Garden lighting electricians who wire it to last the wet season

Most garden lighting fails underground, not at the fitting. A path light goes out, somebody changes the globe, nothing happens, and the real problem is a low voltage cable that perished under the garden bed two wet seasons ago, or a transformer cooking itself in a sealed box behind the hedge. We have done more than 600 garden, path, deck and bollard lighting jobs since February 2020, and that pattern turns up again and again.

This page is about getting it built, fixed or extended. If you are still deciding what the garden should look like at night, our guide to garden and landscape lighting in the tropics covers the design side first. For lighting inside the house, see lighting.

What we put in outside

• Path and step lighting, and low bollards along walkways and driveways
• Spike lights and uplights on palms, feature trees and garden walls
• Deck and stair lights set into the timber
• Floodlights on the shed, the carport and the back of the house, on a switch, a sensor or a timer
• Lighting around the pool and the entertaining area, worked in with the pool and spa circuits
• Transformers, photo electric cells, timers and the switching that ties it together

Why does outdoor lighting fail so fast up here?

Salt, water and heat. Cheap stainless deck lights corrode around the bezel on a beachfront block within a couple of years. Water sits in a fitting that was mounted the wrong way up. Low voltage cable laid on the surface and covered with mulch gets cut by the next new garden bed. We pick fittings rated for where they will sit, run cable in conduit or bury it deep enough to stay out of the way, and put transformers somewhere ventilated that you can actually get to.

The wildlife has a say too. Ants pack into junction boxes and frogs move into warm fittings.

Sensor floodlights and security style lighting

A floodlight on a sensor is the most useful light on most properties and the one most likely to annoy the neighbours. We aim it at your yard rather than theirs, set the sensitivity and how long it stays on, and fit LED floodlights rated for the weather. If a light keeps coming on at two in the morning, it is usually the sensor watching palm fronds move, and that is an adjustment, not a new fitting.

Resorts, body corporates and holiday lets

On a resort or a strata site the garden lighting is usually dozens of bollards on a timer or a photo electric cell, spread over circuits nobody has labelled. We audit the lot, re-lamp what is out, label the circuits at the board, and give the manager a list of the fittings that need replacing, rather than patching the same ones every month. Guests notice a dark path before they notice anything else. See how we work with body corporates, resorts and holiday let managers.

Twelve volt or 240 volt?

Most garden lighting on houses here runs at extra low voltage off a transformer, which is gentler to have under a garden and easier to add to later. Floodlights and bigger feature fittings are usually 240 volt and need a circuit back to the switchboard with safety switch protection. We will tell you which suits each part of the garden. Hardwiring a transformer, adding an outdoor power point or running a new circuit is licensed electrical work either way.

Planning a new garden or a renovation? Get the conduit in before the landscaper lays the paving. It costs very little then and a lot later. Ask for a call back and we will come and walk the garden with you, ideally after dark.