Is Your Landscape Lighting Still Looking Its Best? A Mid-Year Maintenance Checklist

Landscape lighting works year-round. And like anything that keeps working year-round, it takes a beating from time to time. Summer storms, humidity, rapid plant growth, and normal everyday wear can all chip away at performance over time. Most of it is gradual, to be sure, but then again, that’s part of what makes it problematic. It’s hard to notice until you go outside one evening and you notice things just don’t look as sharp as they once did.

Doing a mid-year outdoor lighting maintenance check is a good idea. It’s also not hard to do either. This lets you catch small issues before they become expensive repairs. July happens to be a great time to do it, because it’s right before those late-summer entertaining hours that make the Carolinas such a lovely place to call home.

Here’s what you can look for.

Why Mid-Year Landscape Lighting Checks Matter

Every season can disrupt Charleston landscape lighting (or Greenville, Charlotte, Columbia, or Asheville system) if you’re not careful. With winter, the ground freezes and thaws. This can knock fixtures out of place. Then spring comes and pollen settles on every surface outdoors. Plants grow at a wild pace and, much like frost, knock fixtures out of place. You might think the summer would be easier, but that brings summer storms which can wear connections and housing.

If you catch problems early, like leaning fixtures or overgrown shrubs, the fixes are often simple. Some take five minutes. But if half your path lights are out and you don’t catch it until a week before Thanksgiving, that’s a different story.

Your Outdoor Lighting Maintenance Checklist

Run through these items on a warm evening when you have about 30 minutes to walk the property after dark.

• Walk your property after dark. This sounds obvious, but it’s easy to overlook precisely because of that. Walk each lighted area and look for dark spots or uneven lighting. You’d be surprised what you miss from the kitchen window.

• Check for overgrown landscaping. Summer growth in the Carolinas is relentless. Shrubs can easily grow to block fixtures. Tree branches can droop over lights. A little pruning goes a long way.

• Clean fixtures and lenses. Pollen, dirt, spider webs, and hard water spots all accumulate on fixture lenses and reduce light output. A soft cloth and some warm water can take care of most of this.

• Inspect for damaged fixtures. Look for fixtures that are leaning, cracked stakes, lenses with chips or breaks, and signs of corrosion on housing. In coastal areas like Charleston, salt air accelerates this process.

• Verify timers and controls. Sunset times shift significantly between spring and fall. If your system runs on a timer, check that the start and stop times still make sense for the current season. (Smart lighting helps here.)

• Look for exposed wiring. Soil erosion, lawn maintenance, pets digging, and landscape projects can all uncover low-voltage wiring that was originally buried. Exposed wires are vulnerable to damage and should be reburied as soon as you spot them.

Signs You Need Professional Outdoor Lighting Maintenance

Some issues are easy to handle on your own. But there are others that need a trained eye.

Electrical problems require a professional. These will often manifest as multiple fixtures out in one zone or flickering lights. Voltage drops and bad connections are not easy to troubleshoot unless you’re trained. The same is true for transformer issues, which are also beyond what most homeowners are ready to fix DIY.

Likewise, if the landscaping has changed dramatically since lighting installation, that might also warrant a professional’s eye. Lighting is planned out in advance, so major changes can disrupt wiring and fixture placement.

What Professional Landscape Lighting Maintenance Includes

When the Charleston landscape lighting team comes out for maintenance, they run the very same checklist provided above. Along the way, they clean fixtures and realign lights. They make sure wire connections are in good shape. If you have timers, they’re adjusted for the season. They make sure the LEDs are still shining like they should. Then they’ll give you recommendations for pruning or landscaping so you can keep light quality high. Minor repairs are handled on the spot. For projects that require more attention, we’ll tell you what we see and what the fix will look like before starting.

Carolina Landscape Lighting offers a maintenance program with several tiers, from annual inspections to monthly visits. For homeowners who would rather hand the whole checklist to someone else and not think about it, that’s what the program is for.

Keep Your Lighting Looking Great Year After Year

Your Charleston landscape lighting needs regular maintenance to look its best year after year. Even one or two maintenance visits a year help a lot. Your fixtures will likely last longer and you can better protect your investment. And most of all, you can make sure your home looks its best after dark, every evening, years after the initial lighting installation is complete.

Not sure how your system is performing? Schedule a maintenance visit and let us take a look. We service all outdoor lighting systems, including ones we didn’t install. 

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