We are often called by a disappointed and disheartened homeowner telling us their outdoor lighting system needs to be replaced. When we come to the property to quote a new design for them, sometimes we find that the system doesn’t need to be replaced at all – it just needs some good old fashioned restoration. It needs a little love and care to be brought back to life.
There are several elements to consider when making the decision to save and restore or just trash an older lighting system. The common factor is high quality materials.
- We have found on many occasions good quality products were installed poorly. Improper installation caused some major operation problems, but the materials were actually fine.
- Sometimes we see a perfectly good lighting system that has simply been neglected. The fixtures were not cleaned, maintained or repaired; the landscape vegetation has overgrown the lighting; and light bulbs need to be replaced.
- We’ve also discovered systems where the landscape had changed dramatically over time, and the lighting is no longer working to the advantage of the property. It may not appear to be working at all because it no longer accents anything in particular in the landscape.
In all of these cases, the existing professional grade lighting system does not have to be completely replaced, just modified in different ways. As long as quality products are installed initially, we can usually come in and salvage the system in any of the above scenarios.
The best part about coming in on projects like these is that we get to show people that their old system – one they likely invested a lot of money into – can be salvaged from the bone yard and look spectacular again. We can reuse most of the fixtures unless they are broken or damaged beyond repair. If a professional grade transformer was used, it’s almost always serviceable. Old halogen lamps definitely have to be replaced as they are not designed to last that long; these days we recommend only high quality LED lamps since they are so reliable for such a long time. (Be careful though, there are a lot of bad LED products out there in the market.) Checking installation protocols and re-wiring, cleaning fixtures, doing a little repair, and often implementing a fresh design to accommodate the landscape growth are things we can do to breathe new life into an older system that a homeowner thought was dead for sure. By converting an old halogen system to LED we can also very easily add more lighting to the system, taking it to an even higher level.
So don’t just assume your old lighting system has to be torn out and replaced. We might be able to revive and restore it to make it look better than ever. Although I’m not saying that this is true every time, it is not uncommon for us to be able to save some of the high quality components to resurrect a professionally installed lighting system so the homeowner can fall in love with it all over again.
If someone tells you that you need to replace what you have and start over, get a second opinion. If you are in the Austin or Highland Lakes area of central Texas, contact us here and we’ll gladly let you know if your old system can be saved.
