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Professional Landscape Lighting Installation

Nobody wants to find out what a lighting plan looks like by watching their yard get dug up. So we settle that question on paper. You get a full plan based on photographs of your own home, showing every fixture, which way it aims, what it draws in watts, and how the wire reaches it. We won’t purchase hardware or begin installation until the complete plan has been approved.

Blue Hour Lighting designs and installs low-voltage landscape lighting across Westchester, Dutchess, and Rockland Counties and Greenwich, Connecticut. Everything below is what happens on a real job, in the order it happens.

What a Landscape Lighting Design Actually Includes

The first visit happens in daylight. Our owner, Jarod, walks the property with you, asks how you actually use the yard, and sees which paths, doors, and outdoor spaces get the most use. That conversation sets the priorities before a single fixture is chosen, and it’s what decides how the lights are connected.

You then get an architectural-grade plan using photographs of your own house, showing:

  • Every fixture position and the direction it aims
  • Fixture type and wattage for each position
  • Transformer locations and the cable paths between them
  • Which zones are connected
You approve the plan before anything gets ordered or installed. That step alone helps avoid costly surprises after installation.
Overhead lighting plan marking each fixture position and aim direction.

The Installation Process, Step by Step

01

Layout

Before we start, we place every fixture exactly where the plan puts it, so you can walk the yard and adjust anything that doesn't feel right.

02

Trenching

Wire goes into the ground in shallow trenches, generally around six inches deep, clear of irrigation lines and root zones.

03

Transformer mounting

The transformer goes on the house or a post near an exterior outlet, high enough to stay out of the snow.

04

Cable pulls and connections

Cable is drawn out to each zone and joined with waterproof connectors.

05

Light install

Each landscape light is set, staked or mounted, and leveled.

06

Night tuning

After dark, we aim every fixture with you there, then test each zone to confirm it's running the way it should.

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Keeping Low Voltage Bright

Nearly all residential landscape lighting runs on low voltage, safe enough that a nicked wire in a garden bed is a minor fix, not a hazard. It’s also flexible; adding a fixture later means joining a wire, not tearing up a trench. The trade-off is that 12-volt power fades over distance, so a fixture at the end of a long run can end up dimmer than one closer to the transformer.
Getting that balance right takes real skill, which is exactly what we plan for before the first fixture is installed.

Transformers, Wire & Voltage Drop

Voltage drop is where most DIY installs go wrong. We calculate total wattage and cable distance before installation begins. Pushing current down a long, thin cable causes the voltage at the far end to sag. LED fixtures tolerate more of this than old halogen lights did, but past a certain point, the far lights dim, shift color, or fail early.

There are three levers, and a good design optimizes all of them:

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1

Transformer Capacity

Transformer capacity isn't something to eyeball. We keep every load under about 80 percent of a transformer's rating. Push past that and a transformer runs hot, ages faster, and can fail years before it should. On larger properties, that means multiple transformers, placed near the lights they serve.

2

Wire Gauge

We use direct-burial cable, starting at 12-gauge and stepping up to heavier cable as the distance and the load grow. Undersizing the cable to save money is the most common mistake we find on systems we're asked to repair.

3

Circuit Layout

How the lights are grouped matters as much as the wire. A hub layout, a loop, or a T split all balance the load differently, and the right one depends on where the fixtures actually sit.

4

Connections Matter

We use waterproof, gel-filled, or heat-shrink connectors, built to last outdoors for years. Twist-on wire nuts wrapped in tape are a shortcut, but they only hold for a season before corrosion sets in. By the time it fails, it's the middle of winter, the worst possible time to lose part of your lighting system.

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Your Yard After Landscape Lighting Installation

Our crew handles installations with enough care that your lawn looks untouched shortly after we leave. We open narrow trenches, cut sod cleanly and lay it back, and route wire around root plates to keep them intact. Established beds are dug by hand, and mature trees get a wide berth to protect their major roots.
Where wire needs to cross a driveway or patio, timing matters. If the hardscape is going in as part of the project, we sleeve it during construction. If the hardscape’s already there, we core through it more work, but precise every time. We also locate irrigation lines before doing any work near them. A cut line is an easy mistake to avoid.
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Fixture Types and Where We Install Landscape Lighting

Most designs mix a handful of techniques to suit the house, and a typical property uses four or five together. These are the ones we specify most often:
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Uplighting and Accent Lighting

Fixtures sit at the base of a tree or wall and aim up, which is what gives your yard depth and a considered look that can only happen when design does its job and effectively disappears from awareness.

Path and Walkway Lighting

Low path lights put light on the ground, spaced so the light pools overlap slightly. The classic mistake is spacing them evenly, like runway markers.

Downlighting and Moonlighting

We mount fixtures and aim them through the branches, giving them a natural, moonlit effect.

Grazing

A light set close to a wall throws its beam across the surface and brings out the texture of the stone or brick.

Facade and Front Lawn Lighting

Your home's facade is lit in a balanced manner that makes the front door the focal point, and your lawn's features are lit to bring depth and beauty to the entire property.

Step and Safety Lighting

Every stair gets a step light, and other trouble spots, such as grade breaks where the ground suddenly changes level, pool edges, and dark corners, get the right fixture for the job.

Hardscape Lighting

We build light into each step, wall, and pillar. See hardscape lighting for that work in detail.

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Fixture Brands, Materials, and Color Temperature

Blue Hour Lighting installs fixtures from Kichler, CAST Lighting, FX Luminaire, Brilliance LED, Auroralight, Unique Lighting Systems, and Infinity Lighting, brands chosen because they’re built to survive outside, not just look good on day one. Brass, copper, and stainless steel cost more upfront but outlast cast aluminum by years, and many carry a lifetime factory warranty. A cheap fixture might make it a season or two before it fails, and replacing it usually costs more than the higher-quality fixture would have.
Warmth matters just as much as placement. We stay on the warm end of the spectrum, close to candlelight (generally 2700K to 3000K), because cooler, bluer light turns plantings gray and makes even a warm-toned house look cold and uninviting.

Do You Need a Licensed Electrician?

For the low-voltage part, no. Everything past the transformer sits at about 12 volts, which is why homeowners can buy kits at a hardware store. The transformer itself is the exception, because it has to plug into a proper exterior GFCI-protected circuit. If your house already has one where the transformer needs to go, we mount and wire the low-voltage side, and you’re done. If it doesn’t, a licensed electrician adds the circuit, and we coordinate that as part of the job.
  • Our team's electrical engineering background makes that hand-off simple. We know exactly what to ask for, so the electrician isn't guessing at what a landscape lighting installation needs.

Fine -Tuning at Night

The fine-tuning is what separates a great landscape lighting system from a competent one.
Aiming a fixture in daylight is guesswork, since you can’t see the beam, the spill, or the shadow it throws. That’s why we come back after dark and adjust every light, the aim, the tilt, the glare shield, and sometimes the lamp itself.
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Low-Voltage Landscape Lighting Maintenance

The outdoors takes its toll on landscape lighting. Plants grow into beams, mowers clip stakes, frost heaves fixtures out of level, and squirrels do what squirrels do to cable.

The LED lamps in these fixtures are rated for tens of thousands of hours, so a low-voltage lighting system can go years between lamp changes. Every installation includes a one-year workmanship warranty, and after that most clients move to a maintenance plan: two visits a year, spring and fall, to re-aim, clean lenses, replace failed lamps, repair wiring, and reset timers. We also check transformer load on every visit.

The Cost of Outdoor Lighting Installation

There isn’t an average worth quoting, because the same fixture count lands at very different numbers on different properties. What actually moves the figure:

01

How much of the yard is being lit

A front facade and a walkway are a different project from a whole property.

02

Fixture count and placement

Lights at the base of a tree fifteen feet from the transformer cost less to install than the same lights 200 feet out across a driveway.

03

Transformer capacity

How many transformers are needed and where they should go.

04

Wire length

Distance drives both cable gauge and labor.

05

Material grade

Brass, copper, and stainless behave and last differently from cast aluminum, and they're priced differently.

06

Trenching conditions

Open ground is quick. Established beds, mature root systems, and hardscape crossings take more time.

07

Zoning

Each independently controlled area adds capacity and control cost.

The honest route to a real number is the free on-site assessment and the night demonstration.

Landscape Lighting Across Westchester and the Hudson Valley

We install landscape lighting throughout Westchester County, Dutchess County, Rockland County, and Greenwich, Connecticut, and we hold the licenses each place requires.

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Ready to start? Request a free consultation, and we’ll set up a walkthrough of your yard, or call 845-202-3369.

Landscape Lighting Installation FAQ

It depends on what you want from it. If the goal is simply a light by the front door, there are store-bought kits and DIY options available.
Professional work earns its cost with a design that makes the property look beautiful, components that survive more than a couple of winters, and an install that doesn’t fail at the connectors. Add safety on steps and elevation changes, and that it gives homeowners the desire to use their yard at night.
Not for the 12-volt side. The fixtures, the wire, and the connections past the transformer are all low-voltage work.
You need a licensed electrician if a new exterior GFCI circuit has to be added for the transformer. Many houses already have a suitable outlet, and where yours doesn’t, we handle the coordination.
Putting a fixture in the ground is easy. Making twenty of them look right together is the hard part.
Sizing transformers, choosing wire gauge, managing voltage drop, and sealing every splice is learnable. The design side takes training. Knowing what to leave dark, where to hide the source, and how to keep the light off your neighbor’s bedroom window makes all the difference.