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While it\u2019s exciting that so many people are taking the plunge into landscape lighting, the ability to dig a hole and screw in a bulb does not make one a qualified installer. Kevin Smith, national technical support and trainer for Brilliance LED, Phoenix, cautions that not all lighting contractors out there are reputable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are two different types of contractors out there,\u201d he says. \u201cYou see a contractor who is using a very poorly made and inexpensive product that he purchases online. Then you find the other side, someone that takes a lot of pride in his work and is using quality lights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith says a good contractor will be educated on every aspect of lighting systems. With the advent of websites such as Pinterest and Houzz, however, he has his work cut out for him. Many homeowners, armed with ideas from these sites, are sometimes becoming more design-savvy than the contractors they hire. But that doesn\u2019t mean they know how to achieve the looks they want.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trouble is, homeowners who see this stuff want to go as cheap as possible. They don\u2019t look at the longevity the project could have,\u201d Smith says.<\/p>\n
It happened frequently prior to the recession, according to Smith, and those people are now paying the price. \u201cPeople went crazy and bought the cheapest thing possible and ended up having to replace the whole system.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is also concerned about contractors out there who are simply buying stuff on the cheap and \u201cplunking it into the ground.\u201d They may think that\u2019s the fast track to success, but for many of these contractors, he says, \u201cIt\u2019s a race to the bottom.\u201d<\/p>\n A reputable contractor will have a strong knowledge of landscape lighting products and applications and will offer solid experience and exhibit good listening skills, notes Goers. \u201cThe contractor should articulate his design plans clearly after listening to what the homeowner envisions for the property.\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re able to distinguish yourself as the latter type of contractor, you shouldn\u2019t have any trouble attracting clients.<\/p>\n Just ask Robert Shomer, in business since 2005 as the owner of Nightscapers, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Word of mouth about his excellent work spread quickly in Broward County\u2019s elite circles, and the company has worked on dozens of projects for commercial real estate developers and homeowners\u2019 associations as well as the homes of NBA players and Fortune 500 CEOs.<\/p>\n \u201cOur business is phenomenal,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t do any advertising. All of our business comes from people calling in. We are busy every day of the week if we want.\u201d<\/p>\n Shomer enjoys what he does in part because of the flexibility it offers him. He keeps it simple, just him and one full-time employee. \u201cI don\u2019t want to have a lot of employees,\u201d he says. \u201dTaking my business to the next level would mean more employees and more management but not incrementally that much more money. I keep it small to maximize profit. We don\u2019t have a huge staff, but we do a lot of business and do very well.\u201d<\/p>\n Nightscapers\u2019 projects have involved LED lighting products almost exclusively since their introduction into the market around 2008. And in that short 10-year span, major improvements have come along.<\/p>\n \u201cNow we are seeing in the 12-volt lineup a lot more powerful lights than we had in previous years,\u201d says Shomer. Not only are they a lot brighter, they consume less power. \u201cIt is a lot more feasible to do things now with LED that were only feasible to do with 120-volt light in the past,\u201d he says. The newer fixtures also are more resistant to voltage fluctuations.<\/p>\n Nightscapers goes the extra mile to ensure the longevity of the systems it installs. For example, Shomer will use heavy-duty 10-gauge wire which he says improves voltage flow. The heavier-duty wire with heavier-duty insulation also lasts longer. And, to prevent moisture from getting into and shorting out fixtures (a big problem in humid Florida), he solders all the connections.<\/p>\n The equipment options are plentiful and keep multiplying, which is fun for contractors as they can play with color changes and other lighting accents. Shomer says there\u2019s been an increase in fixture types, including wash lights that provide a wide spread, and newer lights that have the ability to go from 2,700K (Kelvin) to 3,000K. \u201cAdjustable beam spreads and adjustable brightnesses are getting pretty commonplace now,\u201d he observes.<\/p>\n Goers says lighting fixtures have become more flexible with the 2016 introduction of WAC\u2019s adjustable LED accent, wall wash and well lights. It\u2019s been a godsend to landscape lighting contractors. \u201cInstead of carrying a dozen or more different fixtures in their inventory, the landscape or irrigation contractor can use a single, versatile product such as an accent light, which adjusts to accommodate a multitude of features, including various brightnesses and beam angle distributions.\u201d<\/p>\n Take some advice from those who\u2019ve already chosen to add lighting to their business offerings. Dan Wasson, owner of Indiana-based Wasson Nursery, offers the following guidance.<\/p>\n Landscape lighting has become a big segment of Hulihan Territory Inc.\u2019s business. The Atlantic Beach, Florida-based company also installs irrigation systems, pumps, wells and drainage solutions, but lately a large portion of the work being booked is landscape lighting. \u201cIt\u2019s become a pretty big segment. We\u2019re probably doing two or three jobs a week,\u201d says Ric Sinclair, senior sales associate.<\/p>\n Sinclair\u2019s been installing landscape lighting for 18 years, before LED became a game-changer for the industry. He says, as customers have become more educated about LED products, \u201cthey aren\u2019t as difficult to sell as they were in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n Another big change in landscape lighting has less to do with its appearance or how much power it consumes, and more to do with how it\u2019s operated. Hulihan has gone almost exclusively over to Wi- Fi to control lighting systems because, according to Sinclair, it\u2019s more reliable than mechanical and astronomical timers. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone to full Wi-Fi now and found it works better,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Hulihan has been lighting a lot of garage doors for customers lately. Its a newer option the company is offering its clients. Apparently, a lighted garage door is becoming a distinctive feature of high-end homes, and the company is hoping to capitalize on that. \u201cWe are trying to get that going,\u201d says Sinclair.<\/p>\n Lighting up landscapes is just the beginning of outdoor lighting\u2019s possibilities. Today, homeowners are doing more outdoor entertaining, putting emphasis on the ambiance that can be created with light.<\/p>\n One big trend in this area is bistro lights, strung across a patio or yard. The Blaze series of lights from Brilliance LED that simulates the effects of fire has been popular this season.<\/p>\n Sinclair has seen an increase in demand for \u201cEdison lights,\u201d elongated LED bulbs that have the retro look of early lightbulbs. \u201cThey are actually prettier and more incandescent-ey than the LEDs. You can really see the filament glowing.\u201d<\/p>\n Other parts of the country are faring quite well with lighting as an add-on business. Wasson Nursery is a design-build landscape firm with three locations in Indiana. While it owns garden centers, its primary business is landscape design, installation and maintenance. And while it\u2019s not the company\u2019s cash cow, landscape lighting is so closely related to everything else the company is doing, it makes good sense to offer it.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lighting portion of what we do is a smaller portion of the business, but it is a good accent to what we do because if I am designing a big project, lighting is automatically budgeted into it,\u201d explains owner Dan Wasson. \u201cEveryone gets a lighting quote regardless if they ask for it or not.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds, \u201cLighting is a good add-on service, because the homeowner is in the mood to buy. If he\u2019s already paying for a $50,000 to $70,000 landscape project, what\u2019s another $8,000 to $10,000 for lighting?\u201d For Wasson, it all goes back to the time of day when people are around to enjoy their outdoor space. \u201cAt 12 o\u2019clock in the middle of a weekday, you aren\u2019t out on your patio, but at 6 or 7 o\u2019clock when those lights pop on, that\u2019s when you\u2019re using it.\u201d<\/p>\n Wasson installs WAC\u2019s Integrated LED lighting fixtures. He says the biggest thing customers want with their lighting is control. They want to be able to adjust color and brightness, but most importantly, they want to be able to do it from their phones.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want it in their phone, on an app and they want it easy,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Of course, this is all part of landscape lighting systems\u2019 integration into the Internet of Things. People increasingly expect to be able to manipulate all of their household systems, including irrigation, security, heating and air conditioning as well as their outdoor lighting through their smartphones. Thanks to lighting manufacturers staying on top of these trends, they can.<\/p>\n Color is another area where control is increasingly in demand. More and more of Wasson\u2019s customers are requesting color-changing LEDs for a variety of effects they want to create.<\/p>\n He shared the story of one client who bought a bear sculpture at an auction to put outside. He wanted to bathe it in blue light whenever the Indianapolis Colts are playing \u2014 and he wanted to control it with Bluetooth. Done. Another client wanted his patio lights to glow orange when he throws his annual Halloween party. Wasson made it happen.<\/p>\n Sometimes customers aren\u2019t even aware of the color control new LEDs have. Wasson says customers can sometimes be wary of LED lights because they think they will give off a harsh, blue-tinted white light.<\/p>\n That was true of some of the very the first LEDs that came on the market, but with the newer generation of bulbs, that fear is no longer warranted.<\/p>\n Lighting temperatures can now be changed to give LEDs that warm, incandescent-type glow everyone wants to achieve with their lights.<\/p>\n With more companies offering landscape lighting, more homeowners are starting to see its value. Luckily for them, they won\u2019t have to look very far to find someone to install it.<\/p>\n As Wasson says, \u201cThe demand is there, but it is also about offering the client the whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n Andrew Lingan and his partners install underwater LED lights as part of their pond business. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen consistently at many of our customers\u2019 homes that they had inadequate or broken outdoor lighting,\u201d he says, \u201cso we kind of just applied what we knew about putting lighting underwater to out of the water.\u201d<\/p>\n Premier Outdoor Lighting officially began as an extension of Premier Ponds last September. It hasn\u2019t seen enormous growth, but Lingan says it\u2019s only the beginning. \u201cIt\u2019s been a slow start with that, but we have gotten a few jobs from our pond customers, not so much from the outside as of yet. But it\u2019s really just starting to ramp up.\u201d<\/p>\n And he uses the same reasoning for lighting up a pond as a contractor might use for a landscape, \u201cIf you buy a beautiful pond, you\u2019re only able to enjoy it for half the day unless you put lighting into it. We are big proponents of \u2018lighting it up\u2019 and our customers are too. I would say over 90 percent of them have lights in their water features.\u201d<\/p>\n That interest is what spurred Lingan and his partners to expand from water to land. \u201cIt brings a new dimension to your landscape and your water feature,\u201d Lingan says, and he is ready to bring on more landscape lighting clients. \u201cWe are going to create the trend outside of the pond. It is up to us to show them what is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Opportunity also lies with homeowners who have outdated lighting systems.<\/p>\n He\u2019s seen homes that still have halogen systems installed who are probably paying through the roof on their electric bills. \u201cWe think we can give them better than what they have and help them upgrade from those old energy-hoarding systems,\u201d he says. And they will look trendier too \u2014 for example, a light that looks like a tiki torch.<\/p>\n He also understands the importance of quality. \u201cYou have different levels of quality out there that might turn people off from the idea all together. A lot of people are out there doing it like Walmart, with Walmart results, whereas we are trying to give them a Nordstrom experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Lingan says water-feature lighting and landscape lighting aren\u2019t that much different. \u201cLandscape lighting has more different types of lights for different features where the water features, you just have different intensities of light.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Many landscape contractors are realizing they can extend the enjoyment of a landscape with lighting, and customers are appreciating it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":4805,"parent":0,"template":"","main-categories":[30],"class_list":["post-4092","features","type-features","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","main-categories-lighting"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"landscape](\"https:\/\/innovativepixel.com\/IGIN\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/landscape-lighting-businesses-expanding-2.jpg\")
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Thinking of getting started?<\/h3>\n
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Gaining popularity<\/h2>\n
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Entertaining with light<\/h2>\n
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Taking control<\/h2>\n
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A fish out of water<\/h3>\n
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Premier Ponds, Silver Spring, Maryland, is another company that found itself in the landscape lighting business because it saw a need expressed by its customers that wasn\u2019t being met.<\/p>\nThis column originally appeared in Irrigation & Green Industry magazine.<\/em><\/h6>\n
Kristin Ely<\/strong><\/a> is editor-in-chief of Irrigation & Green Industry magazine and can be reached at kristinsmithely@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"