Many landscapers and other contractors who install lighting as one of their services may use quality fixtures but lack the knowledge specific to professional lighting. Using a quality fixture is a good start but only a small part to the installation. For example, most companies use the light bulb furnished with the fixture as a standard bulb. This presents two problems:1) The light bulb furnished with the fixture is never rated for more than 2,000 hours (ours are commercially rated for at least 4,000 hours).2) The light bulb furnished has a specific wattage and beam spread that may be wrong for the application. We use up to 14 different light bulbs for the same fixture. Each bulb can vary greatly in wattage and beam spread. We match the correct bulb with the proper application.
Fixture placement is extremely important. Knowing exactly where to locate each fixture and using the appropriate beam spread and wattage transforms an average job into a magnificent job.Installation methods and techniques are what distances Outdoor Accents from all the rest:1) We bury all of our cable a minimum of 4 inches.2) We make our own stakes to mount the fixtures. We don’t use the cheap plastic ones furnished by manufacturers. Our stakes are made from schedule 40 PVC and are 16 inches in length; keeping the fixtures straight and solid from season to season.3) We also solder and make watertight all wire connections, locating them in a removable junction box to access for future fixture consideration.Lastly, after the installation most companies leave it up to the customer to service their own system. Their thinking is, you can change your own light bulbs. Changing the light bulb is just a single part of our service; we can provide advice on additions to the lighting system; suggest changes in the lighting placements as the plants and trees grow and mature; provide the peace of mind that their system will preserve that “new look and feel” for as long as they live in their house. We feel that our clients should have the option to have service contracts with us. By doing so they can preserve the professional look of their system for years to come.
