’d be beneficial to have specific timers for your exterior lights, which could help people to spot them immediately. You can consider turning these lights on, especially at night. However, the use of those timers is only optional, especially if you’re into landscape lightings with light sensors. One of the many good things about having such lights is they could help create an impression that someone’s always at home and help deter robbers and burglars.
Advantages Of Proper Landscape Lighting Maintenance
Having exterior lightings is one of the many alternatives to beautify one’s house, aside from being a prominent asset. Particularly, outdoor lightings could significantly improve your home aesthetics and add curb appeal to it. Be it a commercial property, event venue, or a rest house, landscape lightings play a vital role in sprucing up one’s real estate property.
Intrinsically, landscape lightings and exterior lights could benefit your house in many ways. For one, they could enhance your home’s aesthetic appearance and overall image. Besides that, they could also offer protection and security to your property, as well as prevent risks of thievery. However, you must know that such lights won’t be able to perform well if they’re not properly maintained. That’s why conducting regular checks and administering proper landscape lighting maintenance could be beneficial to most homeowners.
To better understand the importance of conducting regular landscape lighting maintenance, here are some important pieces of information you must know:
- Executing outdoor lighting maintenance regularly could be of great use in ensuring they’d function at their full capacity. Not just that, but they could also prevent risks of burnout and damages, including overheating and faulty wirings.
- Even the seemingly toughest landscape lightings could be damaged once exposed to a variety of conditions, making them less effective and inefficient. In such aspects, lighting maintenance could help keep them in good condition and insulate them against outdoor hazards.
- Exposure to extreme wind, harsh weather, irrigation, dust, dirt, pests, and temperature fluctuations are some of the most common reasons that could lead to impaired lightings and damaged cable wires. To prevent such, it’d be better to inspect your lighting fixtures regularly or contact a professional electrician to do the work for you.
Takeaway
Keeping your landscape lighting in perfect condition can be challenging and daunting, especially if you lack adequate knowledge about how to do so properly. With many things to consider and aspects to ponder upon, you might find this task intimidating and daunting. Fortunately, there are various alternatives and methods you can utilize to efficiently maintain them.
As a rule of thumb, it’s better to always seek help from professional electricians and reliable service providers to have your lightings checked.
