Someone emailed me the other day asking how they should go about cleaning their landscape lighting fixtures and it dawned on me that I have never covered that topic. So here it goes:
Since the outdoor lighting fixtures suffer the environmental elements 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, they are pretty abused by nature as well as the humans and critters enjoying the outdoor spaces. They have to deal with things like hard water, pesticides, herbicides, minerals, dirt, plant materials, fertilizer and the list goes on and on. It’s safe to say that they can get pretty messed up over a fairly short period of time.
If you have fairly clean fixtures you may only need to use some simple cleaning procedures like spraying them with an all-purpose cleaner and wiping them off with a clean rag. Be sure to get all of the plant material off first since it can get pretty messy for you otherwise.
If it’s been a while you may need to use a mild bathroom tub and tile cleaner. There are many to choose from out there so use the one that you generally use in your house. You may also want to use a brush of some kind.
When the fixtures are really dirty or are coated with a lot of hard water build-up, you may be wise to break out the big guns. You can use something like SLR or Lime-A-Way to cut through that mess. Spray it onto the fixture and let it set a while to break up those minerals. When our team is performing this service, they will usually go through the entire system to spray all of the lights, then go back to the first one and start scrubbing. It’s advisable to wear some rubber gloves and eye protection when using those stronger products! You may require a wire scrubbing pad as well if the build-up on the lens is really bad.
Remember that professional outdoor lighting fixtures have to be able to withstand to a lot of abuse, so you’re probably not going to hurt them using these cleaning methods. The fixtures should be cleaned at least twice a year to insure that they put out the light necessary to maintain the integrity of the original design — and I know you want your lighting to look great at all times.
If you live here in the Austin and central Texas area, we’d be more than happy to come out and perform this service for you, if only for the first time to get you on the right track. Contact us here to be added to our maintenance schedule.
