From LED uplighting on Forest Acres mature trees to dock and pier lighting on Lake Murray to security floods on Spring Valley driveways — we design and install outdoor lighting systems that look great at night, last for decades, and run on a fraction of the power of legacy halogen.
Done right, outdoor lighting changes how your home looks at night and how safe it feels to use. Done wrong, it floodlights the wrong things, glares into your neighbor's bedroom, burns out in a year, and adds a noticeable line to your power bill. The difference is in fixture selection, layout planning, wire and transformer sizing, and quality of installation.
We start with a property walk — usually at dusk — to talk through what you want to highlight and what you don't. The mature live oaks at a Forest Acres home, the brick or stone facade of a Heathwood remodel, the architecture of a Cobblestone Park new build, the boathouse and pier at Saluda River Club — each calls for different fixture choices and beam patterns. From there we lay out the wire runs, size the transformer, and quote both the install and the future expansion capacity (because most clients add fixtures over the years).
All our outdoor work is LED. The old halogen low-voltage systems were beautiful but consumed 4-5× the power and the bulbs failed every 12-18 months. Modern LED fixtures last 50,000+ hours, run cool, dim cleanly, and most accept color-temperature changes if your tastes evolve. Pairs naturally with the interior lighting work we do for kitchens, recessed lighting, and home theater.
Brass LED uplights at the base of mature live oaks, magnolias, and crepe myrtles. Highlight architectural plants. Forest Acres, Shandon, and Heathwood specialty work.
Wall washers, grazers, and accent fixtures highlighting brick, stone, columns, and architectural detail. Common on Cobblestone Park and Saluda River Club premium builds.
Walkway lighting, step risers, garden bed accents. Low-glare path fixtures rated for SC weather. Improves nighttime navigation and reduces trip hazards.
NEC 555-compliant pier-edge lighting, slip lighting, boathouse interior, underwater fish lights. Lake Murray specialty. Equipotential bonding and 5mA GFCI standard.
Driveway floods, garage motion sensors, dusk-to-dawn entry lights, camera-compatible illumination. Works with Lutron, Leviton, and Ring ecosystems.
Astronomic timers (sunset/sunrise tracking), photocells, smart-home integration via Lutron Caseta or Hubitat. Schedule scenes for entertaining, holiday seasons, vacations.
We design and install outdoor lighting across the Midlands. Heaviest concentrations in mature-tree neighborhoods (Forest Acres, Shandon, Wales Garden), Lake Murray waterfront properties, and premium subdivisions (Cobblestone Park, Saluda River Club).
Low-voltage (12V or 24V) landscape lighting uses a transformer that steps house voltage down before sending power to the fixtures. It's safer to work around, easier to add to later, and the wire can be buried shallower. Most residential landscape lighting in Columbia is low-voltage. Line-voltage (120V) lighting uses standard house current and is required for some applications — string lights covering large areas, high-output security floodlights, and certain dock or boathouse setups. We install both depending on what fits the project.
A small entry-level low-voltage system (transformer, 8-12 LED fixtures, timer) runs $1,800-$2,800 installed for a typical front yard. A full-property design covering trees, beds, paths, and architectural features for a 2,500-3,500 sq ft home in Forest Acres or Shandon runs $4,500-$9,000. Premium fixtures (brass instead of plastic), longer wire runs, and complex layouts push higher. We design the layout, walk the property at night with you before quoting.
Yes. Lake Murray dock and boathouse lighting is one of our specialties. NEC 555 governs dock electrical (separate from typical landscape rules) — equipotential bonding, marine-grade fixtures, watertight junctions, 5mA GFCI on every circuit. Common installs are pier-edge lighting, slip lighting, boathouse interior, courtesy lighting on the path from house to dock, and underwater fish lights. We handle the permit with Lexington or Richland County and coordinate any dock variance work.
Usually yes. If the existing transformer has spare capacity (most do — they're often sized 20-30% larger than the original load) we just tap in new fixtures on the existing wire or run a new branch. If the transformer is maxed out, we upgrade to a larger unit. We can also retrofit older halogen systems to LED — cuts power consumption by 70-80%, increases bulb life dramatically, and lets you add more fixtures within the same transformer capacity.
Late fall through early spring (November-March) is actually the best time. The ground is softer for trenching, landscaping is dormant so we can trench through beds without damaging plantings, and you'll have the lighting working through holiday season. Summer installs work fine but require more care around irrigation systems and growing landscaping. Hurricane and storm season (June-October) we sometimes prioritize storm-recovery work, so booking lead times stretch.
Yes. Motion-sensor floodlights, dusk-to-dawn outlets, garage and entry security lights, driveway sensor lighting, and integrated camera-compatible lighting. We work with Lutron, Leviton, Ring, and standard 120V floods depending on the homeowner's existing smart home setup. Pairs naturally with our smart home electrical work.
We'll walk the property at dusk and design the layout with you.