About a year or so ago I wrote a blog that talked about vandals of outdoor lighting systems. The kids can do some damage when it comes to commercial properties, but when it comes to our residential projects – fire ants and varmints are the kings of the hill.
I have to share a story. A couple of years ago we installed a nice little lighting system for a client close by. The whole system was in the front yard, but their back yard also has some amazing old live oak trees. There is a pretty long walkway between their home and their boathouse on the lake; with these large trees, it’s VERY dark at night. So, the lady of the house thought it would be a wonderful birthday present to her husband to add some lighting back there for him since he’s the one who generally takes those after dark walks between the lake and the house.
At her request, we installed several down lights in those magnificent old oak trees which created a beautiful full moon effect throughout their back yard and especially along that walkway. They absolutely LOVED it! But the squirrels really didn’t like the wires AT ALL. Now occasionally we have issues with squirrels chewing up wire, but if we repair the wire and move it to the side of a limb or other place where the squirrels do not travel, that generally takes care of the problem. Not this time. We went out there three times in a week to make repairs due to squirrel carnage. The husband finally started trapping and caught several squirrels, a raccoon and even a duck! It didn’t even slow them down. Their entire lighting system was devastated by wire-chomping squirrels on the warpath.
We were quite stymied by this dilemma, and did not want to have to remove the lighting because these fine clients loved it so much. This was the worst squirrel problem we have ever encountered in over 10 years in this business. We’re usually happy to make repairs like this from time to time – but this was insane! These clients did indeed pay to have the repairs made a couple of times; but hey, they couldn’t keep this up indefinitely. We promised them lighting – and that’s what we were going to give them.
Well, here’s what we did. We put every bit of that wire in flexible pipe conduit. 450’ of it at no charge to the client. Heck, it wasn’t their fault. It wasn’t our fault either, but the darn squirrels wouldn’t pay the repair bills! What we had to do was make sure our client had an operational outdoor lighting system that they could enjoy. Ultimately, the $1500 conduit installation project was something we would just have to absorb. Here is what our client wrote to me when they discovered what we did:
“You have blessed us beyond words. I don’t know how we can thank you for your kindness but we will do our best. God Bless you,
Irene ”
Those words were all we needed for sure. Talk about compensation! That note really put a spring in our step, and the whole team was delighted knowing that they made this client very happy.
Thank you for that lovely note, Irene, and we’re glad that we were able to exceed your expectations. We look forward to serving you for many years to come.
We would love to exceed your outdoor lighting expectations. If you are in the Highland Lakes area of Horseshoe Bay, Kingsland, Highland Haven, Granite Shoals or Marble Falls; or maybe Austin, Spicewood, Lakeway or Bee Cave, please contact us here and allow us the opportunity to show you some good ole Texas customer service.
